Rutgers University develops mild pumpkin-shaped pepper
The university’s exotic breeding pepper program on Saturday unveiled a habanero that has the shape of a pumpkin and the orange color to match. Say hello to the pumpkin habanero pepper.
The pepper, a sort of accidental discovery, was the result of an effort to provide a pepper species that grows well in New Jersey’s climate and has a broad appeal, both to the general market and the state’s growing Latino, Chinese and Indian communities.
“The skin is crunchy and sweet – really nice,” said Albert Ayeni, a pepper expert who oversees Rutgers’ exotic pepper research. “The flavor is close to tangerine. The skin is almost free of heat – the heat is only in the seeds and the placenta,” which runs down the middle of the inside of the fruit.
The project started when Rutgers conducted a survey of the state’s ethnic markets. The survey discovered that demand for poblano, chili and habanero peppers crossed ethnic boundaries – signaling a broader market demand.
Next, the Rutgers researchers collected seeds from an array of habanero plants grown by farmers across the state, including some Mexican and African varieties, and cultivated the seeds next to each other so the plants could cross-pollinate and generate new varieties, Ayeni said.
Then they segregated the new varieties, and looked for ones that performed consistently – producing the same shape and flavors over many years.
Rutgers’ exotic pepper breeding program tries to develop varieties that can be a hit regionally with consumers because of superior flavor -- as opposed to more generic varieties favored by large scale growers that may have more uniformity of shape and are more rugged to endure long-haul shipping but, as a tradeoff, lack much flavor.
“Instead of trying to compete with larger states on interchangeable commodities, we want to provide new varieties that are valued by consumers rather than appeal to growers and processors,” said Rutgers plant biologist Tom Orton.
“Most breeding programs instead aim for varieties that provide benefits to farmers and producers, such as high-yield, disease resistance, and uniformity of shape,” he said. “Flavor is more difficult to measure and there has not been a premium put on it by growers or processors.”
Orton said this East Coast alternative pepper, if grown in New Jersey, could be shipped within a day as far south as the Carolinas and up to New England, easily reaching a third of the American population.
He said the Rutgers researchers try cross-breeding numerous varieties to enhance flavor, and then ask consumers which would be most appealing and marketable.
Some other new varieties are in the pipeline, but others don’t make the cut.
“Peppers have a lot of strange fruit shapes, and some of the hybrids have been pretty grotesque, with big horns and thorns,” Orton said. “We’ve seen a lot of weird things. They are interesting, but when we bring consumers in, they’re not sure what to make of them.”
Pumpkin habanero plants and seeds will be available for sale for the first time Saturday during Rutgers Day, which promotes the university’s many programs and campuses. The plants will be available at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences on the George H. Cook Campus in New Brunswick, off of Route 1 South.
source: northjersey.com
