Made Local Magazine Nov/Dec 2020

Deb Rock likes it hot. But in October of 2017, with hundreds of pounds of freshly harvested chili peppers piled up in the back of her Volvo, a 10-gallon pot of pozole sloshing around in her passenger seat, and wildfires consuming the hills just above her farm, for once, the heat was getting to her.

No one said this would be easy. A one-woman, field-to-bottle hot sauce enterprise? She’d been warned by fellow farmers and food entrepreneurs alike that growing, processing, and selling a product like this all on your own in a saturated market where spicy accoutrements can span multiple grocery store shelves was crazy, if not impossible. But be careful telling Deb it can’t be done.