It took a couple of growing seasons, but Marier finally started getting fruit.
“I was really intrigued, so I saved the seeds from it.”
“I had never had anything that hot,” Marier said. Marier’s passion for exotic peppers started about 25 years ago when a friend returned from a Caribbean cruise with a small hot pepper he had purchased at a farmers’ market. If I’m making stuffed peppers, I like to use some of the hablanos.” The habanada is going to give you a habanero-type flavor, a tropical fruit flavor, but without the heat. “I like the Brazilian Starfish, just for a little bit of heat, something that you can grab and snack on. “If you want just a snacking pepper, a lot of these sweet ones are really good just to chew on,” he said, strolling ahead. “Everybody asks me to pick a favorite, and it’s impossible to do because it depends on what you’re going to use it for. “I’ve got 275 of them,” said Marier, who has helped introduce dozens of exotic peppers to Minnesota. Steve Marier walked between rows of pots lining his driveway in Hugo, stopping often to point out different chili pepper plants - and struggling to rank them against one another.
