Treasures from Panama

j.t.delaney

j.t.delaney

I just got back from Panama, and I wanted to share some of the pepper varieties I found. We spent a fair amount of time in the autonomous region of Kuna Yala, home of the Kuna people. The Kuna people grow 53 varieties of peppers, which they list in their traditional chant “Kapur ikar”, or “Way of the hot pepper”. Now, Kuna peppers aren’t for sale. You can’t go to the market, because there isn’t any. The only place you can get them is from people’s gardens, and thanks to the help of some friends, I was able to visit a few gardens in Achutupo and Ogobsucum, and was able to collect whatever was ripe. The downside is that the quantity of seeds I was able to collect was small, but the upside is that I was able to take pictures of the plants themselves, and confirm the species.

Many thanks to Juan Bau Mendoza of Ogobsucum for all the access to friend’s gardens, and to Maika and Flora of Ailigandí for help with the nomenclature. Kuna is still not a commonly written language, so there is some discrepancy in spelling. I started using the spellings used by Joel Sherzer in his ethnographies, but was told that it was not congruent with local pronunciations, so I did the best I could (you might notice “Ga” in some places, “Kaa” in others, etc.)

I saw at least three species of peppers in cultivation -- C. annuum, C. chinense, and C. frutescens. The frutescens that I tried were all pretty mild, which took me a bit by surprise; my only experience with frutescens has been Tabascos, so that was what I was expecting.

I have seeds for all of them, but some are in very limited quantities.I'll do what I can to share the wealth.

Ga olo (=”round pepper”; Capsicum frutescens)
From Achutupo, Kuna Yala, Panama​
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Mild, with a rich burning sweet aromatic flavor.​

Ga wan suid (=”penis pepper”; Capsicum frutescens)
From Achutupo, Kuna Yala, Panama​
​
​
Mild, with a tangy sweet aromatic flavor that was not as intense as the “ga olo”.​

Moli ga (=”tapir pepper”; Capsicum chinense)
From Achutupo, Kuna Yala, Panama​
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​
Medium-hot habanero type pepper​

Ga sangwa kinnit (Capsicum frutescens)
From Ogobsucum, Kuna Yala, Panama​

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Medium-hot pepper; flavor similar to Tabasco, but less pungent​

Ga bur (Capsicum annuum) wild pepper
From Ogobsucum, Kuna Yala, Panama​
​
These are wild peppers – they aren’t planted, but volunteer themselves. They were by far the most pungent peppers I tried there. The plants only grew 30-50 cm tall, with very bushy, compact growth.​

I also picked up a couple non-Kuna varieties of peppers, which I think people here will be more familiar with. These ones I have in great abundance, and can share more easily.
Aji chombo (Capsicum chinense)
From el Valle de Anton, Coclé, Panama​

Pimienton (Capsicum annuum)
From el Valle de Anton, Coclé, Panama​
Thick walled, with a sweet, smoky flavor.​

[Update: thanks, bootsieb for the tagging lesson. Now the only problem is the number limit of allowable image links.]
 
It sounds like you had a nice trip and found some cool varieties.

As far as embedding the images I am guessing that it has something to do with you having the images set to "License" or whatever that is. The only link available appears to take you to were the photo is posted on Flickr. I hope that was understandable. That was some poor use of the English language haha....
 
j.t.delaney said:
I just got back from Panama, and I wanted to share some of the pepper varieties I found. We spent a fair amount of time in the autonomous region of Kuna Yala, home of the Kuna people. The Kuna people grow 53 varieties of peppers, which they list in their traditional chant “Kapur ikar”, or “Way of the hot pepper”. Now, Kuna peppers aren’t for sale. You can’t go to the market, because there isn’t any. The only place you can get them is from people’s gardens, and thanks to the help of some friends, I was able to visit a few gardens in Achutupo and Ogobsucum, and was able to collect whatever was ripe. The downside is that the quantity of seeds I was able to collect was small, but the upside is that I was able to take pictures of the plants themselves, and confirm the species.

Many thanks to Juan Bau Mendoza of Ogobsucum for all the access to friend’s gardens, and to Maika and Flora of Ailigandí for help with the nomenclature. Kuna is still not a commonly written language, so there is some discrepancy in spelling. I started using the spellings used by Joel Sherzer in his ethnographies, but was told that it was not congruent with local pronunciations, so I did the best I could (you might notice “Ga” in some places, “Kaa” in others, etc.)

I saw at least three species of peppers in cultivation -- C. annuum, C. chinense, and C. frutescens. The frutescens that I tried were all pretty mild, which took me a bit by surprise; my only experience with frutescens has been Tabascos, so that was what I was expecting.

I have seeds for all of them, but some are in very limited quantities.I'll do what I can to share the wealth.

Ga olo (=”round pepper”; Capsicum frutescens)
From Achutupo, Kuna Yala, Panama​
Mild, with a rich burning sweet aromatic flavor.​

Ga wan suid (=”penis pepper”; Capsicum frutescens)
From Achutupo, Kuna Yala, Panama​
Mild, with a tangy sweet aromatic flavor that was not as intense as the “ga olo”.​

Moli ga (=”tapir pepper”; Capsicum chinense)
From Achutupo, Kuna Yala, Panama​
Medium-hot habanero type pepper​

Ga sangwa kinnit (Capsicum frutescens)
From Ogobsucum, Kuna Yala, Panama​
Medium-hot pepper; flavor similar to Tabasco, but less pungent​

Ga bur (Capsicum annuum) wild pepper
From Ogobsucum, Kuna Yala, Panama​
These are wild peppers – they aren’t planted, but volunteer themselves. They were by far the most pungent peppers I tried there. The plants only grew 30-50 cm tall, with very bushy, compact growth.​

I also picked up a couple non-Kuna varieties of peppers, which I think people here will be more familiar with. These ones I have in great abundance, and can share more easily.
Aji chombo (Capsicum chinense)
From el Valle de Anton, Coclé, Panama​

Pimienton (Capsicum annuum)
From el Valle de Anton, Coclé, Panama​
Thick walled, with a sweet, smoky flavor.​

[Note: I'm having some difficulty embedding the images directly, so for now, i will just put in the url's.]
Click to expand...
Hope that helps bro, until you work it out!
 
Amazing … your efforts should be documented and appreciated more… I have the seeds you collected from Ghana growing very well. Once they produce pods I can share them with the rest of the world… you are playing a major role in educating us about peppers and in maintaining diversity where you collect weird rare unknown verities and share them with friends, efforts like those are priceless. I am extremely appreciative for your efforts and pepper attitude where you always hunt for local unknown varieties and decide to collect them…. Kudos for such work
 
PepperLover said:
Amazing … your efforts should be documented and appreciated more… I have the seeds you collected from Ghana growing very well. Once they produce pods I can share them with the rest of the world… you are playing a major role in educating us about peppers and in maintaining diversity where you collect weird rare unknown verities and share them with friends, efforts like those are priceless. I am extremely appreciative for your efforts and pepper attitude where you always hunt for local unknown varieties and decide to collect them…. Kudos for such work
Click to expand...

Thank you kindly -- aw shucks, I do what I can. :) I'm blushing.
 
PepperLover said:
Amazing … your efforts should be documented and appreciated more… I have the seeds you collected from Ghana growing very well. Once they produce pods I can share them with the rest of the world… you are playing a major role in educating us about peppers and in maintaining diversity where you collect weird rare unknown verities and share them with friends, efforts like those are priceless. I am extremely appreciative for your efforts and pepper attitude where you always hunt for local unknown varieties and decide to collect them…. Kudos for such work
Click to expand...

+1
That's an incredible collection!!
 
Beautiful pictures / documenting. It's always fun to see local stuff. I definitely see some that catch my eye. Maybe we can do a seed trade later this year when my African pepper species produce.

Chris
 
hey man when my peppers produce ill gladly trade for some of these im trying to have a collection of peppers from every country but i cant travel yet since im too young and i couldnt afford the school trip to guatamala. if you can spare seeds in the fall ill have many varieties then to offer i am growing at least 200-250 varieties this year and i could also offer you some tomatos, pumpkins and other veggies and herbs too :) i just dont have seed yet as i am planting or have planted most of it ill hopefully have some phillapino, indian and other rare wild or market place (other countrys) varieties to offer you :)
 
Hey there J.T. I'd be interested in a trade for a couple of those pepper seeds. Aji chombo, pimienton, and moli ga are the ones that caught my eye. PM me if interested thanks, Emon069 :twisted:
 
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