Martin’s Carrot Pepper

Smoky and hot with thin, flavorful flesh that stands up well to pickling and roasting; often described as a Pennsylvania Dutch counterpart to the jalapeño.

Martin’s Carrot is a rare 19th-century Pennsylvania Mennonite heirloom Capsicum annuum. Plants are compact (2–2.5 ft / 60–90 cm) and produce moderate sets of long, narrow, carrot-shaped pods averaging about 5.3 cm long by 1.8 cm wide at the stem. Fruit ripens from pale green through brilliant orange to a deep orange-red; the flesh is thin, smooth, and flavorful. Heat is smoky and ranges from mildly hot to hot depending on ripeness (commonly reported 10 000–50 000 SHU). It is traditionally pickled whole by the Pennsylvania Dutch, often stuffed with peanut butter and served with pretzels and beer, and also shines in salsa, roasting, drying, and hot sauce. The variety was introduced or developed by Jacob B. Garber, preserved by the Martin family of Ephrata, and brought into wider circulation by William Woys Weaver via Seed Savers Exchange.

This rare and very old heirloom is believed to have been introduced or developed in the nineteenth century by Mennonite horticulturist Jacob B. Garber (1800–1886) of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It was preserved for many years by the Martin family of Ephrata—Old Order Mennonites who operated a roadside fruit-and-vegetable stand. Food historian William Woys Weaver acquired the seeds in 1971 after Mrs. Martin’s death, when her family fulfilled her wish to leave them to “the Weaver who comes by so often.” Weaver donated the variety to Seed Savers Exchange in 1996; it entered the SSE catalog in 2013. Historically known among local Mennonites as Mordipeffer or Mordis Geelriewe Peffer (and variants). It is listed in the Slow Food Ark of Taste.