Anyone who frequents farmers markets in the BC Interior may have spotted Stu Smith and Sarah Harper offering tastings of their hot sauces. Smith wears a bottle of hot sauce in a holster on his hip and there's a sign at the booth with arrows pointing to safe sauces to try and the dangerous ones labelled Bear Spray and Grizzly Bear Spray. Perhaps most notable is how much fun Smith has with brave taste testers.
"I've done different vocations and this is the most novel and hilarious thing I've ever done, it keeps me laughing every day," he said. "The medium of spicy food to engage with the public is hysterical. Humour exists between someone's perceived heat tolerance and the reality of it."
What began as a small gardening venture for the couple has expanded to full-time farming and hot sauce operation with products available in roughly 200 stores across western Canada including Natures Fare and Urban Fare.
The avid gardeners met in Revelstoke in 2010 where they started growing garlic to sell on their one-acre property. The little venture blossomed into the Revelstoke Garlic Festival that drew 40 vendors and roughly 1,600 people every year for six years. Part of the proceeds went to a local food initiative.
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