Variety Show - Hot Peppers

There is a whole host of information on our old Genuine Faux Farm website that probably doesn't get visited by much of anyone anymore.   Eh... who am I kidding.  There is probably a great deal of information there that was NEVER looked at by anyone.  

Still, we're going to migrate some of that material into blog posts if we think it could be interesting to others.  

Today, we're sharing (and updating) the information we've gathered with respect to the different hot pepper varieties we have grown over the years at the Genuine Faux Farm.  Remember, our goals may not match your goals and your farm is not the same as our farm.  Sometimes a favorite for us won't work for you and vice versa.  Nonetheless, we can share what we've learned and you can take it and use the information as you see fit!

We prefer to grow open pollinated varieties and have tried a fairly wide range of heirloom and heritage types.  It is our belief that, for many crops, there is a variety that is properly adapted to our farm and our cultivation techniques.  It just takes experimentation to find the right ones.

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HOT PEPPERS

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Storage:

• Optimal environment for short storage & fresh use: 45 degrees F at 95% humidity.
• Many hot peppers are excellent for drying.

Preparation: For most hot peppers, the heat is contained largely in the seed cavity and the seeds themselves. You can make a hot pepper a bit milder by removing this cavity and using the outer flesh of the fruit. When cutting hot peppers, it is often a good idea to wash your hands after cutting to avoid accidentally any residue in your eyes. Very hot peppers are often handled using gloves. If you are cutting a variety of items, it is a good idea to cut the hot peppers last, or use a clean knife. Otherwise, other fruits and vegetables will acquire some of the spicy qualities of the hot pepper.

Drying: Dehydrating and drying hot peppers is the only method of long term storage we have tried with success. Typically, we find that cutting the peppers into thin pieces will speed the dehydration process. You may opt to grind pepper into a powder or store them as pieces. We recommend that you avoid grinding too much at a time as pepper powder loses some of its qualities quickly. We have also simply let some of the thinner hot peppers dry on the counter.

We have had marginal success cutting hot peppers up and freezing them. But, that's not to say it can't be done successfully.

Cultivation:

We grow these similarly to sweet and bell peppers - so I guess we'll get a blog post on those out soon! One of the main differences we note is that the hot peppers seem to like the warmer and dryer weather more than sweet peppers do. So, a cooler and damper season may influence the health of these plants significantly.  Hot peppers do not like "wet feet," so make sure they are in well-drained soils.

Hot peppers love the high tunnel environment, but since we rarely have had a market for large amounts of these fruit, we don't spend that precious space on them.  We did try hoops with some plastic during a cold late Spring and early Fall to provide more heat, which seemed to work well enough.  Keep soil clear around the plants early to encourage the soil to heat up (keep them weeded and don't put straw or grass mulch down).

We also separate our sweet peppers from the hot peppers to avoid cross pollination and possible confusion/mixing of the fruit. In our fields, that usually means putting eggplant, flowers and/or green beans in the rows between the two, typically separating them by at least 15 feet.

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VARIETY DESCRIPTIONS

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Alma Papricka

(Hot Scale 0 of 5)

These plants produce small rounded peppers (1 to 3 inch) that progress from cream colored to orange to red. Fruit can be picked at any point once they reach the cream coloration. We tend to like the taste even better once peppers begin to change color until they reach bright red. We enjoy Alma Papricka fresh on nachos and the taste goes well with chicken or fish. Peppers can be dried and ground to make papricka spice. Plants are generally smaller in size and produce a single flush of fruit in our area (two in the high tunnel, with the second being much smaller). 

Peppers hold well on the plant - a good companion for a range of papricka taste with Feher Ozon. These plants do not like having wet feet, but we have found they love being in the high tunnel. One flush of fruit typically gives 8 to 15 excellent quality fruit and several others that are still useful quality, but harder to market.

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Feher Ozon Papricka

(Hot Scale: 0 of 5)

This papricka pepper holds most of its peppers with the pointy end up, rather than down. Of course, the plants can be so loaded with fruit that peppers have to go whichever direction they are able to go. These carrot shaped peppers can be as large as 5 inches long and have an excellent fresh taste. These can also be dried for papricka spice, but their larger size and higher water content requires more effort in drying.

Keep these peppers off the ground (if a plant falls over) for better results. These plants tend to be smaller than Alma and are also not fond of wet feet. They were very happy to be in a high tunnel during the 2013 season easily giving us 10 marketable peppers per plant. Our prior field numbers landed around seven fruit for an average. When picking these peppers, it is best to cut them off since they don't give up their peppers easily and you may end up with a sizable portion of the plant if you are not careful.

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Ancho Gigantea

(Hot Scale: 2 of 5)

Ancho Gigantea is a type of pablano pepper. This cultivar can have a very wide range of size for the fruit and can be picked dark green to red with no discernible difference in taste. When picked green, the peppers do tend to hold their firmness longer. Plants can get very large and sprawling and have a tendency to fall over unless carefully staked. The large plants have also been known to break in strong winds once they reach full size. Fruit are often hidden deep inside the plant, protecting them from sunscald. 

We recommend trellising or staking and patience. In cooler climates peppers will take their time maturing. Taste is reasonably good, but we do think some of the other peppers we grow have more going for them in this category.

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Beaver Dam

(Hot Scale: 2-4 of 5)

This is possibly our favorite hot pepper. Plants are compact, thus we can get many more per foot in one of our rows. We have also gotten as many as three flushes of fruit as long as we pick at the 'lime green' or slightly later stage. Fruits mature to red, first showing some yellow and orange. Taste is excellent at all stages, normally getting progressively warmer as they ripen. 

Each plant will produce between 3 and 7 peppers per plant per flush, with an average around 7 fully formed fruit per plant in a season. Fruit can be as long as 7 inches and are excellent for stuffing. Walls are a bit thicker than many hot peppers. 

Heat levels have been highly variable on our farm. Some can be very mild and others extremely warm. Heat tends to concentrate in the tip of these fruits - but if you get yourself a "hot one" it won't matter much where you take a nibble. These have given the most consistent results in the high tunnel since they do not like wet soil conditions - typically seeing total crop failures in those years.

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 Fish

(Hot Scale 3-4 of 5)

This pepper evidently has a history of being used in crab houses for seasoning, according to Seed Savers. If you want to grow a different pepper, this is a good one to try. The leaves are variegated and the peppers are striped. Plants can be brittle and will break easily. 

These peppers are best when they begin to change color. Fruit tend to be small, but potent. Several of our CSA members have responded favorably to these with many being very happy with the taste. These will grow reasonably well in containers and we note no marked difference between field and high tunnel production.

Fruit are shaped like a small, thin jalapeno and are striped green and white early and then red and yellow as they mature.  Wait until they change color for best taste.  

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Hot Portugal

(Hot Scale 4 of 5)

Hot Portugal grow long (7 to 8") and thin peppers that are hottest when allowed to turn red. We see these as a type of cayenne and find them easy to dry. People who demand a hot pepper tend not to be disappointed by this variety. In fact, this pepper has been known to leave people who bite into one speechless (for a time).

The tips of the first formed fruit tend to touch the soil and the tip end will often get soft and be breached.  It is best to remove these once you notice the problem - and if you have time (we never did) you might do well to remove the first set early and encourage the second fruit set.  Even if you don't get to that, cutting off the bottom of the pepper leaves you with plenty of pepper to use. 

When green, these have a bit of a 'bean pod' taste and are not as warm. Depending on the season and time of season, we believe Hot Portugal may get the hottest of the peppers we grow. Be very careful not to confuse these with Jimmy Nardello's (a sweet pepper we enjoy) because they can look very similar.  The key is to learn the slight difference in the formation of the shoulders of the fruit.

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 Joe's Long Cayenne

(Hot Scale 3 of 5)

One plant will produce large amounts of peppers. So, of course, we grow six to ten plants on the farm. You might lose a few fruit that touch the soil early on and get soft, but this won't make much difference given the overall production will easily compensate. Unlike most cayennes you will see that grow tiny, thin fruits that may reach 4" in size, these grow long thin cayennes that reach 8 to 9 inches. These are easy to pick, easy to hang up for drying, easy to dehydrate and excellent for winter dry storage. Taste is hot enough to let you know it is there, but not so hot that it is all you taste. Picked green, these are very mild and have a bit of a 'bean pod' taste to them. Harvest is typically in September, so be patient. They do not like to be rushed. Our average harvest runs around 30 fruit per plant, but we aren't surprised when we pull 50 or more off of one plant. These are easy to dry and store. Best tasting cayenne we've encountered.

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Wenk's Yellow Hot

 (Hot Scale 2-3 of 5)

These plants behave like jalepenos in many ways, but you want to pick the fruit once they turn yellow then orange and then red. In our opinion, jalepenos tend to be a bit bitter and lack taste. Wenk's Yellow Hots, on the other hand, have a wonderful taste and we strongly prefer these to jalepenos. 

Try to mix a few of these into dishes that call for jalepenos and you will find that the added color makes the meal attractive and tasty option.  If you like jalepenos, try adding some of both. 

Plants are not quite as productive as jalepenos, but certainly productive enough with easily 35-40 per plant. We suspect you could make an excellent hot papricka powder out of these if you had the know how and were so inclined.

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Aji Crystal

(Hot Scale 3-4 of 5)

Aji Crystal and Hungarian Hot Wax were introduced to the farm at the same time and we liked them both equally well, but found they traveled in the "same lane."  The result was that we would grow whichever we had the seed for on a given year.

 Average production for Aji was 32.7 fruit per plant in 2011 and taste was well received by our customers. We might say that it is warmer than the Hungarians, but the difference is very slight. Fruit have a slight 'boxiness' that gives them a different look. Otherwise, you might say they are a larger yellow jalapeno in shape and size.

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 Hungarian Hot Wax

 (Hot Scale 3-4 of 5)

We have to admit that our history with Hungarian Hot Wax makes us want to grow them. These peppers were in our garden well before we started Genuine Faux Farm and we may have kept them, in part, for the link to our past. On the other hand, their taste rates right up there with Aji Crystal and the hotness is similar. 

Unlike Aji, they do not have the boxiness and are a smooth fruit. Our 2011 production level was 32.8 per plant. The biggest difference is that they seem to maintain a more consistent size than Aji Crystal and would likely serve production systems that need consistency and shorter harvest windows.

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 Early Jalapeno

 (Hot Scale 2-3)

In general, neither of us is enamored with most jalapenos, finding them to be a bit bitter. Or, worse yet, some are just hot for hot's sake, with no taste to redeem them or make them interesting enough to be willing to deal with warmth. This variety does reasonably well and produces plenty of peppers per plant (usually 50 to 60 if you keep it picked). It will do you no favors to let them turn red as it doesn't seem to improve the taste on this variety, nor does it get any hotter. Instead, the fruit get a bit tougher. Just grab them when they get to the size you want and you'll be happiest.

We also note that some fruit will start to show dry cracking as they age - even before they change color.  This doesn't impact the taste, but it does change the texture - not for the better, as far as we are concerned.  So, keep it picked for best results.

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And even more that we've tried over the years at the Genuine Faux Farm

Cyklon (Hot Scale 3-4)

These plants produce thinner peppers that reach approximately 4 inches and they seem to hold a smoother, more uniform shape than others of this type. Pick these when they are red for best taste. Plants are easy to pick and fruit do not tend to split or exhibit any other problems. With Hot Portugal, Maule's Red Hot and Cyklon we felt we were growing too many of the same sort of pepper without enough demand to support them all. Cyklon was the first of the group to be eliminated due to the least consistent harvests.

Black Hungarian (Hot Scale 4)

Black Hungarian plants are very attractive.  They have dark green leaves, sometimes with purplish veining. Plants do not get terribly large and stay self contained. The dark fruit and the beautiful purple flowers are also quite attractive. While you can certainly use the fruit, the taste is somewhat bitter and doesn't have great culinary value in our opinion. Grow this if you want an ornamental pepper. Perhaps you will like the taste, but we won't bet on it.

Maule's Red Hot (Hot Scale 4)

Maule's Red Hots tend to be longer and thinner and remind us more of Hot Portugal than Cyklon. Again, if we had more of a market for hot peppers and people who like subtle taste differences in them, we would have considered growing them more often. But, since we did not, it made no sense to duplicate with Hot Portugal.

Numex Big Jim (Hot Scale 2)

This was our 'Anaheim-style' chile, perfect for rellanos. Plants are very productive, more compact than Anaheim College and seem to be well adapted to the Midwest. We would recommend this variety for our area if you want this type of pepper, but seed suppliers stopped carrying it and it hasn't returned to our knowledge. Another variety called Numex Joe Parker is said to be similar, but we do not have the motivation to try it.

Conchos (Hot Scale 3)

Cylindrical, dark green fruits that look like large jalepenos. Excellent for stuffing and for poppers. Fruits are often 1.75" by 4" in size. We have found some variety in the hotness of these peppers. At times, we would rate this one higher than a 3 on the hotness scale, but rarely lower than that. Once again, this pepper is fine, but the seed disappeared from our normal suppliers and we weren't sufficiently motivated to pursue it. We prefer to give more space to Beaver Dam and Wenk's Yellow Hot.

Senorita Jalepeno (Hot Scale 1-2)

Darker green, smaller jalepeno. Definitely a milder jalepeno that will be adequate for persons who do not care for too much heat. These have a mild taste that gets even milder with removal of the seeds. Plants provide continuous production as long as they are picked frequently. Again, the seed supply disappeared and we moved on.

Anaheim College 64 (Hot Scale 2)

Anaheim College is a chile-type pepper. it is a green pepper that grows long and relatively thick pointed fruit. Used for dishes such as chile rellanos, this pepper has a good taste that gets milder if you gut the seeds.  These peppers tend to begin production later in the season here in Iowa. It is likely this variety wants something different than our Zone 4b weather to do well.

Ancho 211 (Hot Scale 3) 

As is the case with all ancho, these are also known as pablano chile peppers. These do seem to have a fairly broad range of hotness depending on weather. Hotter, drier weather tends to result in hotter peppers. Fruits are smaller (3 inches) and are a blackish green to red color. Plants begin producing later in the year and will produce in great abundance once they start. Our plants at the time of frost were still covered with immature fruit, making us decide to move to Ancho Gigantea in an effort to get more of the fruit to mature size in our growing season. This is a hybrid, hence another reason why we moved away from it.