Home / Field Notes / Pepper Season at 3,000 Feet — August on the Farm
Field Notes
Pepper Season at 3,000 Feet — August on the Farm
August is the month the sauce gets decided. Everything we’ll bottle this fall is on the plants right now, coloring up in the long, dry foothill sun — and one of us is out there most mornings checking what’s ready.
What’s ripening
At 3,000 feet in West Point, peppers come in on their own schedule: hot days, cool nights, and a season that runs late into October. Right now the jalapeños and serranos are coming in heavy, the Hatch are just turning, and the habaneros are still a few weeks out. We pick by hand at ripeness, a few times a week, and the ripest fruit goes into the kitchen the same week we ferment. The Music garlic is pulled and curing — no elephant garlic this year.
Why it matters for the bottle
Because we ferment instead of cook, timing is flavor. A pepper picked ripe and salted down within days tastes brighter and rounder than anything that spent a month in cold storage or a truck. So the fall bottles — the ones on the table in September and October — are literally this month’s harvest, and they keep developing after they’re bottled.
What’s coming to market
Right now the table has all five sauces — though Garlic Chili and Chipotle are running low, so if either one is your bottle, don’t wait on it. Produce changes week to week; the Farm Stand list is the best place to see what’s on. And if you want to see where it all grows, ask at the booth — we like talking about it.
Every bottle starts with peppers grown on the farm. Find us Sundays at the Murphys Park Farmers Market and Tuesdays at the West Point Farmers Market, or order sauce online and we’ll ship it.