For Pepper Lovers, You Can’t Beat the Heat

Joe Stead, a horticulturist at Orange Coast College, and Carl Will, a finish carpenter and contractor, have a fire that burns in their bellies for peppers.

The two friends love hot peppers so much they rent adjoining plots on the Costa Mesa college campus to grow different varieties, including ones from Bolivia, Hungary, the Philippines and Thailand.

Their favorite? A mouth burner from Peru that forces eyes to water, noses to run and perspiration to form on faces. But, hey, it tastes great.

Will and Stead take advantage of the long growing season here to produce enough peppers to give away 3,000 bottles of five different flavors of sauce. “We have this worked down to a science where we don’t make any money off it,” Will says. “You can’t beat our heat.”

To prove it, they’re competing in the salsa and peppers contests at the Orange County Fair.

Their timing seems ripe. “Hot! Hot! Hot! We’re Spicin’ It Up” is the theme for the fair, which runs through July 30 at the Orange County Fair & Exposition Center in Costa Mesa.

Stead says more than taste is involved in eating peppers. There are health benefits too. He eats them to lower his cholesterol.

Hot peppers have 357% more vitamin C than an orange, according to the Wellness Encyclopedia, and capsaicin, the natural substance that puts the heat in peppers, is used in arthritis pain relief products, and it may prevent heart attacks and strokes caused by blood clots.

Here is Stead’s story:

“Carl and I grow 120 pepper plants. That’s all we can fit on the plots we rent from Orange Coast College Community Education. The plots are 10 feet by 20 feet. We each rent two plots for $96 a year and the four plots are adjoining.

“We grow a Peruvian pepper, an Aji, that is a beautiful bright orange color. It has a fruity boutique that’s great with food. And it’s hot. It’s a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the hottest. A friend brought us seeds five years ago. We tried them and really loved them.

“Carl has been experimenting with making a sauce out of them that we use as a dip, marinade for meat or fish, or to top pizza or pasta. Carl was thinking of making a business out of the sauce. Sometimes he sets up a table at the pepper patch and entertains professors and other gardeners.

“Carl loves to get out in the garden and do a little weeding. It’s hard work planting, mulching and setting up the drip-irrigation system, but once you get it going, it’s a blast.

“We grew the Aji peppers in the greenhouse, and on May 24, when they reached the right size and there was no sign of frost, we planted them in the ground. These plants can grow up to 5 feet tall and now they’re 2 1/2 feet tall. We have large peppers but we want to wait until they turn orange. Harvest is usually 60 to 80 days after planting, so that will be within the next 30 days.

“We have been growing lots of different peppers for 10 years. Last year, we also grew 500 pepper plants in Winchester, near Hemet.

“We grow them at the college, which has a lot of horticultural programs. One class is on plant propagation. The 30 students do everything from growing plants from seeds to cuttings and tissue cultures. They grow crops that we sell each spring.

“Each year we get the option to renew [renting the plots]. This is the first year we had this plot. The plots used to be on another area of the campus but this area is better. There are even sidewalks.”

For more information on the community gardening plots, contact Orange Coast College Community Education, (714) 432-5880.

“Been There, Done That” is a recurring feature in Saturday’s Home Design section that highlights how our readers accomplish their home and garden projects. If you wish to share your experiences--or, even to brag a little--call (714) 966-7883. Or send photographs along with your name and phone number to Home Design, The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626 or e-mail [email protected].