Peppers are one of the easiest crops to grow, virtually pest-free, and enormously versatile.
Slow Food's Ark of Taste includes these 7 heirloom peppers, which make up a diversified, hot-and-mild pepper garden:
Beaver Dam Pepper: mildly hot Hungarian heirloom. Elongated red peppers are very flavorful, great for stuffing.
Bull Nose Bell Pepper: Thomas Jefferson raised this sturdy, productive pepper
Chiltepin Chile: tiny, indigenous to SW.
Datil: elongated yellow-orange peppers, signature ingredient in the local Minorcan cuisine of St. Augustine, FL. Wonderful for hot sauces. Hard to find!
Fish Pepper: mildly hot African-American heirloom, popular in Chesapeake Bay seafood restaurants. Variegated foliage and peppers make a color splash in your garden!
New Mexico Native Chile, Chimayo: long hot red chiles native to northern NM ~ rare and endangered!
Sheepnose Pimento: red fruits are thick-walled and juicy, very flavorful. Great for roasting and canning.
In addition to these Ark peppers, we recommend:
Alma Paprika
Anaheim
Caribbean Red Habanero: twice as hot as the standard orange!
Cayenne: long red peppers are very hot; great for drying as ristras!
Corno di Toro Rosso: classic Italian sweet
Habanero: the classic orange
Jalapeno: use green or red, great for stuffing or baking in breads, casseroles, etc
15-25 seeds per pack