Fresh Cayenne Peppers?

foodproductlaunch · Mar 31, 2014

I live in central Florida and I've been checking with the local farmers markets for a quantity (bushel or two) of cayenne peppers in order to make my own mash and hot sauce. Nobody seems to have them. it's more of a want than a need, because I can always buy the mash from the Louisiana Pepper Exchange.

Does anyone know of a farm/market located in central Florida that carries fresh Cayenne peppers?

Thanks!

SmokenFire · Mar 31, 2014

No idea about farmer's markets FPL but have you considered turning to Sysco and/or US Foods or other commercial distributor? Jetro (cash n carry restaurant supply) has a location in Miami but that might be too far a drive. I saw you get some wholesale stuff so I figured you've got an FEIN (or access to one), which is all you'd need to set up an account to purchase from a distributor. Specialty food items like fresno peppers or the like will go about $4 a pound for 10lbs but get significantly cheaper when buying larger (50 - 100lb) quantities.

Note: a bushel or two of peppers - which I figure to be around 25lbs per bushel - is gonna make a LOT of sauce. Good luck!

foodproductlaunch · Mar 31, 2014

SmokenFire said:
No idea about farmer's markets FPL but have you considered turning to Sysco and/or US Foods or other commercial distributor? Jetro (cash n carry restaurant supply) has a location in Miami but that might be too far a drive. I saw you get some wholesale stuff so I figured you've got an FEIN (or access to one), which is all you'd need to set up an account to purchase from a distributor. Specialty food items like fresno peppers or the like will go about $4 a pound for 10lbs but get significantly cheaper when buying larger (50 - 100lb) quantities.

Note: a bushel or two of peppers - which I figure to be around 25lbs per bushel - is gonna make a LOT of sauce. Good luck!

Thanks. I have an FEIN and my usual supplier is GFS. I hadn't really thought about them, but I guess I should.

Great suggestion.

I'm making a bunch of cayenne sauce (Frank's copycat) for my nephew and his fiance for favors for their wedding. There will be 300 guests, so I need 300 bottles of sauce! 25LBS of mash probably isn't enough.

biscgolf · Mar 31, 2014

foodproductlaunch said:
Thanks. I have an FEIN and my usual supplier is GFS. I hadn't really thought about them, but I guess I should. Great suggestion.

I'm making a bunch of cayenne sauce (Frank's copycat) for my nephew and his fiance for favors for their wedding. There will be 300 guests, so I need 300 bottles of sauce! 25LBS of mash probably isn't enough.

funny... i'm going to be making cayenne sauce (basically franks knockoff but smoked) for favors for my niece's wedding. at least the wedding is in september so i have time to grow the peppers.

foodproductlaunch · Mar 31, 2014

biscgolf said:
funny... i'm going to be making cayenne sauce (basically franks knockoff but smoked) for favors for my niece's wedding. at least the wedding is in september so i have time to grow the peppers.

Cool. This one is in July.

SmokenFire · Mar 31, 2014

foodproductlaunch said:
There will be 300 guests, so I need 300 bottles of sauce! 25LBS of mash probably isn't enough.

Pure speculation on numbers:

5 oz woozy for 300 guests = 1500oz = just under 12 gallons of sauce. Frank's copycat recipe would roughly be about 2 cups vinegar per lb of peppers + salt, garlic, spices - which makes a little under a 1/2 gallon at a time. By this estimate (guesstimate?!) you'd need just about exactly one bushel of peppers (25lbs) to make the total batch. If GFS or Jetro only has fresh peppers in 10lb boxes figure 3 boxes about $120 on peppers plus costs for garlic, spices, rest of the fixins - $200 could probably do it. (bottles, labels, etc not included, but you're already good on that stuff)

That's one big ass cooking vessel ya got there matey if you're doing it in one batch - but if you do the cook in smaller batches try and blend them all together before bottling if at all possible. Kickass wedding favor by the way

foodproductlaunch · Mar 31, 2014

SmokenFire said:
Pure speculation on numbers:

5 oz woozy for 300 guests = 1500oz = just under 12 gallons of sauce. Frank's copycat recipe would roughly be about 2 cups vinegar per lb of peppers + salt, garlic, spices - which makes a little under a 1/2 gallon at a time. By this estimate (guesstimate?!) you'd need just about exactly one bushel of peppers (25lbs) to make the total batch. If GFS or Jetro only has fresh peppers in 10lb boxes figure 3 boxes about $120 on peppers plus costs for garlic, spices, rest of the fixins - $200 could probably do it. (bottles, labels, etc not included, but you're already good on that stuff)

That's one big ass cooking vessel ya got there matey if you're doing it in one batch - but if you do the cook in smaller batches try and blend them all together before bottling if at all possible. Kickass wedding favor by the way

Yeah it is. I just got it - it's 15 gallons. Pictured below.

I can get 40 pounds of mash for $70+shipping from LAPX. If I go commercial, then I'd rather just get the mash from them, I think. Vinegar and the other stuff to make the sauce is not that expensive. I have a label printer available, can do the labels myself, caps, orifice reducers and bottles are fairly cheap, too. I may be able to do this project for under $200, which is about what I'd probably spend/give for a wedding present anyway.