Sometimes the plans change

I have often been accused of having harebrained ideas, and often think I came up with a great idea to find out someone already made it that sometimes it becomes embarrassing to hear the stories or that I just keep them to myself.

Well Zombie Jac is not one of those ideas but is also one of those ideas that has spawned into a little more than I originally thought it would.  I started making hot sauce a few years ago because I really disliked all the vinegar tasting sauces that were at the stores but I loved hot peppers.  I often sit out in the yard and pull a habanero, jalapeno or what ever hot pepper I am growing and snacking on them, especially with a cold beer.

I decided one day that I could make my pepper sauces myself to the taste and way I like them and came up with several of my own recipes as well as several that should never be resurrected again, for example a mango papaya habanero salsa, or maple habanero sauce, if green had a taste that was it.

I always had a love for cooking but there was something special about making spicy, hot food, knowing that not everyone can tolerate it and sauces seem to fit the bill, I can have it with out effecting the rest of the families ability to eat the food.  A few years ago I finally decided to make some  to give to family and friends, and in 2011, I had a record crop of habanero peppers so I decided to make a larger batch of habanero sauce, salsa and some other unique concoctions and sent them out for taste testing and gave them away as gifts, as well as collecting donations for the sauce that was donated to the Wounded Warrior Project on behalf of Zombie Jac and the Marine Corp League.

My wife, Diane suggested that I should sell my sauce, salsa and habanero products at the local farmers market so I started some research as to what I would need to do to do that locally and in New York State.  Laws and regulations make it almost impossible to get product to market, some for good reason others are not so good, like $400 to the state for a license to  produce a food product.  That is $400 per product, not per license.

I better take a step back, I told Diane one day back in 2010 that we ought to get a food truck, I wanted to get in the restaurant business, she said OK, then said no and said how about a hot dog cart first, I said OK, then she said can't quit my day job, well that squashed that idea, haha.  I am sure she has a different version but basically the arm of rational decision led me to the sauce and work on that.  I had gone over the laws and requirements for food truck, restaurant and food manufacturing and the seemed impossible to get past but the sauce seemed actually to be attainable.

The problem I was facing was I need my peppers in the sauce, not some powder or dehydrated peppers from California, we are located in upstate New York by the way.  Our growing season consists of about 120 days give or take up to 30 days and peppers require almost 180 days for good fruit, that is 60 days of lost growing or spending an astronomical amount for seedlings that may or may not be healthy.  We have gardened for years and it was a hobby but with the cost ever increasing at the market and the cost of young plants increasing, droughts, disease and pests it was becoming ever apparent that we need to be able to sustainable grow what we want and need.

Hence a new direction for Zombie Jac's, sustainable farming of our materials to create our products.  I will cover more about that later on.

Thanks for following Zombie Jac's and we hope you stick around and follow us on our journey.  You can follow us on Facebook, twitter and right here on the blog, you can also e-mail us.  I will post that at the end.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ZombieJacsHotStuff
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZombieJac
E-mail: zombiejac@nycap.rr.com

Pepper infused Vodka

I like to call myself an aficionado of Bloody Mary's and even though the Spicy V8 hits the spot for them I started thinking why not add the spice to the Vodka instead so for all of you Pepper lovers and Bloody Mary lovers here it is....Pepper Vodka

Pepper Vodka
The hottest thing to ever hit a bottle of vodka, this infusion adds a perfect element of spicy boost guaranteed to produce the best damn Bloody Marys.
1 serrano chile, stemmed, seeded, and quartered lengthwise
1 jaiapeño chiie, stemmed, seeded, and quartered lengthwise
1 red habanero chile, stemmed, seeded, and quartered lengthwise
One 750-ml bottle good-quality vodka


Place the chiles in a large glass container, add the vodka, and cap tightly. Let stand at room temperature for 48 hours, shaking gently once or twice a day. Taste for the preferred flavor and heat intensity, allowing it to infuse for up to 2 more days if needed. (Do not allow it to infuse any longer than 2 weeks, or a bitter flavor will result.) Strain the infused vodka back into the original bottle. Cap tightly, label, and refrigerate until ready to serve.

I had a dream...

What a day, I want to share a little story of something that happened last night. Well sometime last night I was dreaming that my backyard was filled with millions of Tilapia and I had no way to get rid of em and had no idea how they multiplied that fast, so I got up and wandered downstairs to the back door. I stood there looking out the door, not opening it, trying to see in the back yard as I thought it was a giant fish tank and the door was a way into the tank. I could not see the fish but I swear they were there. I suddenly realized where I was and woke up. I started laughing but let me tell you it screwed my whole day. I have not sleep walked since I was a kid... :)

Welcome to Zombie Jac's Hot Stuff Blog

Glad you made it here.  This is were our journey will begin.  From here you will watch and join and hopefully enjoy  and share with us as we develop our hot pepper based products and get them to market.  I can not promise it's success but I can promise we will have an adventure.

Again thank you for joining us!