Macedonian Embroidered Organic Hot Pepper

Nature & Nurture Seeds

Capsicum annuum

$4.99

Pkt(≈15 seeds)
Certified Organic
80 days. We’re so excited to be able to offer this gorgeous hot pepper. They are known as Vezena Piperka or “Embroidered Pepper” in Macedonia (in Eastern Europe) due to their distinctive, knitted thread-like appearance. Peppers are 5-6” long and ripen from green to red. They’re a step or so hotter than a jalapeño, and have a lovely rich flavor. This variety was introduced to us by our Macedonian friend Smilka Zdravkovska who raises the peppers in her garden and who gave us the seeds. In Macedonia, Smilka tells us, the peppers are strung up to dry and then pulled from the string as needed and put whole into bean stew. Mike loves making hot sauce out of the peppers, roasting them first till they darken up and then blending them with garlic, salt and olive oil. Although the pepper itself is red, once roasted and blended the sauce is a gorgeous, deep orange. Another traditional use of the fruits is that they are dried and then used to make paprika powder. This pepper is easy to grow and produces tons of fruit. It is a compact plant that does not need to be staked. Can be eaten green but flavor is best harvested once red and deeply embroidered. See our Seeds of Our Ancestors' article covering this delightful hot pepper!

All peppers are warm-weather loving plants. Sow seeds indoors 3/15-4/1 into good seed starting mix (we recommend Vermont Compost’s Fort Light). Ideal temperature for germination is 80-90° (use heating mat). Days to germination: 6-28. Once leaves appear, grow plants at 72°. Be sure seedlings have adequate light (a windowsill will not do for peppers) and keep plants from becoming pot-bound because this will permanently stunt plants. If seedlings are getting too big for their pot but the weather is still too cold outside, transplant them into bigger pots. Plant seedlings outside late May into fertile garden soil with lots of compost or decomposed manure. If your soil pH is greater than 7 (which is typical of clay soils in Southeast Michigan) add sulfur to acidify soil before planting. Space plants 1 ½ - 2ft apart. If plants begin to flower when plants are less than 1ft tall, hand remove early flowers for 2 weeks until plants are bigger. Stake pepper plants if they begin to fall over.