Lots of lovely tomatoes! 'Tis the season.
The greatly-reduced garden this year is mostly some tomatoes and a lot of peppers used to make hot sauces.
From the top left:
•Rocotillo-the true type, which has habanero flavor but almost zero heat.
•Grenada Seasoning-collected in Grenada, this one has a powerful habanero-type aroma, but is also extremely low in heat.
•Jamaican Red Goat- very, very hot, with a strong, habanero/muttony (hence “goat”) aroma.
•Grenada Hot Red-also collected in Grenada, at a small market. Super hot, thicker fleshed and a little less muttony aroma.
The hot and mild peppers get pickled separately, after coring, deseeding. Since they’re packed tightly in half gallon mason jars, about 100 mls of Essig Essenze, a 25% acid vinegar, gets added to each jar to prevent spoilage. After aging, they’re liquified in a Vitamix, blended to taste, and aged with toasted white oak added to each jar. The last step imparts a barrel-aged flavor to the most popular sauce.
Unfortunately, due to the aging requirements, this year’s batch won’t be ready for at least a year.
