Grandma Kirksey

Stunning ornamental pepper. Highly uniform plants exhibit dark purple foliage that glistens in the sun. Plants are bushy and spreading, forming a dense canopy of leaves. Fruit are small, conical and numerous, about 3/4" long, and begin as solid purple and ripen to orange and then dark red. Fruit are edible but very pungent with some bitterness, thin walls and few seeds. They are held erect on the plant like little torches. Flowers are dark purple. Mark Fields (MO FI M) of Missouri began sharing this family heirloom pepper in the 1983 SSE Yearbook. It was passed down from his maternal grandmother, Willie Jane (Pulley) Kirksey, who lived her entire life near Hickory Ridge, Arkansas. Willie Jane was given the peppers during the Great Depression and she often planted a few in the flowerbeds. Willie Jane used them dried and for making pepper sauce which is simply pepper-infused vinegar. Mark began growing the variety in the early 1970s when a few pepper plants "hitch-hiked" in the flower pot of another plant his grandmother dug up and gave to him. SSE Accession # 116694