We found a wild chiltepin pepper plant and have been greatly enjoying these tasty peppers ever since. If you've never had these, they are amazingly tasty and addictive. I'm definitely going to attempt to propagate some. We found them on a hill with Western sun exposure. Looking around the neighborhood, we found two more shrubs down the street, next to the road. The only thing the locations have in common is Western sun exposure and proximity to trees the cedar waxwing frequent in the Spring in large numbers.

I grow them here in Georgetown and had a large bush in Houston.
Let some peppers dry, then start them in peat discs. Then transplant. Prune them back after the first freeze .
They take forever to germinate!
I've got a whole bed full now.
I keep a bowl of dried ones in the center island of my kitchen. Crumble them on everything!
Good luck!

I could swear I saw some of those growing wild when I was in high school but didn't have Texags to tell me what the hell they were.

Do they handle acidic soil ok? If so I might need to go bring some over to SC. It would go great with the pencil cactus I already have here.

So what do they taste like? Hot, medium, mild?

Is there a way to buy and grow them?

They are pretty hot from my experience. My in laws have some growing wild on their property and one night after a few beers my brother in law and father in law got into a macho man contest eating them. I don't remember the exact number, but they only got to 15 or so before having to quit. It was quite entertaining to watch.

They're hotter than Jalopenos, but the heat goes away pretty quick.
They're without a doubt my favorite Chile.

I have a ton of these growing naturally in my backyard in Austin. Spicy!

We have a couple bushes in our flowerbeds here in Corpus. They are great on just about anything and as stated above, the heat disappears pretty quick.

Dry them and toss them in a pepper grinder. Also makes a mighty fine jelly.

Pick when half the bush is red, put red and green chiles in a jar with vinegar for a few months.

Best hot sauce ever created for pinto beans and greens.

Eta: they grow in filtered sunlight under trees. Probably prefer neutral to alkaline, loamy soils. They can grow in partial sun, but never full sun.

I grow them in Houston area. I have always called them Chili Pequin peppers.

About 10 years ago I got a plant of them from an old man that has a place near Georgetown where they grow wild. Plant is still producing after all this time. Very hardy plant.

I have a jar full of seeds I have taken from ones I let dry out. I have 4 new plants going now, and yes, the seeds took forever to germinate ... but they will.

A most wonderful pepper that packs quite a punch ... and with great flavor.

At a lot of the Mexican market stores you can get them pickled as well in a jar. Those are really good too and not quite as hot.

Bonfire is right.

I have tons of those and they make a great pepper sauce

There are a couple bushes in my backyard. I like to hickory smoke & grind them. Very potent stuff!

Chili pequin, bird peppers, the small wild ones go by many names. We use 14 with a cup and a half of roasted tomatoes, a half cup of diced red onion some fresh basil and four or five large roasted garlic toes. I have been picking them every day as they turn red. The small bowl was from yesterday minus 14. The others drying are the excess.



As mentioned, they go in everything we cook these days. They have quite a few interesting stories if you google them. Thomas Jefferson was able to grow them, so they should grow anywhere. Finding them wild is probably limited to Southwest US and northern Mexico.

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Adding recipe as of this am

Bird Pepper Salsa



1lb tomatoes roasted
1/2 cup red onion chopped
2 large leaves of basil chopped
4-5 toes of garlic roasted
18 chiltepin peppers

Place garlic and tomatoes in pie dish in oven, set to 400, 10 min on top rack, no preheat.
Set oven to broil low for 5 min, leave closed
Set back to 400 for 5 min

Let cool, remove skin, stem and seed portion of tomatoes

Mash 14 chiltepin peppers, add roasted peeled garlic and mash together.

Chop onions, about three slices is half a cup.
Chop basil (we have one never-cilantro)

Combine

Original recipe calls for 1/3 cup white onions, cilantro and 12 peppers. You can use a can of diced tomatoes and whatever as long as you have the chiltepin peppers, it will be okay. I've made this at least three times a week for maybe eight weeks; it varies, but this is how I made it this morning. Two heaping tablespoons with two eggs, two strips of bacon and some roasted potatoes makes a mean breakfast taco...d8)

Edit again to 18 chilis. From 12 to 18 in two weeks. Maybe 20 next time... still making salsa three times a week. Kids demand it.

I guess pequin peppers have a point and are not the same, but similar.

Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum is a variety of Capsicum annuum that is native to southern North America and northern South America.[1] Common names include chiltepin, Indian pepper, chiltepe, and chile tepin, as well as turkey, bird's eye, or simply bird peppers, due to their consumption and spread by wild birds. Tepin is derived from a Nahuatl word meaning "flea". This variety is the most likely progenitor of the domesticated C. annuum var. annuum.[3] Another similar-sized pepper 'Pequin' (also called 'Piquin') is often confused, the Tepin fruit is round to oval and the Pequin is oval with a point, and the leaves, stems and plant structure are very different on each plant.

Texas state native pepper since 1997.
https://statesymbolsusa.org/symbol-official-item/texas/state-food-agriculture-symbol/chiltepin

Quote:

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perhaps the most amazing attribute of this indigenous spice is that it has been shown to increase the human metabolism by as much as 25 percent, making it a promising means of controlling weight gain

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I don't believe that part, but it's in there.

I believe their are many different strains of them. Growing up rural in the hill country almost every old farmstead had them in the backyard or garden. I agree some like pretty heavy shade. Their is also in my mind a set that only makes it in full sun and makes a much heavier stalk and bush. That one is the one that will make you a believer. As the red matures they will get brown stripes and look like cracked hands. They will then go from a red to a bright orange. When the sun lover one does this proceed with caution. To me the little shady pretty bright red ones are hot but like many said goes away pretty fast. The orange sun lover have mercy on your soul. A loaf of bread and gallon of milk are your only hope. Many will say environment but I firmly believe their are two distinct subsets. I realize growth habits of plants but these two are very different bush shapes and sizes. Leaves exactly alike. With a mild winter or two the hot one can make a small tree in height. The homestead my grandfather grew up on had both in yard. That is why I am so sure. His father called one candy and the other Mexico hot.

Somewhat funny story is my cousin loved red hots candy. We were very small and my grandfather had one hot bush where we played basketball after lunch. He told us not to mess with the bush. He didn't listen. His red hot bush was too tempting. I would say he put 10-12 in his mouth. Started to cry and after all was done had lightly blistered his toungue and gums. It actually raised soars.

My grandfather always put 50 or so in the bottom of dill pickels. We kept same brine solution and just added new pickles. They made best flavor pickles had a kick but not crazy. For some reason if you eat the peppers out of bottom not real hot. Get 10 or so fresh give to friend. Pull 10 out of pickle for you. Both eat and he will wonder how in the heck you can just keep popping them in mouth like that.

May be wrong but I didn't see any of the brown stripping in the photos above. Do you ever see any like that? Just curious. Not trying to say they aren't hot or get into mine are bigger than yours kind of deal. I've always wondered if others that love them observed what I did with the two different types. By the way the pepper is same size and shape on both bushes. Only way to tell is skin and color or on bush. Put all together and without brown stripes or orange no way I could tell them apart.

I just discovered these in the yard in November. Your knowledge is far beyond mine. I have to make a batch of salsa as described above every two days. They are very hot and it's short lived.

Unless the ones in the store are roasted, just buy a package of dried peppers at HEB.

FAT SEXY said:

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Interesting thread.. and little things like this is why I check into the OB regularly.

Anyone know of the best way to go about getting some seeds for these?

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+1

I have one of these in my yard in SA. A few years ago I made some fermented hot sauce using Hatch peppers I bought on clearance at HEB. I picked out the ones that were turning orange and did a lactofermentation with them. I threw in some crushed chiltepin peppers and let it sit for about 8 weeks. Then I pureed it in a blenders and put in a bottle. I was pretty proud of the final product.

Hatch flavor with some heat and orange color.

My son was 3 or so when he decided to try his first one. Came in the house screaming. He'd rubbed it on his face too and was starting to get welts. Ended up finding 3-4 small plants scattered around the yard the birds must have planted.

FAT SEXY said:

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Interesting thread.. and little things like this is why I check into the OB regularly.

Anyone know of the best way to go about getting some seeds for these?

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I started a few of my own plants from seeds from my F-I-Ls plants in Corpus, find someone with a plant and get some seeds. Like others here, took a few seeds but they got going and grew pretty fast. I had them in medium sun. I got a spice grinder recently, need to plant some more since I took my plants out a while back.

The one in my yard froze down to the ground last winter. By this fall it was already about 24" tall again.

I ate some wild peppers while on a hike as a kid, had severe diarrhea for the rest of the day

Growing up, my dad called these chile pequins and bird's eye peppers. This chile has a spot in my heart because they remind of my paternal grandfather.

These grew in abundance many years ago on our land and I'd see these often while helping my grandfather with the cows. For some reason they disappeared for a long time, but I found a big plant that sprung up outta nowhere in August near the barn.

I got 2 seeds to sprout in the fall but they quit growing once the temps dropped. In any event I have lots of dried seeds that I plan on putting in some Jiffy pods next month.

Love these peppers. My grandpa used to make some killer hot sauce using almost exclusively these and vinegar. I really need to look into planting some in the backyard... Unfortunately I tend to find a way to kill all but the heartiest plants.

Just find a natural growth one and use its seeds. They are proven to grow with little help.

SteveBott said:

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Just find a natural growth one and use its seeds. They are proven to grow with little help.

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I'll have to keep an eye out. Although I've proven quite capable of killing any but the most robust plants.

If zebra mussels were a plant, all Texas would have to do is put me in charge of maintaining the population and they would no longer be a threat to our lakes.

I'm certainly no green thumb but I've found peppers in general are pretty damn hardy. "Full of piss and vinegar". Hard to kill for sure.

Dried and crushed in soups and over popcorn.

Oh and also plant a jelopeno (sp)plant. They go all spring, summer and fall until a good freeze. They and okra were my no fail plants in my garden when I had one. In 12 years or so they pruduced 100% of the time. No other plants I tried had a hit rate like those plants. I'd sorta lose interest around end of June and get out there in September and they went crazy in the hot summer.

One year I had a Jap plant fall over and looked broken from a storm. I went inspect it and it was not broke but bent over on the ground due to so many fruit on it. I picked a hundred of them and the damn thing bounced right back up the next day.

Thanks. I think I'll have to start a pepper garden this spring.

I liked setting up a trey in the garage to get a jump on spring. That way once they sprout they can easily be moved in and out of the weather as needed.