Fat Baby Hot Sauce has two distinct areas of operation. On one is the sauce side and the manufacturing, admin and sales associated with the sauce. On the other side is our agricultural piece where we start, grow and harvest our own chilis for our sauce. Depending on the year, between 1800 and 2500 plants will require care and maintenance and harvesting, last year producing nearly 1 ton of chili peppers. The sauce production side is all consuming and the agricultural side will be all consuming and there’s only so much to give. With each passing day the storm gathers. Very soon harvesting will begin and we will be consumed.
If you are on the labor end of both of these pieces, as I am, it becomes very hard to hold these two pieces in your head at the same time without feeling overwhelmed. Recognizing with joy the growth and fertility of the field also comes with a nagging knowledge that its fruit will need to be gathered, managed, and turned into sauce, all while selling that sauce to stores and at live events and markets. With each passing day the storm gathers.
And then this young kid at the market will stop at our stall and we’ll get chatting and they’ll say something like “I bought some sauce last week with my allowance. I bet all that hard work must be worth it to make such great stuff.” You know what . . . it is. With each passing day the storm gathers. Boots, check, raincoat check, joy, check.