Northern Ohio growing season is only long enough for the bushes to get 2 ft tall. I've taken de-seeded habs, red and green bell peppers, a carrot, a few leaves of cilantro, and some Franks Red Hot, put in blender till smooth. Bottle and let rest for a week.
I think we have all done the bathroom thing after cutting peppers, that's why I ALWAYS wear gloves now. 
If you plant the plants in 5 gallon buckets (photo above) and bring it inside in the fall, it will do just fine if you make sure it gets enough light. If it's not getting enough water or light--it will start dropping leaves. If it loses more than 70% of it's leaves it could easily die. Put it back out in the spring and it will do just fine-year after year.
BTW Dragon: That sounds like a really good sauce, and I will try it, substituting Frank's for Louisiana Hot Sauce, thanks for sharing!
When I first made habenero sauce I just made straight hab sauce--similarly to my homemade jalepeno sauce (my favorite). It was really, really, really hot. So I had the idea to still have all the heat I wanted--all the distinct habenero taste--but mellowed out some. Habeneros have a very distinct smokey fresh flavor...but how to tone it down a bit?
"Music Mountain Habenero Sauce"3 lbs Habeneros, stemmed (leave the seeds in)
3 lbs carrots (peeled)
2 large white onions
8
large cloves of garlic
4 T Kosher or Sea Salt
vinegar--ONLY enough to where the habs are barely floating in the food processor/blender
Cut the peeled carrots into small chunks, dice the onion and garlic and mix all remaining ingredients together. At small batches at a time (about half full blender) and pour in just enough vinegar to where the habs start to float--and no more. Blend on high for at least :60 seconds. Pour into large stock pot. Repeat the process until all the ingredients have been blended well.
Heat on high until boiling IN A VERY WELL VENTILATED AREA. Turn heat to low and cover. Come back every 10 minutes or so and stir to make sure it's not sticking to the bottom of the pot. After an hour, return the sauce to the blender and blend on HIGH until all you are seeing are the seeds and no other solid materials. This process might take 3 or 4 times to get it to the right consistency.
IF IT'S TOO THICK: It will be hard to get out of the bottle. Add a little more vinegar until it thins out to the consistency you want.
IF IT'S TOO THIN: Watery hot sauce (except Tobasco & Louisiana style Hot Sauces) aren't too cool. In a small bowl, add equal parts water & corn starch and stir it until it is a semi-solid. While stirring, also slowly stir it into the hot sauce on the stove (Start off with 1 T coorn starch 1 T water, and then add more from there if it's still too thin). This is an ancient Far Eastern way to thicken sauces and you can do it with literally any kind of sauce.
Using a food thermometer, make sure the sauce is at least 200 to 210F at the time you transfer it to bottles. Re-using old store bought hot sauce bottles is fine--just boil them to sterilize them first. You can do this at the same time you are almost done making the sauce. Tightly cap the fresh made sauce and set aside to cool. Store in a refrigerator for up to 24 months. Yield: Usually 12 to 14 8 oz bottles, depending on how big your carrots and onions were...sometimes even more bottles worth.
Cost: If you used habeneros that you grew yourself and bought everything else, it would cost about $7 to $9 dollars. That's about 50 to 65 cents a bottle...and you made it yourself. Take a bottle to work during lunch and let others try it. You'd be surprised how many will want to buy a bottle off you!
The salt helps to preserve the sauce--it's not NEARLY as much salt as store bought sauce has. Most store bought sauces are LOADED with salt. People on salt restricted diets who use a lot of hot sauce are getting bombarded with sodium!
Now, you have a hab sauce that won't rip your tounge off and won't burn you twice the next day
. You can take this sauce and mix it 50/50 with regular store bought red Louisiana Hot Sauce and it's even better! On chili, mexican food, or anything else you like hot sauce on. My oldest daughter is not a big hot sauce fan--but LOVES this one.
ROX
