Store peppers in a paper bag and avoid extra moisture that can cause spoiling. Keep peppers in a warmer part of our refrigerator.
Bell Peppers: Bell peppers are blocky in shape, with three or four lobes. When we deliver these peppers, they are mostly in their green state, but we have grown them to maturity in red, yellow, and orange color. While it is common to eat green peppers, you’ll find the flavor of a green pepper is more mild without a lot of sweetness. This is because green peppers are immature. All colored peppers start out as a green pepper. As the fruit ripens on the plant, it makes a transition from green to its fully ripe color. As this change occurs, natural sugars develop in the fruit making it not only sweet but also flavorful.
Italian Frying Peppers: Italian frying peppers are a sweet pepper that are either dark red or orange in color with a more elongated, slender shape that is pointy on the end. It may be eaten raw or cooked. While it is common to eat green peppers, you’ll find the flavor of a green pepper is more mild without a lot of sweetness. This is because green peppers are immature. All colored peppers start out as a green pepper. As the fruit ripens on the plant, it makes a transition from green to its fully ripe color. As this change occurs, natural sugars develop in the fruit making it not only sweet but also flavorful.
Mini Sweet Peppers: As the name states, mini sweets are a small sweet pepper. They are one of the sweetest, most flavorful peppers you’ll likely ever taste. When ripe they turn red, yellow, or orange, depending on the plant. They have thick fleshed walls which makes them great for stuffing.
Ukraine Peppers: This is a sweet pepper that resembles a small bell pepper. It is orange-red in color and has a blocky top that tapers to a point at the bottom of the pepper. They are similar to a bell pepper, but with a pointy end and more orange-red flesh.
Peppers are versatile in use. They can be eaten raw or cooked and pair well in dishes with other summer vegetables such as potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes and eggplant. Peppers mark the transition from late summer into early fall, and as such can dance on the line between summer and fall which means they also pair well with sweet potatoes, fall greens, and winter squash to name just a few. Peppers are often roasted to not only develop their natural sweetness, but to also give them a smoky flavor. You can roast any kind of pepper, but generally those with a thicker wall will yield better results.
Peppers are one of my favorite vegetables to preserve and use throughout the winter. They can be frozen raw or roasted, either whole or cut down into smaller pieces, strips or diced. When you want to use them, just pull them out of the freezer and use them as a pizza topping, put them on sandwiches, or add to soups, stews, sauces, etc. You can also preserve peppers by dehydrating them. For most peppers, you’ll want to cut them into strips or smaller pieces so they dehydrate faster. Peppers with a thinner wall are best for dehydrating.
Italian frying peppers are versatile in use, and as the name suggests, are great when sautéed or fried! The orange Italian Frying Pepper is our personal favorite. The flavor on this variety is excellent—just one step under a mini-sweet pepper! They can be eaten raw or cooked and pair well in dishes with other summer vegetables such as potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes and eggplant. Peppers mark the transition from late summer into early fall, and as such can dance on the line between summer and fall which means they also pair well with sweet potatoes, fall greens, and winter squash to name just a few. Peppers are often roasted to not only develop their natural sweetness, but to also give them a smoky flavor. You can roast any kind of pepper, but generally those with a thicker wall will yield better results.
Peppers are one of my favorite vegetables to preserve and use throughout the winter. They can be frozen raw or roasted, either whole or cut down into smaller pieces, strips or diced. When you want to use them, just pull them out of the freezer and use them as a pizza topping, put them on sandwiches, or add to soups, stews, sauces, etc. You can also preserve peppers by dehydrating them. For most peppers, you’ll want to cut them into strips or smaller pieces so they dehydrate faster. Peppers with a thinner wall are best for dehydrating.
Please note, while many recipes call for “Red Bell Peppers,” any sweet pepper will generally do fine as a substitute. You’ll need to use your best judgement as to how many of whatever sweet pepper you are using is equal to one bell pepper. Typically I substitute two Italian frying peppers for one red bell pepper.
The easiest thing to do is to just eat mini sweet peppers as a snack. I usually don’t even cut them or trim away the top. I just use the stem as a handle and eat around the seeds. One of Richard’s favorite ways to eat this pepper is stuffed with cream cheese or other soft cheese. You can eat peppers stuffed in this way raw or pop them under the broiler for a bit to warm them up. This pepper is also great roasted. Lastly, you can use this pepper as you would any other sweet pepper.
Mini sweet peppers can also be preserved. This is actually one of the easiest things to put away for winter. All you have to do is wash them, let them air dry a bit and then put them in a freezer bag and freeze. That’s it. When you’re ready to use them, take out the portion you need and leave it on the counter at room temperature for just a few minutes so it softens enough for you to cut them. I use these throughout the winter as a topping on pizza, added to soups and stews, or chopped and added to rice and pasta dishes.
Ukraine peppers are a great multi -purpose pepper that adds not only color but also sweetness to dishes. They can be eaten raw or cooked and pair well in dishes with other summer vegetables such as potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes and eggplant. Peppers mark the transition from late summer into early fall, and as such can dance on the line between summer and fall which means they also pair well with sweet potatoes, fall greens, and winter squash to name just a few. Peppers are often roasted to not only develop their natural sweetness, but to also give them a smoky flavor. You can roast any kind of pepper, but generally those with a thicker wall will yield better results.
Health & Nutrition: As a pepper ripens, the nutrient content changes as the color does. Colored peppers can contain as much as 60% greater levels of antioxidants and other nutrients, including Vitamins C, A, E, K, B6 and folate, than the non-ripe green peppers.
Growing Information: Peppers are a unique crop that we enjoy growing. We grow about 10 different varieties of peppers starting them in our greenhouses and later transplanting them to the field. We grow our peppers on plastic reflective mulch covered beds to help deter pests and trap heat to accelerate their growth. They are watered with long drip lines that run under the plastic, which allows us to give them not only water but additional nutrients every week. Our Italian Frying Peppers and Green Bell Peppers are grown because they are early producers that help us get the season started.
Growing Information: When Ukraine peppers are immature they are actually a bright yellow-green color that turns to an orange-red when ripe. The seed is not available commercially and was actually brought from the Ukraine many years ago.
Additional Fun Facts: Mini sweet peppers are a relatively new addition to our crop plan and we’re grateful to one of our longtime CSA members who introduced us to them. Upon his suggestion, Richard picked up a pack of these peppers at the co-op and saved the seeds from them. Please note, each pepper only has a few seeds inside, so the amount of seed we had to start with was pretty slim. He planted out the seeds that year, selected more peppers to save seeds from and thus began the process of developing our own line of seed. At the time he first saw these peppers, they were not very wide-spread in the stores as they are now and seed was not commercially available in this country. Times have changed and mini-sweet peppers, or snacking peppers as they are also called, are much more mainstream. Seed is now commercially available in this country. Several years ago we purchased some seed to try. We grew it side by side with the seed we had saved and when we looked at the plants in the field, they were pretty similar. We almost had ourselves convinced that we should just purchase seed and stop spending time painstakingly picking 4-5 seeds out of peppers at the end of every summer so we have seed for the next year. But then we tasted them. One bite of the purchased variety stopped us in our tracks. It was an acceptable sweet pepper, but it did not have the level of sweetness or the depth of flavor we experienced with the variety we’ve been developing. Deal breaker. We haven’t purchased seed since then and will continue to refine the seed we save every year as it seems to be doing pretty well in our growing environment.
