Guest Post by Marco Del Freo
Chile peppers have lately become news stars on Italian TV and magazines, thanks to a unique chile pepper grown by our friend Massimo Biagi in Marco Carmazzi’s nursery. “It’s a very, very strange little guy, with long, thin leaves clearly made to survive in the hottest and driest lands. It is absolutely unique and this is why we’re having so much media coverage,” Massimo told us. He’s a former technician in Pisa’s Institute of Agronomy and proud owner of a collection of more than 1700 chile varieties. “I got these seeds from a Moroccan Bedouin and we registered it as ‘Pimento del Deserto’ in 2010. It resembles an annum a bit; white flowers, erect orange pods, medium heat. Some scholars think it could revolutionize the theories about chile origins: maybe it’s not true that they come from Bolivia… Anyway, this February I finally decided it was stabilized and I planted the first 1000 seeds: we will sell these specimens only at the four major Italian Chili Fairs: Viareggio, Rieti, Diamante, and Camaiore.”
