It started with a simple observation: North Florida and much of India share a remarkably similar climate. Hot summers, high humidity, heavy seasonal rain, a subtropical growing season that can push well into the fall — the conditions that make growing in Lloyd challenging in July are precisely the conditions that Indian pepper varieties evolved to thrive in over centuries.
So last year we ordered seeds directly from India and put the theory to the test. The results were better than we had any right to expect. The plants grew quickly, produced heavily all summer long, and the flavor was exceptional — far more complex and interesting than what you typically find at a grocery store or even a farmers market. We were hooked.
This year we are growing all three of last year's varieties again, and adding four more. Here is a rundown of everything in the pepper patch.
Scoville Heat Units (SHU) measure the concentration of capsaicin — the compound responsible for heat. For reference: a jalapeño runs about 2,500–8,000 SHU. A habanero is around 100,000–350,000. When you see numbers above that, handle accordingly — gloves are your friend.
These three performed so well last season that they earned a permanent spot in the garden. Heavy producers, excellent flavor, and they handled the Florida summer without complaint.
The Hot Bhaji is a large, thick-fleshed pepper that grows 7 to 8 inches long and ripens from a glossy light green to red. Its name comes from its traditional use in bhaji — the beloved Indian street food where peppers are battered in chickpea flour and fried. The flesh is substantial and crisp, with medium heat that builds gradually rather than hitting all at once. It is as good raw as it is cooked, and it produced an extraordinary amount of fruit all summer long.
Jyoti is a thin-skinned, slender pepper about 3 to 4 inches long that starts light green and ripens to red. It is highly pungent for its size, with a clean, sharp heat that comes on quickly. In Indian cooking it is prized both fresh and dried — used green in chutneys and curries, and red for spice blends and powders. The plants were vigorous growers and absolutely loaded with fruit from mid-summer well into fall. A reliable, workhorse variety that earns its place in the garden.
The Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh is arguably the chili capital of India — responsible for nearly a third of the country's entire chili exports. The Guntur Chilli is known for its thick skin, deep red color, and exceptionally high capsaicin concentration, which makes it ideal for drying and grinding. The flavor is bold, earthy, and complex — more than just heat, there is real depth here that enriches anything it goes into. Ours produced big, branching plants loaded with fruit all season long.
Last year's success gave us the confidence to expand. These four varieties are new to our garden this season — some are centuries-old heirloom varieties from specific regions of India, others are local gems from South India with a devoted following. We are excited to see how they do in Lloyd.
The Mathania is sometimes called the "Lal Badshah" — the Red King — of Rajasthan. It hails from the small village of Mathania near Jodhpur, where families have been growing it for six or seven generations. It is the defining ingredient in Laal Maas, the iconic slow-cooked Rajasthani mutton curry. What makes it unusual is the combination of moderate heat with extraordinary flavor — a smoky, fruity sweetness that caramelizes beautifully when cooked in ghee and adds a stunning deep red color without overwhelming a dish. It is a flavor-forward pepper, not just a heat-forward one, and that makes it genuinely special. This variety was once thought to be rare and nearly lost — we feel fortunate to be growing it.
Narangi means "orange" in Hindi, and this Indian bell pepper lives up to the name — a vigorous, high-yielding variety that ripens from deep green to a vivid golden orange. Unlike the standard bell peppers you find in grocery stores, which are typically selected for shelf life and shipping, the Narangi was developed for flavor and productivity in a hot, humid climate. It is mild and sweet with no heat, thick-walled and crisp, ideal for eating fresh, roasting, or stuffing. We are curious to see how it handles a Florida summer compared to the American varieties we have tried in the past.
The Meenu is a small, round, intensely flavored chili from the Thanjavur region of Tamil Nadu in South India — an area with one of the richest culinary traditions on the subcontinent. Small and round with a thin skin, it is a cousin to the Ramnad Mundu style pepper and is prized not just for its heat but for its distinct aroma and flavor that goes well beyond pungency. It is a staple in South Indian cooking — used in sambar, chutneys, and tempering — and is genuinely difficult to find outside the region it comes from. We sourced our seeds directly from India and are looking forward to getting to know this one.
The Kanthari is Kerala's answer to the bird's eye chili — small, pointed, and ferociously hot for its size. The plants start producing white pods that ripen to vivid orange-red, and they are considered a perennial crop in their native Kerala, where they grow in backyard gardens throughout the state. The flavor is distinctive: intensely pungent with citrusy, slightly smoky notes and a brightness that sets it apart from the flat heat of a cayenne. It is a key ingredient in Kerala's famous Kanthari Mulaku Chammanthi chutney and the region's fiery fish curries. We are especially curious about this one because of the climate overlap — Kerala's coast and North Florida have more in common than you might expect.
Not everything in our pepper patch came from the other side of the world. The Bird Pepper (Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum) is the only pepper truly native to Florida — and it is something special.
It is a compact evergreen shrub found naturally in the coastal hammocks of South and Central Florida, and it is thought by botanists to be the wild ancestor of nearly every cultivated pepper variety we grow today, including bell peppers, cayenne, and jalapeños. You read that right — this tiny Florida native may be the grandmother of them all.
The Florida Bird Pepper is not commonly sold in nurseries or seed catalogs. It exists mostly in wild populations and in the gardens of people who know to look for it. We consider ourselves lucky to have it. If you ever come across one at a native plant sale or from a specialty seed source, grab it — you won't regret it.
The fruit is tiny — little round red berries barely a quarter inch across that ripen from green to orange to red. What it lacks in size it more than makes up for in heat and flavor. It typically measures between 50,000 and 100,000 SHU, hotter than a habanero, with a clean and intensely peppery character. There was a time in South Florida when a bottle of bird peppers soaked in vinegar sat on nearly every kitchen table, ready to add a small dash to greens or any other dish that needed a kick.
The plants bloom year-round — the small white flowers attract bees constantly — and the ripe red fruit is beloved by birds, particularly mockingbirds, which is exactly how the seeds spread naturally across the state. They are drought tolerant, generally pest free, and remarkably low maintenance once established.
This is a rare treat and we are glad to have it in the garden. It is one of those plants that connects this land to something much older — a piece of Florida's native story growing right alongside seeds that traveled here from the other side of the world.
Tiny round red berries on a compact evergreen shrub. Flowers year-round. Beloved by birds and bees. Packs a serious punch for its size, with a clean, intensely peppery character. Rare and genuinely hard to find — a true Florida treasure.
Every year the garden teaches us something we did not expect. This year's lesson seems to be that the world is smaller than it looks — and that a seed from a village in Rajasthan might feel right at home in Lloyd, Florida. We will report back on how the new ones do.