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Bonda ma Jacques Red pod test

Thanks so much for that great pod test Peter!!! I have a couple thoughts on the particular variety...
 
When Neil Smith introduced the Bonda Ma Jacques to the chile head world, what we got was the yellow St. Lucia landrace that we all know and love so very much. It's a wonderful pepper, and probably my favorite of all the Caribbean type landrace chinenses. However, I believe there are a couple different varieties that go by that same name in the islands where Antillean Creole, or Kreol, is the dominant language. In Martinique there is a pepper know as "Bondamanjak," which looks very similar to the pepper you and Phillip tested in the video. Check out this music vid from Martinique, featuring red peppers that look very much like yours:
 
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Df4WoCBQOk[/media]
 
windchicken said:
Thanks so much for that great pod test Peter!!! I have a couple thoughts on the particular variety...
 
When Neil Smith introduced the Bonda Ma Jacques to the chile head world, what we got was the yellow St. Lucia landrace that we all know and love so very much. It's a wonderful pepper, and probably my favorite of all the Caribbean type landrace chinenses. However, I believe there are a couple different varieties that go by that same name in the islands where Antillean Creole, or Kreol, is the dominant language. In Martinique there is a pepper know as "Bondamanjak," which looks very similar to the pepper you and Phillip tested in the video. Check out this music vid from Martinique, featuring red peppers that look very much like yours:
 
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Df4WoCBQOk[/media]
Click to expand...
Thank you for sharing that! To me, the Red BMJ we had seems like a totally different pepper than the yellow I grew last year, in terms of shape, flavor and heat. That would make it all make sense.
 
Peter S said:
Thank you for sharing that! To me, the Red BMJ we had seems like a totally different pepper than the yellow I grew last year, in terms of shape, flavor and heat. That would make it all make sense.
Click to expand...
 
I love this stuff Peter! I think it happens more often than not: We chile heads get introduced to a localized sub-variety of a much more broadly-defined pepper, it spreads quickly throughout the community, and we accept that very specific form as the canonical phenotype for the variety. If you have ever grown the Bahamian Goat Pepper, it was almost certainly the pumpkin-shaped orange pods from the Bahamas (wonderful pepper, btw!), but try searching for the Haitian "Piment Bouc," ("Goat Pepper"). Oh hell no, nothing like the Bahamian version....
 
Years ago I agonized over finding the true, canonical Prik Ki Nu, but finally decided there was no such specific animal, but rather dozens of "Thai Chilli" pod types by the very same name. It used to drive me crazy, but I finally came to love the joyful ambiguity of the world of chile pepper nomenclature...
 
Thanks for making my day!
 
Gary
 
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