I encountered a tricky little situation during a hot sauce cook one January Sunday morning in our commercial kitchen in Lowell, which gave me some perspective on failure and growth. My co-cook Ben and I were making a 5 gallon batch of 40 Shades of Green Chilli, a sauce I’ve made 20 times before.

At Craft Hot Sauce, our pepper garden is thriving in the summer heat and sun, as el jefe jalapenos and golden ghost peppers begin to grow. In the meantime, we have a couple of craft hot sauce maker stories from the Mid-Atlantic to share with you.