ISSUE 79, FOODS OF FLORIDA, Part 5: Grove Pepper
Grove Peppers
Few pepper species grow wild in North America. Florida claims two: the Tabasco Pepper, and the Grove Pepper. The Grove Pepper is the Florida form of the Bird Pepper, or Pequin Pepper, or Chiltepin Pepper native also to the American Southwest and to the West Indies. It’s a pungent hot pepper whose small fruits tend to be colorful and grow skyward. Excavations at the Calusa Culture site at Old Mound Caloosahatchee in Southwest Florida show the pepper to have been part of Native diet of this pre-contact People. What is interesting is that this Native Culture did not practice agriculture, being fishermen and foragers; They traded with other groups as far away as Cuba. Were the peppers introduced from the West Indies and naturalized by these maritime voyagers?
Photo by Newsom & Scarry in The Archaeology of Pineland (U of Florida, 2013)
European settlers found the pepper growing in Florida. It did not receive its current name—Grove Pepper—until the laying out of the citrus groves in the state in the 19th century. The partial shade and open ground beneath the orange, lemon, tangerine, and grapefruit trees proved an ideal environment for their flourishing. They spread because Jays relished eating the peppers and excreted the seeds over the landscape. Latino workers in the groves enjoyed eating the peppers and further concentrated their presence in the citrus plantations. Indeed they became so ubiquitous that planters began extirpating the peppers with herbicides in the 20th century, believing that they were sucking up nutrition in the soil that should be used by the citrus trees. Hence in the 21st century they are not so prevalent as they were fifty years ago. Yet they abide.
Grove peppers are classed as Capsicum frutescens. This is a broad family, with substantial variation given soil, climate, and day length. The pepper differs from the pequin peppers or the Southwest, tending to grow longer finger like fruit, rather than the rounded ovals of the pequin. Among the Grove Peppers a sub-variety of red colored Grove named Klinger’s grows the largest fruit. It can be order from several heirloom seed companies—Trade Winds Fruit is one reliable supplier: https://www.tradewindsfruit.com/klingers-florida-grove-pepper-seeds .
Another member of the Capsicum frutescens family, the Tabasco Pepper, grows wild in Florida’s southern counties. Native to Mexico, the Florida population is probably a long naturalized (16th century?) variety associated with Spanish colonization rather than Native trade. It has the reputation of having a “fruitier” tasting fruit, so was pickled, while the Grove Pepper was deemed more pungent. It tended to be dried, crushed, and sprinkled on food, though the laborers in the groves ate them raw, popping them in their mouths. Before the rise of Tabasco Sauce from Louisiana in the mid-19th century, Bird Pepper Sauce, imported from the West Indies had become something of a Southern craze. Floridians made their own version.
Much has been made of the Datil Pepper as a Floridian hot pepper. This orange fruited pepper was introduced by Minorcan immigrants in the 19th century. It developed a hold on the affections of St. Augustine. Despite its recent popularity, it has never approached the level of naturalization and cultural assimilation of Florida’s ancient form of Bird Pepper. Artisanal Grove Pepper Vinegar, Dried Grove Pepper Sprinkle, Powdered Grove Pepper are available from a host of home vendors on Facebook and Etsy. It is easy to grow as far North as Virginia.