Raising Hot Peppers

When I began my search for a source for a wide range of hot peppers for this field trip, I sought suggestions from buddies who could accurately be described as “chiliheads.” I also asked friends who farm, work in agricultural extension and manage farmers markets. When the same farm kept popping up in all those circles, I knew I was onto something. That’s how I wound up at Moore’s Produce: Eat Moore Fruits and Veggies in Newton Grove, a farming community in Johnston County, North Carolina. On a sunny, Carolina-blue sky day a few weeks later, I was welcomed by Stephanie Moore.

She, her husband Ronnie, and their adult kids farm on land that’s been in her family for generations. Their large, busy booth at the North Carolina State Farmers Market in Raleigh is one of the most colorful and tempting displays of fresh produce I’ve ever seen. I can also find their products in regional grocery stores.  

When I say the Moores raise hot peppers (and an impressive array of sweet and mild peppers, as well), I mean they cultivate an acre or more of them. As we walked along the long, straight rows of pepper plants (under the supervision of Penny, the farm dog), Stephanie explained that they plant between 75 and 100 different types of hot peppers each year. I’m not sure I understood there were that many kinds in the first place! Their peppers were gorgeous, in all sorts of sizes, shapes, and colors. The Moore’s pepper crop ranges from barely hot to scary hot, running the gamut from the lowest to highest ends of the Scoville scale used to quantify the amounts of pungency in a pepper.  

As a professional food writer and cook whose job it is to describe food, I can tell you that “spicy” is hard to put into words, even with a Scoville rating for reference. That’s because our individual perceptions and responses to the substances in a hot pepper are physical, not a matter of taste. A level that some eaters perceive as too mild to notice can be irritating or even unbearable to others.  

But I honestly believe, as a cook and as an eater, that there’s a “hot” pepper for all palates. When I use spice in a recipe, my goal is to add flavor, not peril. My guideline is that any perception of heat should be a finishing note that shows up at the end of a bite, not a bomb from the get-go. I understand that some brave souls with iron guts like to flirt with super-hot peppers, and I wish them well, but stunt eating like that isn’t for me. I’ll stick with the wide world of delicious hot peppers and appreciate that with all those amazing flavors, colors, and textures, there’s no reason to settle for bland food.  

Sheri Castle, award-winning food writer and cooking teacher, is known for melding culinary expertise, storytelling and humor, so she can tell a tale while making a memorable meal. Her creative, well-crafted recipes and practical advice inspire people to cook with confidence and enthusiasm. She's written a tall stack of cookbooks and her work appears in dozens of magazines. In 2019, the Southern Foodways Alliance named Sheri among Twenty Living Legends of Southern Food, calling her The Storyteller.

Sheri says that she's fueled by great ingredients and the endless pursuit of intriguing stories, usually about the role that food plays in our lives, families, communities and culture.

When she steps away from the kitchen or a local farm, Sheri enjoys spending quiet time at her home near Chapel Hill. She hails from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.