Alliums
Hardneck Garlic
Siberian (porcelain hardneck)
Planted in October, pulled in July. Big easy-peeling cloves, plus scapes in June — a free second crop that is itself excellent in a green sauce.
- Maturity
- 240 d
- Start
- 0 wk early
- Per plant
- 0.2 lb
The grow files
Ten plants.
Every sauce here.
Not a plant encyclopedia — only the cultivars that actually make the sauces on this site, with the numbers a schedule depends on and the named failure modes that kill home crops.
Alliums
Spanish Onion
Yellow Sweet Spanish (long-day)
A long-day storage onion sweet enough to sweat down without scorching. The aromatic base under every tomato sauce on this site — and the earliest sowing on the calendar.
- Maturity
- 110 d
- Start
- 12 wk early
- Per plant
- 0.75 lb
Herbs3 gal pot
Cilantro
Slow Bolt (Coriandrum sativum)
Bolts in a heartbeat and there is nothing you can do about it — so you succession-sow instead of fighting it. Non-negotiable in salsa verde and zhoug.
- Maturity
- 45 d
- Start
- 2 wk early
- Per plant
- 0.25 lb
Herbs3 gal pot
Genovese Basil
Genovese
Large-leaf, low-anise Italian basil. Pesto is defined by this cultivar — Thai and lemon basil are good plants and wrong ingredients.
- Maturity
- 60 d
- Start
- 4 wk early
- Per plant
- 0.5 lb
Peppers5 gal pot
Cayenne
Long Slim Cayenne (Capsicum annuum)
The chile that dries. Thin-walled, straightforward, 30,000–50,000 SHU — it becomes flakes and powder as easily as it becomes sauce.
- Maturity
- 75 d
- Start
- 8 wk early
- Per plant
- 1.8 lb
Peppers5 gal pot
Habanero
Orange Habanero (Capsicum chinense)
The fruity superhot that fermented hot sauce is built on — 100,000–350,000 SHU with an apricot top note that survives three weeks in brine.
- Maturity
- 95 d
- Start
- 10 wk early
- Per plant
- 2.5 lb
Peppers5 gal pot
Jalapeño
Early Jalapeño (Capsicum annuum)
Left to red and cold-smoked it becomes chipotle, which is a completely different and far more useful ingredient than the green pepper on your nachos.
- Maturity
- 75 d
- Start
- 8 wk early
- Per plant
- 3 lb
Peppers5 gal pot
Marconi Red Pepper
Marconi Red (Capsicum annuum)
A long Italian sweet pepper that chars and peels in one piece. Romesco and any red-pepper paste want this, not a supermarket bell.
- Maturity
- 80 d
- Start
- 8 wk early
- Per plant
- 3.5 lb
Peppers5 gal pot
Serrano
Serrano Tampiqueño (Capsicum annuum)
Three times a jalapeño's heat with a cleaner, greener, grassier flavour. The correct chile for salsa verde and zhoug, where smoke would be wrong.
- Maturity
- 80 d
- Start
- 8 wk early
- Per plant
- 2 lb
Roots5 gal pot
Nantes Carrot
Scarlet Nantes
The carrot that makes fermented habanero sauce work — sweetness and body without fibre, so the sauce has texture with no thickener and heat that isn't one-dimensional.
- Maturity
- 70 d
- Start
- 2 wk early
- Per plant
- 0.15 lb
Tomatillos10 gal pot
Tomatillo
Toma Verde
Not a green tomato. A husked, naturally acidic fruit at around pH 3.8 with its own pectin — salsa verde is a tomatillo sauce and there is no substitute.
- Maturity
- 70 d
- Start
- 6 wk early
- Per plant
- 6 lb
Tomatoes10 gal pot
Roma Tomato
Roma VF (determinate paste)
The determinate paste tomato — it ripens most of its crop in a three-week window, which is a liability for eating and a huge advantage for sauce day.
- Maturity
- 75 d
- Start
- 6 wk early
- Per plant
- 9 lb
Tomatoes10 gal pot
San Marzano Tomato
San Marzano (indeterminate paste)
The paste tomato Italian canners actually use — low water, low seed, high pectin. It reduces to sauce in half the time a slicer takes and never tastes thin.
- Maturity
- 80 d
- Start
- 6 wk early
- Per plant
- 12 lb