Pick a Peck of Peppers

I’m zig-zagging the back roads of Wapato, Washington looking for a sign. There’s all kinds. Off-yellow cut corn stubble; the green on green of swathed alfalfa drying lazily in the sun; hop debris swirling on the roadway. The crops have been coming of age, and their virility is evidenced all over. Today though, I’m looking for something a little sweet, a little spicy. Driving down Campbell Road in the cool heat of a new autumn afternoon, I see the sign I’m looking for: Krueger U-Pick Pepper Gardens, left on Knight Lane.

Pulling up to their produce stand, the various bright colors are what I see first. Peppers, obviously, occupy a big part of the space. Dark greens, bright reds, pale yellows. Some whole plants are hanging upside down and drying with their bright, red, hot fruit showing off from where they’re mounted. Big, leafy kale splays out of a white bucket, alongside some tender cilantro, and a breathtaking rack of heirloom tomatoes makes me gasp. I spot Seth Krueger at work and tell him I want to pick a peck of peppers myself (two or three actually) and he points me toward the bucket pile and sends me down the road. “You’ll see the sign that says Sweets to the right and Hots to the left.”

I walk the top of the field reading the white wooden markers on the row ends telling me which pepper variety is growing there. So many—Jimmy Nardello, Christy Sweets, Inferno, Hot Goat Horn, to name a scant few—they grow over 180 varieties here. Right now I’m angling for sweets, so I head right. The scent of a roasted sweet pepper smells like the Italian half of my childhood like no other scent I’ve ever come across, and I’m in the mood for it. Swinging a giant white bucket in my hand as I make my way inelegantly over the uneven ground down a long row of pepper plants, I find a good spot. Setting the bucket down, I take a look around—big blue sky, weeds, dirt, but most importantly, thriving plants with large peppers in various hues in all directions.

Some of the peppers have large sunburns on their delicate flesh, some are perfect. Some are young and still growing, some are ridiculously gargantuan and overripe. I don’t think many people realize the beautiful, untidy jumble that is in a harvest. I start grabbing peppers, awkwardly at first, then more assuredly as I work my way down and across the rows.

When they’re ripe and perfect, they feel cool and firm to the touch and pop off the plant easily. Red, orange, purple, yellow, brown. My bucket is filling up as I paw through the thick growth trying to get my hands on the best peppers I can find. Before I know it I have 2 full buckets, so head back to the stand to be weighed. Thirty-five pounds! And for $5 extra, they’ll roast them for me on site. That’s what I’m talkin’ about.

They have a large roaster they fashioned themselves which does the job in about 10 minutes. Seth loads it up and lights the fire. Watching the flames as the roaster spins is mesmerizing.

After a few minutes, that smoky, roasted pepper smell starts to fill the air.

I chat with Seth and his father Gayle as the roaster goes round and round. It’s so apparent that these guys love what they do. They both adore peppers and drop recipe hints liberally. They even roast a freezer full for themselves to get them through the winter. Seth says that what he likes is being outside and on on the move, and meeting new people all the time makes it all worth it. One of his favorite things is for folks to see where their food comes from (not the grocery store!)

The Kruegers have been at this particular site since 1937. A neighbor at the time, a Bulgarian man named Christoff, gave the family some pepper seeds from his garden to plant. The Kruegers called them “Christy Sweets” in honor of their neighbor, and rows of Christy Sweets are still growing today and are one of their best sellers. Their u-pick business is largely from the West side and many of the same families have been coming every year for decades. Seth says it’s like a family reunion. The kids he ran around playing with when he was growing up now have kids of their own who run around and play with his own son. Gayle mentions that people bring him seeds from their choice homeland peppers and ask him to plant them and he does. That’s one of the reasons they have such a huge variety to offer.

My peppers done and bagged up, Gayle helps me out to the car. As I drive, the thick scent of hot freshly roasted peppers fills my car with a sweet humidity. Reflecting on the afternoon, I smile. It’s great to be rooted in the Valley.