This text is part of the special Pleasures notebook
The vegetarian pepper is a variety of pepper endemic to the West Indies. Measuring three to six centimeters, this elongated vegetable with a pointed end is distinguished from other peppers by the mildness of its taste: it does not sting. According to the founder of the Passion Madras catering service, originally from Guadeloupe, Mélissa Gene, this is one of the reasons why it can easily be integrated into the culinary habits of Quebecers.
“Its taste is very fragrant, you can eat it in salads or dehydrate it then use it dried, in flakes or powder as a spice,” explains Mélissa Gene. You can also make a puree and add it to all dishes with fish, chicken or rice for example. »
After several months of waiting, vegetarian pepper seeds are again available from one of its suppliers. “I needed it to cook almost all my dishes, and it had been two years since I could find any in the markets,” she remembers. Knowing that demand is also high among her customers, she therefore proposed a collaboration to the Spika farm in Assomption, which specializes in pepper production.
Even though they produce around fifty different peppers, the president and CEO of Spika Farm, Éric Higgins, and his team had never before cultivated vegetarian peppers. “Visually, it looks a lot like chili Lantern, which would be a sort of hybridization between the habanero pepper and the vegetarian pepper, which we were already cultivating,” explains Éric Higgins.
Mélissa Gene provides them with seeds at the beginning of spring so that they can plant them. “This is something new, this year several customers came to see us to grow [dans le cadre de leur activité] peppers that we didn’t have yet,” continues Mr. Higgins.
A booming market
The company Les Terres Fortin-Daigle created Spika farm in 2020. At the time, the company grew different kinds of vegetables. “One day, a taxi driver stopped at our farm around midnight. lunchbecause he wanted to give more flavor to his dish, remembers Éric Higgins. He was then given three peppers and made to promise to come back. »
The farm then decided to create a branch specializing in the cultivation of chili peppers, a niche in high demand by several communities who are used to consuming it in their home territory, like Mélissa Gene. This also corresponds to the start of the pandemic, when the craze for hot sauces took off. “What I love is that [contrairement aux autres légumes]chili peppers are made to be ugly and taste good,” jokes the CEO of the Spika farm. Éric Higgins also estimates that among the producers of artisanal sauces in Quebec, around half of them obtain their supplies from his farm.
Planting begins at the beginning of June and the first harvest takes place in September. Vegetarian peppers are picked at all stages of ripeness, ranging from green to red. “The seed germination rate was estimated at 60%, while the success rate ultimately rose to more than 80%,” remembers Mélissa Gene. With the Spika farm, they thought that the total production would amount to 100 kg at most between August and October; they finally reach this quantity from the second picking. “I had already thought about making by-products like sauces or spices, but with this quantity, I have to plan quickly,” she confides.
Dealing with the unexpected
However, at the second harvest, the team realized that the vegetarian peppers were slightly spicy: the level of capsaicin they contain (which gives the sensation of heat when eating the pepper) is estimated by Éric Higgins between 500 and 3000 on the Scoville scale (the Carolina Reaper pepper being, for example, at 2.2 million).
Even though she has not received any complaints from customers since her first harvest, she decides, in agreement with the Spika farm, to temporarily suspend sales. “There was certainly hybridization with another pepper when the seeds were made, and the seed company probably did not realize it,” says Mr. Higgins. These are things that happen, and you can’t know until you grow them. »
However, he confides that he will have to find what to do with the remaining production, which amounts to several dozen kilos: “It remains a super nice product, we will freeze the surplus, see with processors, but in the meantime, the best place to preserve a pepper is to leave it on the plant,” he explains with a certain irony.
Despite the situation, Mélissa Gene and Éric Higgins are not giving up. “It’s part of the gamewe work with living matter and we have no choice but to adapt,” he assures. They are also planning to relaunch a crop next year with seeds which come, this time, directly from Guadeloupe.
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Dutyrelating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.