Hot pepper lovers in the region can rejoice as a food stand in Empire that opened earlier this month is now stocked with a variety of inseason peppers ranging in spice levels for just about anyone to enjoy.
“The Hot Spot” is a one stop shop for hot peppers and other fresh produce grown from seed on site at 12801 S. Coleman Road. The stand, operated by Empire resident Joshua Spencer, has provided fresh produce for the last several years. However, this year, Spencer decided to give the food stand an official name to kick off the hot pepper season.
“We’re excited that people seem to be excited,” Spencer said. “This year, I’ve been getting into the hot peppers a little bit more… I have an affinity for hot peppers and so does my partner. She and I love to cook and we love hot, so we’ve just kind of been delving into it.”
Spencer said he’s had a homegrown vegetable garden on and off throughout his life starting from when he was a kid, so it’s always been a lifelong hobby for him to grow his own food and different produce varieties. He would continue to be fascinated by plants as he got older, attending Michigan State University to study horticulture.
The hot pepper’s that Spencer sells today are all grown in individual containers, which helps to make for easy relocation if need be as the summer starts to fade into the colder months. Growing peppers in individual containers also makes it a lot easier to pay attention to moisture levels, he added, and helps to keep plants off the ground and away from pests.
The heat level of a hot pepper can vary depending on how a person grows their peppers. Spencer said the more water given to a hot pepper plant, for example, will typically result in a less spicy pepper. Some peppers are less hot and have more unique or moderate flavor profi les, like the Sugar Rush Peach chili peppers Spencer grows, which is known for having a sweet and citrusy flesh.
“So the person growing it can seriously influence the end product and flavor that comes through,” he said. “And with a lot of peppers, you can pick them earlier, and they’ll have less spice, like with a jalapeno, if you let it go to red, it comes out a little spicier but with a lot more flavor… I just love how every pepper has its own different flavor profile. Fish peppers have a little bit of a cherry taste to me. So just getting to experience all of the different flavors and realizing that hot isn’t just hot, it can be many different kinds of hot.”
The spice of each pepper can be described using the “Scoville scale,” which acts as a measurement for the pungency of peppers and other hot foods based on the levels of capsaicin in a pepper. Utilizing Scoville Heat Units (SHU), a pepper’s heat range is determined as mild, medium, hot, or extra hot. Mild is considered 100 to 2,500 SHU, medium ranges from 2,500 to 30,000, hot is 30,000 to 100,000, and extra hot is 100,000 to 300,000. There’s also an extremely hot rating for any pepper over 300,000 SHU.
At the Hot Spot, different peppers with various Scoville ratings will be available throughout the season. People can expect to find: bell peppers, poblanos, jalapenos, serranos, Fish peppers, cayenne, Sugar Rush Peaches, Biquinho, Datil, Red Corno di Toro, and Big Guy jalapenos.
There will also be other produce available at times such as cucamelons, a special tiny grape-sized fruit variety (cucumber) known to pack a sweet lemony punch.
Some of the spicier peppers in stock, like the Sugar Rush Peach peppers, can range anywhere on the Scoville scale between 80,000 to 100,000, while the Datil pepper has a rating between 100,000 to 300,000 SHU. Spencer said he most prefers the Fish peppers though, an heirloom variety that packs a lot of flavor and has an interesting backstory.
“They’re definitely my favorite. I’ve been incorporating them in everything,” he said. “This is my first year growing them and I’m just blown away… I’ve used the fish peppers in everything from buffalo sauce for wings, and I’ve done slices where I’ve made a beer batter and fried them, that’s really tasty. You can cut them up and put them in salads, too. The fish pepper is pretty hot if you don’t cook it and de-seed it.”
People can stop by the stand anytime to purchase peppers and other produce unless otherwise noted. To learn more about the peppers available, people can follow the food stand’s Facebook page at “The Hot Spot.”
