Pepper, Fish
Product Description: (Capsicum annuum) Horace Pippin never bore witness to the revival of the Fish pepper nor did he have any way of knowing that his seeds would one day be the last of their kind.
Now regarded as one of America’s most influential painters, Pippin is best known for his wide-ranging depictions of African American life, biblical scenes, the brutality of war, and racial segregation. The bulk of Pippin’s biography is in service to his artistic accomplishments but buried somewhere in the footnotes, you may also find that the historic fish pepper would not still exist without him.
This pepper sports variegated colors of red, green, and cream-white alongside a tropical, spicy flavor (which doesn’t resemble fish in any sense but was commonly used to season seafood dishes). Fish peppers also served more functional uses, such as treating joint pain and deterring garden pests. Oral histories even tell of enslaved people using these peppers to mask their scents in an attempt to confuse pursuing bloodhounds and escape to freedom.
By the mid-20th century, these tales were all that fish peppers were remembered by but some old seeds descending from Horrace Pippin himself unknowingly survived in the freezer of a Pennsylvania beekeeper.
Pippin suffered from arthritis in his later years and self-inflicted bee stings were his pain relief treatment of choice. His neighbor, H. Ralph Weaver, provided Pippin with a steady supply of honey bees in exchange for garden seeds — and it wasn’t until Weaver’s grandson, William Woys Weaver, rediscovered those seeds in 1995 that this historic variety was resurrected from its long-believed extinction. Open-pollinated. 25 seeds per packet.
Growing Information: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before your expected last frost. Transplant outdoors in late spring when the weather is consistently warm. 80 days to maturity from transplant.
Seed Saving: Allow the fruit to ripen until they turn red in color. Remove the seeds, dry them fully, remove any damaged or immature seeds, then store in a cool, dry location until needed.
Germination Rate: 78%
Product Description: (Capsicum annuum) Horace Pippin never bore witness to the revival of the Fish pepper nor did he have any way of knowing that his seeds would one day be the last of their kind.
Now regarded as one of America’s most influential painters, Pippin is best known for his wide-ranging depictions of African American life, biblical scenes, the brutality of war, and racial segregation. The bulk of Pippin’s biography is in service to his artistic accomplishments but buried somewhere in the footnotes, you may also find that the historic fish pepper would not still exist without him.
This pepper sports variegated colors of red, green, and cream-white alongside a tropical, spicy flavor (which doesn’t resemble fish in any sense but was commonly used to season seafood dishes). Fish peppers also served more functional uses, such as treating joint pain and deterring garden pests. Oral histories even tell of enslaved people using these peppers to mask their scents in an attempt to confuse pursuing bloodhounds and escape to freedom.
By the mid-20th century, these tales were all that fish peppers were remembered by but some old seeds descending from Horrace Pippin himself unknowingly survived in the freezer of a Pennsylvania beekeeper.
Pippin suffered from arthritis in his later years and self-inflicted bee stings were his pain relief treatment of choice. His neighbor, H. Ralph Weaver, provided Pippin with a steady supply of honey bees in exchange for garden seeds — and it wasn’t until Weaver’s grandson, William Woys Weaver, rediscovered those seeds in 1995 that this historic variety was resurrected from its long-believed extinction. Open-pollinated. 25 seeds per packet.
Growing Information: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before your expected last frost. Transplant outdoors in late spring when the weather is consistently warm. 80 days to maturity from transplant.
Seed Saving: Allow the fruit to ripen until they turn red in color. Remove the seeds, dry them fully, remove any damaged or immature seeds, then store in a cool, dry location until needed.
Germination Rate: 78%
Product Description: (Capsicum annuum) Horace Pippin never bore witness to the revival of the Fish pepper nor did he have any way of knowing that his seeds would one day be the last of their kind.
Now regarded as one of America’s most influential painters, Pippin is best known for his wide-ranging depictions of African American life, biblical scenes, the brutality of war, and racial segregation. The bulk of Pippin’s biography is in service to his artistic accomplishments but buried somewhere in the footnotes, you may also find that the historic fish pepper would not still exist without him.
This pepper sports variegated colors of red, green, and cream-white alongside a tropical, spicy flavor (which doesn’t resemble fish in any sense but was commonly used to season seafood dishes). Fish peppers also served more functional uses, such as treating joint pain and deterring garden pests. Oral histories even tell of enslaved people using these peppers to mask their scents in an attempt to confuse pursuing bloodhounds and escape to freedom.
By the mid-20th century, these tales were all that fish peppers were remembered by but some old seeds descending from Horrace Pippin himself unknowingly survived in the freezer of a Pennsylvania beekeeper.
Pippin suffered from arthritis in his later years and self-inflicted bee stings were his pain relief treatment of choice. His neighbor, H. Ralph Weaver, provided Pippin with a steady supply of honey bees in exchange for garden seeds — and it wasn’t until Weaver’s grandson, William Woys Weaver, rediscovered those seeds in 1995 that this historic variety was resurrected from its long-believed extinction. Open-pollinated. 25 seeds per packet.
Growing Information: Start indoors 6-10 weeks before your expected last frost. Transplant outdoors in late spring when the weather is consistently warm. 80 days to maturity from transplant.
Seed Saving: Allow the fruit to ripen until they turn red in color. Remove the seeds, dry them fully, remove any damaged or immature seeds, then store in a cool, dry location until needed.
Germination Rate: 78%
