If you could visit Africa, what seed would you look for?

I have a facebook friend, never met.  She lives in South Africa.  Very nice person.  I am curious, if i were to ask her to ship me some seed from local shops what do you think I should ask for?  Lots of peppers are listed as being from Africa, but I am none too sure that means you can walk into a shop and buy them.
 
 
The one spice I'm really interested in from Africa is called 'Ashanti Pepper' - used in west Africa primarily as a substitute or in conjunction with regular black pepper.  
 
Other than that piri piri (birds eye) peppers and peppadew are the only varieties of hot pepper that I know of from Africa.  Might want to check out Judy @ Pepperlover for more info.  Also Juanitos would be a good resource for such info. 
 
I think fatalii are a strain that developed in Africa, but i don't know if they are from South Africa. They might differ from all the different fatalii strains that have been developed since their re-introduction to the New World. I believe the original color of the landrace strain was yellow or yellow-orange, and that it was characterized by its very sudden onset of heat.

Also, i think Nigel reviewed several African strains of C. chinense. Most of them were habanero-like in appearance, perhaps even more wrinkled and runnelled, and quite hot.
 
Africa's a big place. Certainly different peppers in northern, central & southern Africa. There are many varieties commonly grown by folks here, but I might ask her to ship the unknown varieties. To me, "that weird looking pepper in the market" is more interesting & worth shipping from Africa than the varieties like fataliis that folks here are familiar with (That said, I'm growing 10 varieties of fataliis & fatalii crosses this year!).  ...just what I'd do. I was thinking of hitting up long lost friends living in other countries in the same way.
 
thats the first thing everyone thinks i'm talking about when i mention the names of these peppers , they say sounds like a medical marijuana dispensary !    :rofl:
 
ajdrew said:
I have a facebook friend, never met.  She lives in South Africa.  Very nice person.  I am curious, if i were to ask her to ship me some seed from local shops what do you think I should ask for?  Lots of peppers are listed as being from Africa, but I am none too sure that means you can walk into a shop and buy them.
 
ask her to find some really hot ones , dry out seeds and surprise you !    :onfire:
 
I didn't know that fatalii came from Africa.  Good info.  That is my favorite pepper.  Peri Peri is good too.
 
Ditto that! No lists, no searches, just have them get what the locals have. 
 
I studied abroad in South Africa for 5 weeks a few years ago, two peppers that come to mind are peri-peri/piri-piri/birds eye, and the peppadew/piquante.  I had a peri-peri based sauce that had a delicious flavor and a surprisingly strong heat to it, while I had some peppadews on a pizza, they are very low heat but a wonderful sweet flavor, would be perfect for stuffing!  I plan on growing both this year (got my seeds from refiningfirechiles.com)  The thing with peppadews is that actual peppadews are trademarked, meaning the company is the only one that grows them and they don't sell seeds, so the closest thing I found is the malawi piquante, which apparently is practically the same thing just grown in a neighboring country.
 
Afraid to say but there ain't anything in SA which is heirloom/unique. Besides peri peri which is pretty much out there, there's nothing special. No Farmer's Market unique things. No sirree. Just bog standard. That's why I buy seed from overseas vendors.
 
RodStar, we live in a very strange world.  I know she is in South Africa from political conversations.  I think I recall she said she was from Cape Town.
 
Hot Pepper, not really shattered dreams.  I get bog oak from a guy in Ireland because I asked him if he could find it.  Ive sent him Nutello and Toblerone chocolate bars because he cant find them there.  Its fun.  With such a diverse membership, you should give it a try.  Its kind of like the international pen pal programs that schools used to promote before the Internet, only with gifts.
 
Back
Top