Grow your own paprika?

[TheSeedObsesser]

Here are a few other varieties that you may want to look into:

Szegedi
Gozogled
Hungarian Paprika
Cece Hungarian White Stuffing

Hungary and surrounding countries are like the center for paprika - it's where the spice originally comes from, so many varieties from around the area could probably be used for paprika. I'll see if I can find more to add to the list...

 

[Ridgerunner]

I got a Territorial Seed catalog this morning in the mail. Guess what I found on page 74. So I went to their website to save some typing.


http://www.territorialseed.com/category/339/2


Alma Paprika Pepper


80 days. Grow your own paprika seasoning! Alma is one of the best paprika-type peppers for drying and grinding, but can also be eaten fresh from the garden. Plants are loaded with round, thick-walled, sweet peppers that have just a hint of warmth. The 1-2 inch fruits start out creamy white, and then turn to orange before finally turning shiny red. Harvest red for drying purposes. Your goulash and paprikash will never taste so good.


Feher Ozon Paprika Pepper


NEW! 70 days. Tasty and substantial paprika-type peppers break through the tops of compact plants, practically calling out to be picked. Early and prolific, the bulky fruit reach up to 5 inches long; beginning an ivory to laser lemon color before ripening orange, then red at full maturity. The thick-walled peppers have exceptionally sweet flesh, delightful fresh or for use in cooking, with just a touch of mild heat. Mature peppers can be dried and ground into very flavorful paprika powder.


After out discussion I think it’s interesting that these are both called thick-walled peppers. I’ve grown peppers that were advertised as thick-walled before and they really were not any thicker than a lot of others so I don’t know how thick these actually are.

 

[journey11]

Awesome, @Ridgerunner , thanks! That is odd about the thick walls. I wonder how challenging they could be to dry. I am up for the experiment though.

 

[Lavender2]

They don't look any thicker than some others ... Seed Savers pic

Small pepper though, but claims it is very productive. Probably good for paprika because of the flavor, traditional paprika. Not the easiest to dry, but a sweeter pepper so heat drying may not affect the taste as much. Most the reading I have done suggests to cut them up to dry.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The only peppers I've ever dried were Anaheim and Habaneros. I just hung them by the stem in the garage and let them dry without cutting them. It took a real long time, even in an attached very dry garage. But they did eventually dry.


I have dried a lot of different things in a dehydrator. I’ve observed it makes a tremendous amount of difference if the skin is opened. I blanch blueberries before I dehydrate them to crack them. I cut cherry tomatoes open before dehydrating. Things like that. Never done peppers.

 

[buckabucka]

I've grown my own paprika for many years. We grow Boldog (Fedco) for sweet paprika and Krimson Lee or Krimson Spice (Johnny's) for hot paprika. I've grown Feherezon, but that one takes too long to turn red and is not my favorite. Aji dulce is very slow growing, and has a unique flavor, but also not my favorite.

We cut ours lengthwise roughly in quarters and remove the seeds and ribs and put them in the dehydrator (we just have a cheap one without a fan, but that works fine). Once they're crisp, let them cool and grind in a spice grinder. We put ours in zip-lock bags and freeze it.

I also like pimenton (smoked paprika) but have only purchased it. And we grow Jimmy Nardello peppers and dry those whole to use all winter.

 

[digitS']

I've grown my own paprika for many years. We grow Boldog (Fedco) for sweet paprika and Krimson Lee or Krimson Spice (Johnny's) for hot paprika. . .

This gardener is resourceful!

Nothing to do with paprika: I didn't think to look in Fedco & Johnny's. I did look in Richter's when the idea hit me, "spices -- herbs -- spices -- herbs!" Richter's does sell a few veggie seeds. They have peppers listed in both the vegetable and herb sections but there aren't any "paprika" types, specifically. What I did notice was that they say that Anaheim can be used for a dried "Chile Colorado." I hadn't thought of drying Anaheim but I don't know if I can get them ripe in my garden.

I have hung both sweet & hot peppers in the kitchen. The hot was just for "crumbling" into something. The (Italian) sweet was so they would complete their ripening and could be peeled and cooked down into a paste. The paste is then frozen. This is a very tasty way to enjoy sweet peppers out of season!

DW also does this with hot peppers fresh from the garden. That is, she pulverizes them into a paste. Then, freezes that. We can just scrape some of that out of the tupperware container to add when cooking. It is safer than crumbling hot peppers after they have dried .

Steve