Trials of peppers has yielded great results and taste. Pictured: Dragon Roll (red); Mad Hatter (green) and Candy Cane (green and red). (C) Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
So far, it’s been a pretty good year for growing peppers. Fortunately, the breeders and hybridizers are keeping up with our desire to explore pepper flavors and forms.
This summer, I’ve trialed several peppers, from those dubbed hot to mild to sweet. Why, there’s even a stripped one that grows on a plant with variegated foliage. How much more ornamental can a pepper get?
Candy Cane sweet pepper. (C) Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
Candy Cane pepper is the one that’s green and red striped with green and white variegated foliage. This is a sweet pepper with an elongated shape. It is crispy and is considered a snacking pepper that can be eaten at any time, no matter what color. Doesn’t really need any staking making it an attractive candidate for a container.
Seemingly overnight, my Dragon Roll peppers went from green to red, a color that’s supposed to signal the development of heat. While green, the peppers are sweet. However, even when red, these peppers are still pretty mild. They have a bit of a different taste, very fruity. The plant is a strong producer of peppers that are 3 to 5 inches long and very narrow.
Candy Cane sweet pepper has variegated green and white foliage and green and red fruit. It’s also the perfect size for containers. (C) Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
Dragon Roll is a shishito pepper, which is favored for Japanese food. A new Burpee introduction, it registers about 200 on the Scoville Scale, which measures the heat units of peppers. To compare, a bell pepper registers zero and an Anaheim’s heat starts at 500 on the Scoville Scale. A pepperoncini is 100 to 500.
Mad Hatter pepper is a 2017 All-America Selection. (C) Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
The winner in the cute category is Mad Hatter pepper, a 2017 All-America Selection. The squatty pepper has three lopes, which gives it a hat-like appearance. Mad Hatter is a member of the Capsicum baccatum family, grown in South America and commonly used in Bolivia and Peru. Although a bit of a novelty, the pepper is crisp, tasty and sweet.
This pepper is a high producer and I have it growing in a tomato cage. The fruits will turn red as they mature on the plant. The Mad Hatter peppers look like lanterns dangling from the plant.
I’m going to chalk this up under grow something different each year. It’s been very rewarding. I’ve harvested many peppers and frozen them for use through winter months.