TIMMINS - A happy accident 15 years ago planted the roots for JR Marion's start in the hot sauce business.
“I bought a pepper plant from a nursery, and it turned out to be a ghost pepper plant,” said Marion, owner and operator of JR’s Hot Sauce. “It was supposed to be a bell paper, and it was not.”
JRs Hot Sauce started in Marion’s kitchen in Timmins, making batches for himself and his friends at his mining day job. Now, his recipes are winning awards, including a recent Eternal Flame award for the Yell-o spicy mustard dill sauce.
“There is a mad science to making hot sauce,” he said. “Because you have to be mad to crunch into one of these.”
This is a labour of love for Marion and his family. His partner works the administrative side of things, his children do the graphic design and social media work, and friends and family help out with harvesting.
“We do harvest as we go, but the last one is when we need all our people,” he said.
The biggest harvest is generally in October. On average, he gets five harvests in a season. He’s growing everything from ghost peppers and cayenne peppers up to a black phantom pepper, which is black and red when ready to harvest.
“That is by far the hottest things I’ve ever eaten,” said Marion.
Walls of plants line the backyard and the greenhouse where everything starts in December. The harvest comes fast and furious when the threat of frost kicks in.
“Peppers can’t freeze on the plant, as soon as they freeze they start to break down,” he said.
He’s also helping out in the community and teaching high school students not only how to make a sauce but the marketing and sales skills they need to make it a success.
“The kids designed this,” he said. “I explained to them how a hot sauce is designed, where you need to balance the flavours. The first step is to target everybody, so it’s a lemon pepper sauce designed for fish, because what does everyone do up here? Fish.”
The official launch hasn’t happened yet.
“I’ve been selling it at events, and I have about three cases left, but before Christmas, we’ll have the official launch,” he said.
The proceeds from the Underground — named for Marion’s work in the mining industry and meant to honour past, present, and future miners — go to the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association. The Underground is available at the Timmins Museum: NEC and on JR’s Hot Sauce website.
“It’s a Canadian association, and they take care of everybody,” he said.
With over 50 different types of peppers growing in his garden, 20 of which he’s growing for the first time this year, it’s a year-round process to grow, harvest and cook up the sauces.
“It’s a reset for next season, starting in December,” he said. “The Christmas break is when we plant everything.”
The goal of all this work is to make sauces for everyone, whether you like your sauce tongue-melting hot, or just want a little extra zip.
“We don’t target that little niche market of chili heads, we like to introduce hot sauces to people who don’t do spicy,” he said. “The flavor’s there, and you can discover peppers.”
The sauces are now in around 50 stores across the country, including one in Lethbridge Alta. The company is growing, and Marion said they’re looking into many different products in the future, including barbecue sauce and maple syrup and an upcoming sweet chili sauce that is currently in the works.
All of the JR Hot Sauces are available on the company’s website.
