fiery-foods.com
One Million Habanero Plants!
by Dave DeWitt
I recently had the opportunity to visit scenic Falfurrias, Texas (population 5200) to visit the Dicker Brothers and what appears to be the largest habanero plantation in the country: AzTex Pepper Farms. And these are 'Red Caribbean' habaneros, not those wimpy orange ones!
Greg and Jeff Dicker in front of their sign.
Jeff and Greg Dicker showed me around their operation, which now includes a refrigerated building to hold the boxed peppers on pallets until the trucks arrive to ship them to major grocery chains all over the country. They wouldn't let me drive the big tractor or their forklift, but they wined and dined me, which is no small feat in Falfurrias. Their other brother and partner, Denny, was partying on South Padre Island, so I missed him.
The harvest started in early July and will continue until December.
Currently the brothers have, in their fourth year of operation, 103 acres under cultivation, but they plan to expand in 2007 and grow, in addition to the "Red Caribbean" habs, orange habs, Scotch bonnets, red Fresnos, serranos, and colored bell peppers. The brothers proudly told me that they have installed 228 miles (yes, miles) of drip tape to water their thirsty plants.
These are pods before the sorting and culling.
Yes, of course I sampled their red pods and can verify that they are extremely hot. However, with judicious use they are delicious. Jeff cooked up a very tasty sauce, using 4 pods (2 with seeds and membranes, 2 without) for about a gallon. The resulting heat I would call medium-hot.
Employees sort and cull the freshly harvested pods.
Boxes of sorted pods in the refrigerated storage building.
