Capsicum Annuum Pepper, Doux D'Espagne Harvest
A long, sweet tapering pepper, also known as Sweet Spanish Mammoth, an heirloom pepper, which dates back to 1859 according to Thomas Etty.
I first grew this pepper in 2006 and it did so well, providing huge crops of delicious sweet peppers, that I have grown it each year since. I usually grow 6-12 plants, because I make a lot of pepper preserves, but if I was just growing it for eating fresh I would probably only need 3 to 6 plants.
So far this pepper has seen off all competition, Big Banana an F1 that struggled to produce fruit in a dry season, Red Goats Horn (Corno di Torro) not nearly as meaty or tasty, and Buran nice but not much of a crop. Doux D’Espagne is my favourite so far and the sweet red pepper to measure others by. It really is outstanding, great in the kitchen and a prolific and reliable cropper. Green the fruit are delicious sweet and crisp with a hint of aniseed in the taste, once matured to red they are sweet and packed with flavour. They are delicious raw and make a wonderful Red Pepper Paste, or Roast Pepper Salad and contribute bulk to hot Harissa.
The plants are robust and grow fairly tall, 3-5 foot depending on the season, with lots of mid to dark green foliage. The white flowers set green fruits that mature to red fairly early and crop until the first frost. The peppers are huge, 20cm long, 3 sided, tapered and smooth. The flesh is thick, crisp and juicy. A great all purpose sweet red pepper, I haven’t found anything to beat it yet, though I do still keep trying.
Overwintering
I have had success growing this variety as a perennial in my unheated polytunnel. It survived and cropped for three seasons before I had to remove the huge plant when the polytunnel had an overhaul and clean out in 2008.
Seed Source My original seed source was a French commercial seed company Gondian but I now harvest and save my own seed.
MDD Growing Log
2006 S:Feb 3 Set out 16 plants May 15, brilliant crop outdoors from early August, pest free. Block planted, mulched with straw they seemed to really like that
2007 S: March 26 Set out 6 plants May 20, excellent crop
2008 S: April 7 Set out 6 plants July 4, cropped ok but not enough time to mature and fully crop as in previous years
2009 S March 5. Pricked out 12 plants April 20. Set out 8 plants May 31. Great crop but would have benefitted from moving schedule forward 1 month as in 2006.
Note this variety log is part of a series on my favourite varieties; the pick of the crop and the ones that I will continue to grow and save seeds of. I like to keep good records for the varieties I maintain seeds for. See my other variety files
Endangered Seed Status
According to the Canadian Seeds of Diversity Heritage Plants Database this pepper is an endangered one as few seed companies carry it and it is not maintained in the US or Canadian gene bank.
However I have found several companies that carry seeds: Thomas Etty, UK, Vilmorin, FR, Gondian. FR
Original Posted 7/2/2009
3 Comments
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Great post thanks for the info, I got my seeds from “Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds” 2278 Baker Creek Road, Mansfield, Missouri 65704 Telephone 417-924-8917 Web: http://www.rareseeds.com , I have gotten a lot of seeds from a store here locally in Arizona that carries them but if you want to go direct that is the info and they do have a ton of good stuff! I got my pack of 10-30 for $4.00!
Thanks for the info Christina – I have saved seeds and happy to send you some if you fancy growing this pepper. The Armenian cucumbers you sent me last year did really well in my polytunnel .
This sounds like a delightful pepper. In the US, Baker Creek carries it. Thanks for recommending it.