Pimentón de la Vera

The chilies used in the production of Pimentón de la Vera are not easy to get your hands on, enough reason to give it a try
 
Pimentón de la Vera is usually found in powdered form in 3 grades of spiciness: sweet (dulce), bittersweet (agridulce) and hot (picante). The varieties used are Bola, Jaranda, Jariza and Jeromin. The sweet version is made of a mix of the Bola and Jaranda variety, the bittersweet version consists of a mix of Jaranda and Jariza and the hot version is made of the Jeromin variety. All varieties are smoked for 8 to 10 days before they are turned into powder.
Here's some more info from one of the producers: http://www.lachinata.com/index.php/lachinata?___store=en
 
I recently found a source of whole dried / smoked Pimentón de la Vera pods. I was very curious to know if the (also smoked) seeds would still be viable. So I went ahead and ordered a couple of boxes with smoked chilies, extracted the seeds and put them in my heated propagator.
 
The Dulce variety with Bola pods:

 
The Agridulce variety. Presumably a mix of Jaranda and Jariza pods:

 
The Picante variety. This is supposed to be the Jeromin...

 
As it is already a bit late in the season to start new seeds I only planted some Jeromin seeds. And I am happy to say that, after about 10 days, the first seed germinated!
To be continued!

 

[MarcV]

Well, the jeromin has proven to be a very useful chili! The plant produced fruits with a very nice shape and firm flesh. The heat is perfectly useful in everyday cooking and at a level that everyone can enjoy. I couldn't detect the bitterness you sometimes get with annuum varieties. This is definitely a variety that I want to grow again!
 
The jaranda-or-is-it-jariza on the other hand didn't do very well. The fruits it produced were soft and usually moldy on the inside. The pieces that I could try hardly contained any heat, which maybe is ok for this variety... I don't feel like I want to grow it again though.
 
This is the final picture of the jeromin plant. It was in a much better shape before but has been pruned considerably. I wanted to repot the plant at some point but by doing so I severely damaged the roots so I had to remove quite a bit of the growth to keep the plant alive.