We offer seedlings in the spring, fresh grown peppers in the summer, and dried peppers all year! (All through Gilmanton’s Own Market or contact us directly)

Peppers are amazing creatures. Although supermarkets tend to sell very few kinds — mostly the big “sweet” bell peppers that at best have nice crunch and color but not much taste, many different kinds are found around the world. The differ not just in size, color, and amount of hotness, but also in other qualities of taste. The peppers that are used on Oaxaca for traditional dishes such as mole are different from the ones used in the Basque country or in India or Jamaica or Italy … or anywhere else!

We have had fun searching out seeds from different regions of the world to grow the peppers that are used locally for many different world regional dishes.

We sell some pepper plant starts in the spring, fresh peppers when they ripen — probably no earlier than August, and we sell dried pepper powders all year — all through Gilmanton’s Own Market. they are packed in small vials.  We can also take special orders for larger quantities.

Here is our 2022 list of pepper starts. We will sell some plant starts through Gilmanton’s Own, then sell peppers later in the season.  (Let us know if you would like us to reserve seedlings for you — contact us at vsapiro@gmail.com)

Sweet or a Little Spicy

Most of the sweet (or non-hot) peppers available in the supermarket are pretty, but fairly tasteless bell peppers. There are hundreds of varieties of sweet (or not really hot) peppers around the world that have different shapes, colors, and flavors. We grow a good list of choices from around the world.

• Blot: From Eastern Europe: Sweet, bright orange with purple streaks.
• Criolla de Cocina: Sweet pepper with strong flavor, from Nicaragua.
• Doux des Espagne:  Beautiful fruits that can be eaten green or red — large, 6-7 inch red peppers introduced before 1860, grown in warm places like Algeria and Valencia for the Paris markets.
• Gernika:  Basque frying pepper, picked green and fried whole with salt. Nice and sweet when red.
• Golden Treasure Sweet:  Tasty and sweet Italian heirloom — about 9 inches long. Ripens from green to golden yellow. Not commercially available.
• Large Sweet Antigua:  Huge sweet red pepper from Guatemala.
• Leysa: Very sweet red thick-skinned Ukrainian pepper.
• Liebesaptel: Red ruffled pepper with sweet thick flesh from Germany.
• Omarkso Kambe:  Red, heart shaped sweet pepper. From Bulgaria.
• Orange Bell:  Our only bell pepper.
• Petit Marseillais: A yellow, sweet (a little spicy) French heirloom. In France they also pickle them or fry them in olive oil or stuff them.
• Piment de Bresse:  Sweet, somewhat spicy red pepper from Bresse, in France. Used for hundreds of years, there are many recipes available. Also dried and used in cheese.
• Pimento: Sweet, small, red.
• Pippins Golden Honey:  Very sweet orange pepper discovered and bred by an African American folk artist, Horace Pippin.  We pickled them.
• Szegedi Giant Sweet: From Hungary.  Huge. Good yellow, orange, or red.
• Zolotistyi Sweet: Developed in Minsk. Golden yellow, thick walled, sweet, juicy.

Definitely Spicy or Hot

The “hotness” (burning qualities) of peppers is widely measured Scoville Scale, developed in 1912 by Wilbur Scoville, which measures the pungency of peppers in terms of its number of SHUs (Scoville Heat Units) from 0 (a sweet pepper with no capsaicin) to millions (we’re not going near that). So we clue you into how hot a pepper is by telling you the rough number of SHUs. Note that individual peppers of one kind can vary a lot, and the hotness depends on whether it’s dried, fresh, cooked, or what. So, for example, jalapeño peppers, which are familiar and popular in the U.S., are listed as 2,500-8,000 SHUs. We don’t grow the ones that will burn your face off. Unless you are super sensitive.

• Alcalde: Medium hot (2,500 SHU), red, 2.75″x 1.25″. Bred in northern New Mexico by the Casados family.
• Aleppo:  Also known as Halaby. 10,000 SHU, has a fruitiness to it with a good kick. Usually dried. Widely used in Turkey, Armenia. We dry these.
• Ancho Poblano:  Usually picked green. Mild hot 1,000-1,500 SHU.  Originates from Puebla, Mexico.   Often stuffed . Harvested red to dry. A staple Mexican pepper. We freeze these for winter.
• Cherry Bomb: Little round hot beauties.
• Chilhuacle Amarillo: (medium heat): One of the trio of chilhuacle peppers from Oaxaca, also grown throughout the Andes. Chilhuacle means “ancient chile” in Nahualt, the language of the Aztec peoples. Amarillo means yellow in Spanish. This pepper is rare, having been threatened by disease in its native areas. As its name says, yellow when ripe. a little salty and acidic, with bitter orange and sour cherry tones, bearing smokey undertones, some melon and seediness, and sweetness in the finish. An important ingredient in mole amarillo. We dry them and sell them all year.
• Chilhuacle Negro (1,500-2,500 SHUs): An ancient, rare chile from one particular region of Oaxaca, Mexico.  Chilhuacle means “ancient chile” in Nahualt, the language of the Aztec peoples. Although the name translates as “black,'” it is actually brown when ripe. One of the trio of Chilhuacle peppers from Oaxaca, a core ingredient in the classic mole negro.  It has notes of cocoa, tobacco and dried fruit. Very flavorful. We dry them and sell them all year.
• Chilhuacle Rojo (1,000 SHUs): One of the trio of chilhuacle peppers from Oaxaca, red (“rojo”) when ripe. Chilhuacle means “ancient chile” in Nahualt, the language of the Aztec peoples. Smoky-sweet taste. Some say it tastes of cherries, dried figs, and anise. We dry them and sell them all year.
• Fish Pepper:  Very hot pepper originally from the Caribbean, Popular in African American communities in Philadelphia and Baltimore, especially in fish dishes.  (5,000-30,000 SHU)
• Guajillo (2,500-5,000): classic pepper from Mexico (mostly Zacatecas) for salsa for tamales. There’s a bit of sweetness to them — kind of a berry flavor. Red when ripe. We dry them and sell them all year.
• Jalapeño Pepper: Everyone knows about these. We selected some especially nice big ones from one year’s crop to give us seeds for the future. (2,500 – 8,000 SHU). We freeze them for use all winter.
• Leutschauer (Hungarian) Paprika: This is nothing like the paprika you buy in the supermarket that gives you red color but virtually no taste. This is a spicy (but not super hot), tasty paprika — gives you good taste.  Use it for traditional Hungarian dishes or any time you want a little kick but not too much. Nice fresh, but we dry them and sell them all year.
• Mosco:  Hot (5,000-6,000 SHU). Smoky fruitiness, the official pepper of Colorado. Small but packs taste.
• Mulato Isleno:  Similar to Anchos but hotter. (2,500-3,000 SHU’s). Dark brown. Smoky, fruity, chocolaty flavor. This year we dried them whole and sell them.
• Negro de la Valle: Beautiful chocolate colored pepper from Chihuahua, Mexico with a little spice and sweet.
• Nora:  Small, round,  sweet (1-1,000 SHU’s), . It is said Columbus brought it back from t the Americas, left it with monks in Spain (at La Nora),  where it was cultivated, mainly in Valencia. Used almost exclusively dried to make Pimenton, used in many local Spanish dishes such as paella, cocidos, chorizo.  We dry it and sell it all year.
• Pasilla Apaseo: Sweet with some smoke and a little kick (1,000 SHU). Roasted while green, or allowed to ripen. From Oaxaca. We dried them whole and sell them.
• Pasilla Oaxaca: Hot (4,000-10,000 SHU) Oaxacan pepper that is red/black when ripe. We dried them whole and sell them.
• Piment de Espelette: One of the most popular (and official) Basque peppers, used to make piperade, but many people dry it and use it in place of black pepper.  About 5″ long, ripens from green to dark red. Also makes great sauces.
• Pimenta Moranga: Pretty hot Brazilian pepper. Red, teardrop shaped. We pickled them.
• Shishito:  A small Japanese pepper that can be sweet or spicy, great for frying.

Pepper Powders: Sold through Gilmanton’s Own Market

Why buy generic “hot pepper flakes” in the supermarket when you can get tasty varieties of different spicy peppers that give your cooking different flavors? You have no idea what’s in those “hot pepper flakes” or how they were grown.

Our peppers are selected from heirloom varieties that are specialties from different parts of the world — mostly from Mexico, where home cooks and chefs alike pride themselves on using the best local pepper varieties for their most important dishes, like mole sauces . (Actually, there are at least 7 different traditional mole sauces, using different ingredients and different peppers.)  But we like to experiment with different varieties of peppers in different dishes, just to have fun and great taste.

Chilhuacle Amarillo: (medium heat): One of the trio of chilhuacle peppers from Oaxaca, also grown throughout the Andes. Chilhuacle means “ancient chile” in Nahualt, the language of the Aztec peoples. Amarillo means yellow in Spanish. This pepper is rare, having been threatened by disease in its native areas. As its name says, yellow when ripe. a little salty and acidic, with bitter orange and sour cherry tones, bearing smokey undertones, some melon and seediness, and sweetness in the finish. An important ingredient in mole amarillo.   Pronounce: chil-wahh-klay  ah-mah-reeyo.

Chilhuacle Negro (1,500-2,500 SHUs): An ancient, rare chile from one particular region of Oaxaca, Mexico.  Chilhuacle means “ancient chile” in Nahualt, the language of the Aztec peoples. Although the name translates as “black,'” it is actually brown when ripe. One of the trio of Chilhuacle peppers from Oaxaca, a core ingredient in the classic mole negro.  It has notes of cocoa, tobacco and dried fruit. Very flavorful. Pronounce: chil-wahh-klay nay-groe

Chilhuacle Rojo (1,000 SHUs): One of the trio of chilhuacle peppers from Oaxaca, red (“rojo”) when ripe. Chilhuacle means “ancient chile” in Nahualt, the language of the Aztec peoples. Smoky-sweet taste. Some say it tastes of cherries, dried figs, and anise. Pronounce: chil-wahh-klay  roe-hoe

Guajillo (2,500-5,000): classic pepper from Mexico (mostly Zacatecas) for salsa for tamales. There’s a bit of sweetness to them — kind of a berry flavor. Red when ripe. Pronounce: gwa-hee-yo.

Negro De Valle (4,500 SHUs): From Chihuahua, Mexico, this pepper turns from green to brown when mature. Both sweet and spicy, makes a good chili powder.

Hungarian Paprika: This is nothing like the paprika you buy in the supermarket that gives you red color but virtually no taste. This is a spicy (but not super hot), tasty paprika — gives you good taste.  Use it for traditional Hungarian dishes or any time you want a little kick but not too much.

Whole Dried Peppers

• Mulato Isleno:  Similar to Anchos but hotter. (2,500-3,000 SHU’s). Dark brown. Smoky, fruity, chocolaty flavor. This year we dried them whole and sell them.
• Pasilla Oaxaca: Hot (4,000-10,000 SHU) Oaxacan pepper that is red/black when ripe.
• Pasilla Apaseo: Sweet with some smoke and a little kick (1,000 SHU). Roasted while green, or allowed to ripen. From Oaxaca.