The Toad & The Butterfly, a Blog

This is shaping up to be a spectacular season, which is great, but it also means that the peppers come early and fast.

When we bottled up the Pride Pack 🌈 Sauces we had a little bit leftover of 4 of the hot sauces. I didn't tell anyone about it because I wanted to give the Pride Pack 🌈 it's time to shine.

Growing up, I always associated corn with the East Coast. I grew up in California, which has an abundance of great produce, but you can’t get corn picked just hours ago when you live in the "big city."

The caramel mixes into the yogurt while the granola stays crunchy, giving you creamy, crunchy, sweet, and toasty all in the same bite.

Walking those fields last week reminded me that every bottle starts long before we light the smoker or pour the sauce. It starts with choosing the right varieties, healthy soil, and months of tending a crop that we'll eventually turn into hot sauce.

My favorite thing about making new micros every month is that we're pushed to be creative on demand. Sometimes creativity comes in a flash of insight, but there is a special earned feeling to creativity that you have to build as a skill.

These days, I still love caramel (I mean, why else would I buy a whole caramel company?). But what I want out of my caramel has changed.

This is exactly what I want Pepper Patrons to feel like. A chance for connection and learning, understanding why ingredients taste the way they do, and share in the experiments happening around our kitchen.

Peak season strawberries are perfect. I know that. You know that. The people standing in line at the farmers market know that. But...

Last week about half of the Butterfly Bakery crew headed down to Honey Field Farm in Norwich for our annual Farm Day. Once a year we trade sauce making for farm chores.

This month we went into the freezer and pulled out some peppers that don't always get the spotlight. Boldog Hungarian peppers. Velociraptors. Beautiful, classic cayennes.

When we sat down to decide what we wanted to do for Pride this year, I knew I wanted to do something different. One person suggested that we simplify things. Then another suggested we make it more complicated.

Today we're officially launching Pepper Patrons, which means you can now join the farms, peppers, experiments, and flavor obsession behind this year’s sauces.

When I made my first hot sauce back in 2010 with my now husband, I definitely didn’t picture 13+ million people watching the biggest band in the world take on the hottest sauce I’ve ever made. But here we are.