By: Mats & Patricia Pettersson

Approximately 10 kilometres from downtown Stockholm, in Mälaren lake, there is an island called Ekerö. This island is full of traces from ancient history, and is the only municipality in Sweden with two World Heritage properties. The one that immediately meets you when you cross the bridge to Ekerö is the Royal Domain of Drottningholm. The Drottningholm Court Theatre, built in 1766, is the best-preserved 18^th century theatre in the world with its stage machinery and rich collection of original stage settings. The other World Heritage property is Birka, the Viking village.

The Palace of Versailles, outside Paris, in France, inspired the Drottningholm gardens. For more info about Drottningholm, please visit http://www.royalcourt.se/drottningholm/eng/index.html

We left Drottningholm, and drove further out on the island. Ekerö has been used for agriculture for a thousand years, and you will find runic stones and ancient fortresses in the landscape. It truly is a beautiful landscape, this Saturday in early September.

We have a meeting with Ing-Marie and Berth Lidell, the owners of Mälarö Odling. Odling is Swedish, and means plantation. Berth has 25 years experience in the gardening industry, first starting off as a seed sales representative. Berth is growing not only chile peppers, but also flowers, tomatoes, and pumpkins.

The area used for growing is 7 hectares (1 hectare = 2.471 acres). Berth and Ing-Marie have 800 square metres of greenhouse space for the more sensitive plants, such as the chile peppers.

Berth’s interest in chile peppers started about five years ago. It was his intuition that made him realize that there was a market for chile plants in Sweden. So he gave it a try and started growing them. The first year, Berth grew the plants, and harvested and sold the chile peppers. But the second year, he shifted focus, and decided to sell the plants instead of the harvest. It became a big success--from a very small number of plants the first year to 20,000 plants this year. Berth always tries to discover new trends in the market and grow varieties that others are not growing.

Ornamental Chiles (l) and Hungarian Hot Wax (r)

Berth’s customers are restaurant kitchens and wholesalers, who sometimes have special requirements and requests, giving him inspiration to always look for new varieties. The interest in chile peppers has increased every year for the last three years, making it even more important to find suitable varieties for indoor container growers.

Berth does not eat chile peppers himself, but he has some important criteria for the chile pepper plants. They should be useful and decorative in the kitchen. They should not be too hot and spicy, so they can be used for cooking. And the pots should not need to be too large. About a diameter of 15 cm is good, making them easy to carry home. Anyone should be able to buy them and carry them home in a plastic bag.

The seeds are started in the middle of February. Some small plants with flowers are sold during spring but most of them are sold during late summer, when they already have many fruits. And this year Berth grows Super Chile, Hungarian Hot Wax, and various Habaneros, Pretty in purple and Asian varieties.

A wide variety of Chiles are grown here.

 

One of the habanero varieties is interesting. It’s a milder breed, and has been stable for three generations now.

A somewhat milder Habanero

The business is not only about chile peppers. In the spring, Berth grows bed plants, as well as flowers, many tomato varieties, and different herbs and spices.

Now in September, the summer has turned into early fall. Usually the large chile pepper plants are sold in August and September, but this year was different, with the peak already in late July. So the greenhouse was not very crowded when we were there.

But of course, now it is time to do all the preparation and planning for the pumpkin harvest and the upcoming Halloween!

Berth would very much like to get in contact with other breeders working with plant improvements, and can be contacted via email at bye680a@tninet.se. English is fine—there is no requirement to write in Swedish.

If you would like more information about Stockholm, and Ekerö, we have two great links for you to start with, and they are http://www.stoinfo.se and http://www.ekeroturism.se/. Or, you can e-mail Patricia and Mats at habanero@home.se.

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