Native Florida Crops: The Bird Pepper

This beautiful little gem of a pepper that will set your face on fire. The bird Pepper!

The bird pepper is native to much of the eastern US including Florida. Also known as the piquin or penguin pepper, it does very well in our hot, humid and wet summers and will thrive year round growing into a large, ornamental bush when left to do it's own thing. 

I may be exaggerating when I accuse if of facial combustion, but I don't have  a very hot-pepper-friendly kind of pallet. I can handle a little heat like an occasional jalapeno. However!!! These little flame bombs are several tens of thousands units higher on The Scoville Heat Scale than the humble jalapeno. They are still "mild" enough to actually have flavor to them. 

They're sweet and tangy somewhere under all of those Scoville units. The only way I know this is because of the way I prepare and preserve very hot peppers from the garden. I keep them is plain white vinegar in the fridge. No special preparation, just vinegar and peppers... example:

1. take one glass jar
2. add a hand full of bird peppers
3. cover peppers in white vinegar
4. put a lid on the jar and place in the fridge

I learned this method for keeping very-hot peppers from my great aunts who used to grow an abundance of cayenne and store them in old salad dressing bottles this way. After several weeks, the resulting liquid is a flavor infused vinegar that adds quite a nice kick to cooked greens like collards and kale. The vinegar keeps for well over a year and you can just continue to add fresh pepper to the jars or bottles as they're picked.

The juice from the bird peppers that  I have in my fridge right now is full of heat but also full of sweet flavor. Even for a heat resisting foodie like myself it's really quite delicious!

You can kick up the process and experiment by adding garlic cloves or dill seeds, but the basic method stays the same.

Photo Credit: Debbie from Banana Avenue

The peppers grow easily and abundantly in full sun and are fairly drought resistant but they do prefer a nice consistent moisture. The leaves are edible as a tiny, nutritious green that you can add to salads or sauteed dishes. The peppers grow from green to almost black to orange and then bright red. They're ready for picking or for falling off the plant and re-seeding when they reach the brilliant red color that make such an attractive ornamental. 

Photo credit: Debbie from Banana Avenue

You can also dry the peppers and grind them for use in chili's or as a topping for pizza or wherever else you like a nice dash of heat. 

SO as far as edible ornamentals go, the Bird pepper is a fantastic addition to any Florida yard-scape, garden or permaculture system. It's always best to plant edible natives when possible. They require very little maintenance and really aid the ecosystem because they actually LIKE it in Florida. You wont have to fight it to keep it alive and it's a great plant for a beginner gardener!