~OUR FOOD WARRIOR’S MANTRA~
I don’t use the term chef, i have little formal training outside of FDA and other legal food safety certifications. Rather, i have over 28,000 hours of professional kitchen experience. I’ve been in every position from dishwasher to trainer to manager in every kind of restaurant from picnic catering to fast food to fine dining.
I have personally studied: baking, bread making, fermenting, curing, smoking, canning, bottling, pickling, sausage making, cheese making, livestock raising, composting, and natural gardening using heirloom strains.
I am not a chef, i am a FOOD WARRIOR.
A foodie thinks they are important because they eat the food.
I think the food is important regardless of who is cooking or eating it.
Our backgrounds include food service, hospitality, retail, design, animal welfare, environmental responsibility, and multimedia technologies. A little bit of everything makes up a whole lot of something remarkably special.
We cannot stress enough that we grow our own peppers, garlic, onions, and herbs, for our sauces and only partner with trusted growers. We do that to ensure that #noPoisonousCrap is on or in our ingredients.
The History of Scorch Garden
This whole thing started out in 2016 as a fall project while experimenting with fermentation after growing some super hot peppers (Carolina Reapers, Trinidad Scorpions, Scotch Bonnets, etc…). Four gallons and several flavors later, we had X-mas gifts for everyone.
The sauces were an instant hit.
No sauce names, no labels, not even much of a description. The most formal it got was, ‘this is green, this is red, this is yellow, this is orange, this is brown, this is smoked, and oh, yea, they are all extremely hot.’ The feedback was so overwhelming, we knew we were onto something.
NOW JUMP AHEAD TO 2018…(the past)
We’ve been working on our sauces and business since late 2016. Over those last two years, we got the certifications, registrations, and permits we needed to produce and sell our sauces to the public.
We ran a pre-season fundraising campaign on Kickstarter to help offset the costs of our expansion into commercial production.
Spoiler alert: Kickstarter wasn’t going to make or break us. We published videos and pictures on our social media channels anyway and continued our marketing campaign using unpaid, non-union food actors.
Post-History
2019 started off great. Sales were up, interest was building and we were on our way to doubling our production again, until…
Once again, we put together a fundraiser that once again, failed. That makes us 2 for 2! Our kitchen got built, our sauces are made, and we are in for our best year yet. Check this page again in late 2022 and see how our story progresses.
It takes more than one pepper to Scorch a Garden.
Click below to visit the Gang of 9.
We are very proud of what we do and have as much fun as possible with it. Thank you for reading all the way to this line.
