The Fish Pepper

In a year without tomatoes, we’ve been blessed with a sheer glut of every other member of the family Solanacea.

The eggplants–who I always understood to be the prima donnas of the garden–have lived up to at least one attribute of that appellation.  They’ve been utter stars.  They’re beautiful, glossy, richly hued and delicious.

But it has been the peppers that have been the true outperformers.  First came the Czech Blacks with their purple-hued leaves and midnight-colored fruit.  Then, the Cyklons with their big shoulders and long twirled tips that just screamed of hotness.

Then, simultaneously my two favorites began producing at an epic clip, the Leutschaeuer paprika peppers which are simultaneously spicy and deliciously, juicily sweet, and the Hinkelhatz, tiny Pennsylvania Dutch peppers named for their resemblance to a chicken heart that encapsulate everything that is fragrant and floral and delightful about a Habanero, without the tongue-searing heat.  Don’t get me wrong, Hinkelhatz is a hot pepper, but just not that hot.

Advertisement