Late-summer pepper season: what to buy, what to grow, what to ferment

Fresnos are at their cheapest and their best right now, and they are the only pepper I buy in volume. Look for fruit that is fully red, firm at the shoulder, and heavy for its size. Anything with a soft spot goes in the ferment jar the same day or it goes in the bin.

If you have a single bed, plant Fresnos and one super-hot. The Fresnos carry the sauce and the super-hot carries the heat, so you can move the heat level up or down without changing the flavor of the base. Everything else is a hobby, and hobbies are fine, but they are not a sauce program.

A 3% brine by weight, a glass weight, and two weeks in a dark cupboard at room temperature. That is the whole method. The base below is what every Sparks Sauce batch starts from, and it is worth making a double batch while peppers are cheap.

Fermented base keeps six months in the fridge and the flavor improves for the first two. Label the jar with the date and the pepper. You will not remember, and a mystery jar is a wasted jar.