Chocolate Pepper Harvest & More

Pepper season has been amazing! Although I will always say I prefer tomatoes, my pepper success is growing by leaps and bounds year to year. Proper soil and manure, full sun and good weather, and great peppers you shall have. I would also like to thank and acknowledge good seed quality and genetics. I've had an amazing yield of both hot and sweet peppers and the chocolate peppers have been outstanding! Most of my pepper seeds were from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and I've had an amazing nearly 100% germination rate.  

A tuxedo coturnix quail with a "Yellow Monster" sweet pepper for a size comparison. 

I'm very pleased with the "sweet chocolate" pepper, they really are an awesome chocolate hue! The flavour is sweet, fresh and it really has that great "pepper smell". They cook down into a bizarre colour of brown-purple in cooked dishes, but freshly sliced among other pepper colours they really add to the rainbow of fresh eating. The photo below has not been edited; this is the real chocolaty colour! They seem to range from green-brown to a nice rich milk chocolate.

Just look at that beautiful line-up of chocolate, they look like polished chocolate morsels. 

In the light you can see more of a orange-red tone, even the inside walls of the pepper reflect this brown colouration.

On a more critical side; the chocolate peppers didn't go over well with the "traditional crowd" or kids, as both demographics said they looked rotten, or if they were ok to eat "still". I'm more then fine with working with these peppers, but if you have more people to please just be mindful - brown may deter some of your household consumers. I grew many sweet peppers this year, and I somewhat regret not growing more hot peppers. I cooked with some market jalapeños and habaneros recently and I knew I should have grown some the moment I tasted those nachos. I picked most of my peppers based on looks and not flavour.

Against the purple you can see even more chocolate definition.
This harvest probably represents 1- 15th of the total season's harvest. 

I allowed these violet sparkle peppers to ripen into their red-orange faze.
They almost look like a completely different pepper, still just a beautiful.

The best part about discovering your success with peppers is the confidence to then grow any variety. The key in my area and other more "northern" growers may find, is to start your pepper seedlings early and put them in amazing soil. I also gave my peppers lots and lots of space this year, which seemed to help - although some of them became a bit crowded by the basil and nasturtiums I grew around them. As far as plans for next year - I certainly have mild to medium spicy peppers on my mind. I'll be posting more pepper pictures and comments coming up - can't wait to show you - the midnight dreams pepper!