Lemme's Long Italian Hot

Long, curved, slightly crinkled hot pepper. Ripens from green to red. Fruit are 4-5" long and 1" wide. Sweet, medium-heat, very good flavor, juicy. Great for salsa or spicing up a curry. Plants up to 3' tall. Moderately productive. Mid-season maturing. This pepper has been grown in Altoona, Pennsylvania since 1895 by many Italian families and their descendants. When Albert Lemme of Altoona shared seeds with SSE in 2006 he said: "I have been planting these sweet and hot peppers since 1986 when I discovered that no one was going to raise the peppers ever again. I obtained seeds from Mrs. Caracciolo and began to continue the tradition of keeping these peppers available to our area. I have not been able to find anyone who knows about or is raising these particular hot & sweet peppers. Preserving these seeds has become an obsession with me." SSE Accession # 118280