In continuing my unplanned “new vegetable 2012” week, today I’ll talk about some mini sweet peppers. They’ve been popping up in several stores over the past couple years, and we’ve gotten some a couple times. They’re only a few inches long, are sweet, and usually have very few seeds, which makes them nice for snacking.

I’ve looked for the past couple years to see if seeds were available anywhere, with not much luck. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands – we had a bag last winter, so I saved some seeds from a couple of the peppers. These almost have to be some kind of hybrid, so I wasn’t necessarily expecting much. But, every seed I planted germinated quickly, and survived the transplant outside. And a couple months later, when they started fruiting, I was pleasantly surprised to see a bunch of mini peppers on the plants. I’ll try to save some seeds from the best of these and see what happens next year, and maybe eventually I’ll get some kind of self-sustaining pepper. I still wouldn’t be totally surprised if I plant some next year and they come up a mix of habanero and ancho because I’m uncertain of their heritage, but who knows?

Update Feb. 2015: I’ve continued to save seed and plant for the past several years, and they’re returned true-to-type each time (meaning I haven’t gotten a random giant, spicy, purple pepper in the mix). It’s only been a few generations, so there’s still time for some kind of genetic reversion, but so far, I’m getting a bunch of yellow and orange mini peppers!