Hot Sheepnose

Not a uniform variety. Some variation in fruit shape, ranging from blocky and bell-shaped to longer and more tapered. Our donor describes the variety as a small bell-pepper, longer than it is wide (about 4" long x 2 1/2" across top). If saving seed from this variety, select for the most true to type fruit. Walls are thick and juicy. Very good flavor with medium-high heat. Mid-season maturing and moderately productive. Billy Meadows of Waverly, Ohio (OH ME B) introduced this variety into the Exchange in 1984. At that time, he had already been growing the peppers for about 10 years. Billy obtained seed of this variety from Ola & William Kessel who lived in the mountains of West Virginia. The pepper was brought to the U.S. by their grandparents from "the old country" 100 years earlier (SSE estimates since circa the 1870s) and kept in the Kessel & Meadows families. Meadows indicated that this variety is excellent for stuffing, canning, seasoning, freezing or drying. This variety was donated to SSE by Doug Egeland (NY EG D) who acquired the seeds from Billy Meadows.