Pass the Good Stuff

In the August heat of 1974, Dorothy “Mama Dot” Alvarez ran out of store-bought hot sauce on the morning of the church picnic. She roasted a basket of backyard Fresnos, splashed in cider vinegar and a spoon of peach preserves, and funnelled it into washed-out soda bottles.

By the time the potato salad was gone, so was the sauce, and Pastor Wendell asked to buy a case. Her first sale was twelve bottles for six dollars, paid in quarters — we’ve never asked too many questions about where they came from.

Today her son Lou runs the stove and granddaughter Rosie draws the labels. We still cook forty gallons at a time, still taste every batch on a tortilla chip, and still close on Sundays.