Spice Weasel - Backyard Peppers and Momo Sauces
Spice Weasel is the creator of momo-inspired hot sauces, honey and salsa. Spice Weasel grows all of their peppers. After having more peppers than they knew what to do with, combined with a love for the Momo sauces in the Sikkim region of India, Spice Weasel started to make their own sauces and haven’t stopped since. Spice Weasel is at the Fish and Farm Market every other week, and weekly at the Copley Friday market. We talked with Paul from Spice Weasel to learn more about what it is they do:
How many pounds of peppers are used to create one batch of hot sauce?
That all depends on the sauce! We do small batches of about sixty bottles pretty much as soon as we have peppers ready, always trying to keep up! For the hot sauce/salsa, we can use up to 15 to 20 pounds per batch. With every pepper inspected we touch a lot of peppers, and we've gotten pretty good at not touching our eyes.
2. What time of year do you start to plant/grow?
We grow a lot of our peppers hydroponically, both at home and underneath our kitchen in Beverly! So technically we're growing peppers year round. We also start seeds in January to plant outside, where we grow another 500 sq ft or so worth of peppers, some outside and some in a little greenhouse!
3. What variety of peppers do you use?
We currently use Hot Portugal Peppers, and another pepper called Dalle Khursani that we grow entirely ourselves (but we're looking for help from local farms for Hot Portugal peppers, both this year and next so we can keep up and expand!). All of our sauces feature at least one of those peppers, and we also use a mix of other peppers depending on the sauce. Habaneros in our hot honey, thai chili peppers in the hot sauce, and jalapenos and bell peppers in the salsa!
4. What is the process of making hot sauce and fermentation like?
We don't actually ferment our sauces! We make all of them with fresh peppers, and because we grow many of them in our farm below our kitchen, sometimes they're being prepped for cooking within minutes of being picked. Then, myself (Paul), Brandon, and often my partner Aeryn and mother Judy chop a whole ton of peppers, squeeze a ton of limes, cook 'em up in our tilt skillet from the 80s, and then bottle and label everything ourselves!
5. What is your favorite product that Spice Weasel carries?
Brandon and I both love the Hot Pepper Salsa the most. It's got such a unique and fresh flavor, and it's actually the first recipe we made after growing a variety of peppers (all of its' ingredients) ourselves for another project, and trying to find something to do with them! If not for how much we loved the salsa, I doubt we'd have ever even thought to start the business.
6. What is your dream for Spice Weasel? Or how do you see the business growing?
We both want to see the business grow as much as we can, and love being involved in every process of it! Being in the kitchen and on the farm is important to us not just because I think it's important in making good products, but I also just like it. Chopping peppers is peaceful, and we want to sell more bottles as an excuse to grow more plants. We'd love to grow and get help, especially with some local farmers right about now, to whatever extent we can while still doing the things we love.
Make sure to visit Spice Weasel to get a bottle of their sauce!