Note: This is part of a summer series spotlighting the vendors in the Locust Lane farmers’ markets held every Tuesday and Friday.

After bumping into former Onward State Managing Editor Zach Berger at the Farmer’s Market, I stumbled upon a hidden gem: Red Hawk Premium Peppers.

Dan Lowenstein, owner and self-proclaimed “chili head,” was friendly and definitely a pepper pro. Lowenstein has been growing peppers and making sauces for more than 10 years with his family. With an Irish grandmother who was always carrying red pepper flakes or hot sauce in her purse, Lowenstein said he just “fell into it.”

Red Hawk Premium Peppers, a family owned company, has only been in business for about four years. The business started off as a hobby. Lowenstein had an abundance of peppers and started making sauces that he would give as gifts. He kept hearing “you should sell this” from friends and family, and so he did.

It is an entire family affair when it comes to peppers. “My little boy, he absolutely loves picking peppers with daddy,” Lowenstein said.

Red Hawk Premium Peppers carries different jellies and sauces, as well as a mustard and a relish. Lowenstein said they go well with just about anything. Customers have told him the jellies mix well in greek yogurt or on baked brie.

“The relish, my God, I can’t have a hoagie without it,” Lowenstein said.

He recommended putting the mustard as an egg wash substitute before breading a piece of chicken.

Lowenstein remembered a time at a festival when a pregnant woman came up to him and asked if he had anything hot enough to send her into labor. Red Hawk Premium Peppers travels up and down the East Coast and Lowenstein had a collection of stories just like it. However, the Tuesday Farmer’s Market is the only farmer’s market that Red Hawk Premium Peppers attends. So if you find yourself in State College on any given Tuesday, don’t miss your opportunity to check out the heat Lowenstein and his peppers are packing.

Photos: Michael Salem