In this week’s episode, we talk with Will Kornegay about how Ripe Revival is capturing food waste at the farm and providing access through subscriptions and outreach to people in rural food deserts.

An AI generated transcript is available for this episode.

Working on farms and having an entrepreneurial spirit go well together. Add in an interest in building connectivity between people growing food and those eating it and a passion for eastern North Carolina and you have a full picture of Will Kornegay, founder of Ripe Revival & Ripe Revival Market.

What food waste at the farm do they capture?

With a base in Rocky Mount, NC, Will has a network of farmers growing a really wide diversity of crops — bell peppers, cabbage, watermelons, cantaloupe, berries and of course the sweet potatoes that first piqued his interest.

Will says farmers have grown accustomed to planting and caring for crops throughout the year only to harvest a portion — sometimes as little as 50 percent because of some sort of cosmetic issue. That waste on the farm level doesn’t only take a toll on the farmer, but the ripple created on the economic and the environmental sides are hard too.

What is Ripe Revival?

Having worked on a sweet potato farm for several years, Will had a chance to see first-hand how much food waste at the farm could happen. A pepper gets sunburned or a spaghetti squash got scratched a bit and grocery stores know it won’t be sold as people pick the ones that look best. But Will knew the other things all have a great nutrition profile as well as taste.

He set about thinking about various ways that produce could be captured and made into something more attractive. And while he started with high protein gummies made out of the food that would have been wasted. And they have moved on to several more businesses since.

Pivoting during the Pandemic

Will was completing the investments to make those high protein gummies when covid began shutting things down. Suddenly a new product wasn’t as interesting to stores and suddenly the farmers in his area lost contracts with restaurants so they were facing more waste than ever. That’s when Will launch a produce box service. And while we’ve had farmers who previously did this (including avocado farmers and tomato farmers), Will’s ongoing commitment to reducing food waste makes it different.

He not only started doing produce boxes for people who weren’t able to find produce at their local grocery. He’s building that service out to add meat, allow for choices among products and farms and more. And he also got grants to get food to some of the people in greatest need. And he continues to build more programs for the rural poor.

Serving the Community

Finding a win for the farmers and rural poor in the area is a major thrust for Ripe Revival. The team has purchased farm equipment and is working with schools and non-profits to plan and plant gardens and is converting buses to serve as mobile markets bringing produce to the rural food deserts in the area, having a team that teaches about nutrition and cooking and more.

Learn More about Ripe Revival

You can follow along as the business continues to grow by connecting with Ripe Revival online.

• Ripe Revival on LinkedIn
• Ripe Revival on Instagram
• Ripe Revival on Facebook
• RipeRevival.com and RipeRevivalMarket.com

The post Capturing Food Waste at the Farm & Providing Access to More Nutrition appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Will Kornegay knows a lot about sweet potatoes. His family has grown them for years. And when I met him, he was repoing sweet potatoes hard online. Eventually I interviewed him to clear up some confusion and I thought it would be good to share the info here too!

Will Kornegay

Back when I chatted with Will, he worked for Ham Farms. He has since moved on to start and be CEO of Ripe Revival, a company that is helping to solve the problems of food waste and hunger. And because he lives in a part of North Carolina where sweet potatoes are grown, he still catches up with lots of sweet potato farmers.

Now I LOVE sweet potatoes. Seriously, have you had sweet potato tots? And you can never go wrong with some sweet potato fries. I also think a baked sweet potato is something to get all excited about. And I remember with a big smile the day each year when a truck would deliver sweet potatoes to our office from a customer in Louisiana. So I had to find a way to sit down and chat with Will.

My Q&A with Will

Why do people get sweet potatoes & yams confused? What are the differences & the similarities?

What is marketed in the United States as “yams” are really a variety of sweet potato, grown in the South. A true yam is a starchy edible root of the Dioscorea genus, and is generally imported to America from the Caribbean. It is rough and scaly and very low in beta carotene.

Yams? Sweet Potatoes? Can you tell?

“Yams,” as the industry and general public perceives them, are actually sweet potatoes with a vivid orange color and a soft moist consistency when cooked. They tend to have a sweeter flavor. Other varieties of sweet potatoes are lighter skinned and have a firmer, drier texture when cooked. Sweet potatoes are smooth with skins that can vary in color, depending on the variety, from pale yellow to deep purple to vivid orange. Flesh colors can range from light yellow to pink, red, purple or orange.

So where did all of the confusion come from? Many years ago when orange flesh sweet potatoes were introduced into the southern United States, producers and shippers desired to distinguish them from the more traditional white flesh types.  Many newcomers to America saw the sweet potatoes and referred to them as yams due to the similarities that were seen from between the sweet potatoes and their native “yam”.  The African word “nyami” referring to the starchy, edible root of the Dioscorea genus of plants was adopted in its English form, “yam”.

Yams in the United States are actually sweet potatoes with relatively moist texture and orange flesh. Although the terms are generally used interchangeably, the US Department of Agriculture requires that the label “yam” always be accompanied by “sweet potato.”

If you want to see if you can get this down right, you can take the sweet potato or yam quiz!

Are they grown in similar geographies?

Sweet potatoes and yams are grown in different geographies.  Yams grow in tropical climates, primarily in South America, Africa, and the Caribbean.  Sweet potatoes can be grown where there is a long frost-free period with warm temperatures in the growing season. Most cultivars require a minimum frost-free period of 100-125 days, with a minimum average daily temperature of 77 degrees. Sweet potatoes also require almost an inch of water per week uniformly distributed throughout the growing season for highest yields.  These conditions are primarily found in the southern US.

Since the crop is grown in several southern states, what makes those areas similar? What kind of soils are best, the type of season that is best, etc.?

Farming Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are grown primarily in the southern US because the conditions of the climate and the lands geographical makeup are somewhat similar.  Sweet potatoes are grown in sandy, loamy soils, and the season is dependent on the climate conditions mentioned above.  In each of these regions, there is one growing season each year.  Sweet potatoes are a storage crop, which means that they are grown, harvested, and stored throughout the year.  March – October is the average growing cycle for a crop of sweet potatoes from start to finish.  They are then stored to be packed for production until the next crop is harvested.

Here’s how they do it at Ham Farms:

“Each year, our qualified staff soil sample every field during the winter months. This will allow us to make proper fertilization decisions for the upcoming crop.

As a NC Certified Seed Producer, Ham Farms cultivates micropropgated, elite plants in our greenhouses. These plants are transplanted into our fields and roots harvested will become seed stock for the following year’s crop. Using certified seed will ensure a healthy, disease-free crop that is more uniform.

In early March, our seed stock will be bedded in the field. These beds will produce our sprouts or slips for transplanting in May. Precision transplanters are used for planting, to ensure slips are spaced uniformly in rows. Transplanting will usually conclude before the end of June.

Our staff will work diligently after transplant to ensure that fields are cultivated regularly in order to control the emergence of weeds. Sampling of fields and harvest planning will begin in July, as roots will have grown to a marketable size within 90 to 120 days.

During harvest, field rows are turned up using a modified disk which uncovers the sweet potatoes. Roots are hand harvested and graded in the fields. The roots are then transferred into bulk containers and transported to one of our controlled atmosphere storage facilities for curing.

The curing process takes between 4 to 7 days. Curing heals cuts and reduces decay and shrinkage in storage because it allows the periderm to thicken and to reform. Curing also converts some starches to sugars, enhancing the sweet potatoes’ natural flavor.”

What do you rotate sweet potatoes with?

We rotate our sweet potatoes with several crops, mainly soybeans, wheat, cotton, cabbage, peppers, and other the vegetable crops that we grow.

Do most farmers plant different crops?

Farmers choose to plant the crops they plant for many different reasons.  Most farmers plant multiple crops.  Crop rotation is a major motivating factor.  Many farmers will choose to specialize in growing a crop or a few specific crops, and will use other crops to aid in their crop rotation.

For most crops you can see the crop mature, that doesn’t seem as easy with tubers, how do you know sweet potatoes are ready to be harvested?

How do you know when sweet potatoes are ready for harvest? You sample them!

This is done by field testing.  Provided that growing conditions and climate have cooperated; sweet potatoes are mature between 90-120 days.  Once the crop hits 90 days, our farm managers will turn up hills as a sample to see what the condition of the crop is.  Random sampling will give a good idea of each field’s makeup, size profile, and readiness for harvesting.  Once they crop appears to be ready the harvest plan is put into action.  Ham Farms grows over 8,000 acres of sweet potatoes.  Strategy and planning play a very large role in the planting/harvesting process.

What’s your favorite way to have sweet potatoes? Any recipe or cooking tips you want to offer?

Personally, I like sweet potatoes cut up and grilled as fries.    You can also check out a bunch of recipes on the North Carolina Sweet Potatoes website.

For More on Sweet Potatoes and Yams

Farmers like Will have been so helpful in getting grounded on things! I’ve got even more on sweet potatoes from another friend of mine, Todd O’Neal, who told me all about his sweet potato farm in Louisiana on the podcast! We chatted as a part of my holiday foods series back in 2020, but I love sweet potatoes so much that I don’t just consign them to the holidays. They’re great year round!

The post Sweet Potatoes? Yams? What’s the Difference Anyway? appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Sitting down to talk with This Farm Wife Meredith Bernard was pretty much like sitting down with someone I had known forever. In some ways, we have known each other for years via social media even before she had a YouTube channel really. But since that and Instagram really got going for This Farm Wife, I have this immediate connection to her farm, and her family.

Here’s our episode with Meredith:

A transcript generated with AI technology can be accessed here Meredith Bernard Talks About Farming & Her “This Farm Wife” YouTube Channel

Getting to Know Bernard Farms

Although towns are close by, with fences, woods & hills, it’s easy to feel far away from everything on Bernard Farms. Meredith laughs and says all her neighbors have four legs — mostly cattle, a few farm dogs and a couple of sheep the kids wanted. They plant a range of crops that are mostly used for the livestock — hay, barley, corn, corn for silage (harvest the whole plant, not just the grain), etc. but sell some into the markets too. In fact, just this week the family was seeding a barley field — highlights shared online of course.

(You may also like to give this episode on growing barley for beer & the bonus episode talking with the Tennessee brewery that sources directly from farmers when possible. They’ve even won at the Great American Beer Festival this year!)

Meredith worked in sales traveling and working in town for a while but as the family grew, she wanted to stay close to home a lot more. Her husband Lawrence had always run the farm solo and while they both knew she could be helpful, she also wanted to bring in an income so she started a photography business. Over time, that evolved into writing and eventually, she tried video as friends kept suggesting. She laughs saying she didn’t like it at all, but after going to a FarmHer conference in Iowa, she thought more about it and decided to see if she could make it work.

Now, YouTube and the things that have come with sharing her story online are contributing to the family’s budget. And they are capturing parts of their own farm story and letting others gain understanding on how things work. It’s just them on the farm, no hired hands and Meredith laughs thinking she may not have been really handy early on. But she’s learned lots and now the kids are able to lend a hand too. And with that, the family’s increasing willingness to participate, and all she’s learned, she’s been able to share stories that show the day

Don’t tell Lawrence, but meeting him was a highlight. He was almost an illusion in the early videos — you didn’t see him much but she was talking about what happened on the farm. He has been seen more often (sometimes looking like my family members who roll their eyes at the camera) and this fall there was an accident and seriously, it did my heart good to see him even if it was a brief visit while he and Wesley had lunch before getting back to Saturday chores.

While They Chored, We Toured

Since I got there midday, we visited a bit. I stuck to a couple of yummy sweet potato muffins (watch the video “Failed Tricks & Sweet Treats” below if you want the details & you may want to catch up on this Grounded by the Farm episode all about sweet potatoes!). And then we hopped in the four-wheeler and Austin and Meredith gave me a tour. Austin loved driving and happily let her mom hop out for gates.

I didn’t think about the sound of the engine being such a problem… should have mic’d Meredith! But I think you can get a feel for the place.

After the tour was when we sat down at the kitchen table to record the podcast and I sat in awe of the collection of cast iron pans. Once you watch a few of This Farm Wife videos, you find cast iron has a recurring role, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to see several, but I lost count! She gave me the tips to cook the perfect steak!

This Farm Wife on YouTube

Lots of folks spend hours watching YouTube, and some of those folks like the escape from their house to check in on a farm. That’s where Meredith and her vlog come in. She gives subscribers a little slice of the “ordinarily extraordinary life” life lived in their family farm. Here’s the vlog post from the week I stopped by. You’ll see there had been an awful lot happening and around 12:47 into the video, she tells folks she’s wanted some fall muffins & a friend is coming. But really you should watch the whole video.

In the podcast, I asked her about some of the other YouTubers that share farm stories that she loves. First to mind for me was Sandi Brock of Sheepishly Me in Canada, but Meredith gave a full list that includes Tara Coronado who talks wine grapes in California and like me enjoys seeing other farms and Terryn in Nebraska with Faith, Family and Beef. You can catch them and others on this list of farm YouTubers she has on her channel. I’d also add my friend Brian Scott of The Farmer’s Life on YouTube.

Follow Meredith aka “This Farm Wife” Online

Here are the links we mentioned for Meredith’s online presence.

• ThisFarmWife.com is her website and can help you find ALL THE THINGS!
• ThisFarmWifeShop.com is where you find all her puns & rural love on apparel, stickers, tea towels and more.
• Youtube is This Farm Wife Meredith Bernard.
• ThisFarmWife on Instagram

The post Cows, Cast Iron and a Camera:  A Visit with This Farm Wife Meredith Bernard  appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Watermelon, the fruit of summer, no matter how you slice and dice them, they are always refreshing! But have you ever thought to yourself, I need a watermelon knife for all that slicing and dicing? Pay attention. Trust me.

This post includes affiliate links that may result in some compensation to help fund the site.

In our last podcast episode Growing Watermelons and Connecting Consumers, we talked with watermelon farmer, Rachel Syngo of Melon 1 where they proudly grow watermelons on multiple farms in southwestern Florida and work with farmers across the eastern US.

Right Way to Cut a Watermelon? Really?

I love getting the scoop from farmers. So as we talked, we raised all the questions like how do you cut a watermelon? It’s funny but something so simple can become controversial at times. However, I asked because several years ago a watermelon farmer showed me a way to do it that I hadn’t seen before. And I love it!

The answer: The cutting method depends on how you will be eating it.

• If you’re serving watermelon at an event or want a piece to hold onto you cut the watermelon in quarters lengthwise then cut it in slices so the rind serves as a handle.
• If you will be eating at home, maybe using in salads, etc. you kind of peel the melon with a knife. You cut the rind off first, then slice into cubes, wedges or whatever. A friend in Wyoming recently discovered it & shared on Instagram so here you go!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Today I learned a new way to cut watermelon I can’t believe how easy it was, and truly I think it was way less wasteful too…tho the chickens still seemed happy with what they got

A post shared by Prairie Wife (@prairieheels) on Jul 4, 2020 at 9:56am PDT

There technically isn’t a correct way to cut a watermelon but there is definitely more than one way to do it!

Watermelons: The Fruit that Deserves it’s own Knife

There is a wonderful tool that we BOTH agreed was essential to cutting watermelon (and to avoid cutting a finger), the watermelon knife! I hadn’t even heard about them until I went out on a watermelon farm… then I saw them several times.

I had to ask if this was watermelon universal. We both had watermelon knives, and agreed that this tool is a lifesaver when it comes to cutting up that juicy watermelons. I will never use a butcher knife or something again.

This knife is long and made of stainless steel allowing you to get through the entire watermelon without the knife bending or you having to turn the watermelon to ensure you’ve cut all the way through. It also boasts a pretty solid blade (though there are holes in it like seeds), it won’t bend while cutting! The handle is made of comfortable silicone and is ergonomic for great leverage.

If you look closely, the serration is a bit deeper and longer than most knives, this allows you to gracefully slice through the tender insides of the watermelon. Rachel points out its a lot like a bread knife but with more heft for the serious job it takes on.

The post The Right Way to Cut a Watermelon? A Watermelon Knife? appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Can you imagine July if someone wasn’t growing watermelons?

Summertime wouldn’t be the same without watermelon! It cools us down, hydrates us and brings smiles to faces! Few of us have had the chance to visit a watermelon farm or talk to a farmer, but Rachel Syngo’s family has been “in the biz” of growing watermelons for generations.

They proudly grow on multiple farms in southwestern Florida and work with farmers up the East Coast to provide the tasty fruit as much of the year as possible! We talk about how and where watermelons are grown, the trends that seem to be gaining traction, food safety, how you get seedless watermelons and more!

Links Mentioned in this Episode Include

See how watermelons are harvested and transported (embedded at the bottom of this post)

A vodka watermelon cocktail from FarmWifeDrinks.com

Where to Find Melon 1 Online

• Melon1.com
• Facebook Melon 1 at https://www.facebook.com/melon1inc/
• Instagram Official Melon 1 at https://www.instagram.com/officialmelon1/
• Twitter Official Melon 1 at https://twitter.com/officialmelon1?lang=en

Grounded by the Farm Online

• GroundedbytheFarm.com for photos, blog posts, show notes and more
• Ask the Farmers Facebook Page
• Groundedbythefarm_ on Instagram
• Grounded by the Farm on Youtube
• @groundedbythef on Twitter

Growing Watermelons & Harvesting By Hand

The post Growing Watermelons & Connecting to Customers: Rachel Syngo is Big On Watermelon appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Peppers are a food that spark a lot of passion and nowhere is that more clear than with Bailey Farms. Randy Bailey started the farm in Oxford, NC as a young adult knowing how much he enjoyed the spicy foods a friend’s mom cooked. That was in the 1980s and American food culture has certainly embraced the various Latin foods and the specialty peppers category has grown with grocery stores and farms like the Baileys’. They grow a beautiful range of peppers as you can see in the video tour of their facility.

I first met Randy, Debbie and their young son Ryan on the family’s Bonita Springs, Florida farm that enables them to get multiple growing seasons in a year. My memory is strong because I smelled the poblanos and almost immediately craved a chili relleno! In fact, the memory of that alone made me go to a nearby taqueria the day I was editing this episode of the podcast!

To me it was a physical sensation and while I feel certain it was a natural high, Randy said it was probably the combination of memory and the fragrance of poblanos. While that strikes a note for me and Randy agrees there is nothing bad about a poblano — meat, cheese and a pepper, what’s not to like? He keeps serrano peppers in his pocket frequently just to add a bit of flavor to a burger or whatever.

How Bailey Farms Started Growing Peppers

When they first started, they would grow the 3-4 months the North Carolina farm let them grow. And they wanted to grow so they started contracting with other farmers. Eventually they also bought farms in Florida. The Baileys grow, pack and distribute peppers to get them to retailers and more.

Randy’s dad loved farming although he worked professionally as a chemist. But his passion for agriculture and Randy’s love of the spicy foods a friend’s mom made, led them to specializing in peppers. His best friend growing up had parent’s who immigrated from Mexico and it wasn’t as common in the eastern US.

As the US demographics shifted in the 90s, Bailey Farms grew with it, selling more peppers and a wider range of specialty peppers. More recently, a diverse flavor palate and some of the impacts of social media have fueled more growth.

Fresh Market & Reducing Food Waste

While the Baileys are focused on fresh market peppers — the kind we all buy in the produce section of our local grocery — they also look for innovative ways to reduce food waste.

They have secondary markets that take some of the peppers with stress marks on the fruit and with some of the damaged peppers, they have been making hot sauce. He laughs and points out that is a crowded segment but it is a ways to cook up some of the peppers that would otherwise not be used. They also do some dried peppers with a cooperator.

And at times, when they have more inventory than the market needs, product gets donated to the local food banks, providing residents in need with fresh produce. I actually spent time in a Feeding America site in Florida to cull damaged product a few years ago.

A Range of Specialty Peppers

Randy laughs and says he and Debbie go in phases with how they use peppers at home. Right now they are eating low carb so they stuff a lot of peppers. They do a cheese steak stuffed, cheeseburger stuffed, Mexican stuffed… all kinds of things. They have more than 4,000 recipes on how to use specialty peppers on their website BaileyFarmsInc.com so they always have ideas!

Specialty peppers include a range of flavors and heat and Randy points out the Baileys do a number of sweet peppers as well as the hotter ones.

The Scoville scale was introduced about a hundred years ago to help people understand the spicy heat peppers have. Since the 1980s, lab testing has brought a depth of scientific knowledge to the scale. Jalapeños are 2,000-8,000 units on the scale. Habaneros are 100,000 to 300,000 but there are some hybrids that have lower heat and yet the flavor. The ghost peppers and Carolina Reapers really leave those in the dust.

Peppers is a growing category. Green peppers are high in vitamin c. And the red and yellows are high in vitamin a which is good for eyesight.

And the Baileys are always looking for the next thing. He says they currently have close to 200 varieties/hybrids they are looking at in the field. There is a lot of breeding in peppers — more than ever before. They look for product taste, productivity, flavor and more. He is excited to have a new sweet pepper with habanero background in it. It’s only a single color and the color diversity is so nice. Has a great crunch!

Universities and private companies are really moving things along to develop new peppers faster. For home gardeners, the All-America Selections typically are widely adapted for a variety of growing regions. (One of my favorites to grow at home is the Sweet Sunset.)

Lots of Logistics when Growing Peppers in Multiple States

Having farms in multiple states presents a few challenges Randy says — the biggest come as you transition working from one state to another. He can find his farm work wrapping up at one place, going full steam at another and just beginning in a third location.

They begin harvesting specialty peppers in October on some farms and keep transitioning through late spring. They plant 22 weeks straight at the farm in South Florida to keep harvest rolling in. The supply chain is hard, but mother nature also throws a wrench or two into it now and then. They don’t ever want to find a customer order they can’t meet.

They ship to around 10,000 grocery stores throughout the southeast, northeast and midwest.

Using Integrated Methods to Control Pests

Growing peppers by acres rather than plants presents farmers with some different challenges than home gardeners, Randy says. They do what they can to keep the beneficial insects by planting other things like sunflowers that can attract the damaging pests away from the peppers or can help provide hosts for the good bugs.

There are a lot of diseases, insects and more that will eat plants… Randy points out that even deer can present issues in the field. They try to find the least invasive ways to control all pests and have even gone to trying air cannons and erecting fences!

With all of that, weather and labor are two of the biggest challenges vegetable farmers like Randy face. Weather has always been weather but labor is the worst it has ever been he says.

Some local help works with the Baileys but the seasonality means recruiting workers and sponsoring H2A visas for them. The hand harvesting comes with red tape and costs. The cost of doing that and competing on a global market with farmers in places that don’t pay US wage rates.

If Florida gets cold or a hurricane takes out some of the market, the Baileys import product to cover orders.

Links to Learn More about Specialty Peppers

Video of Bailey Farms peppers on farm, packing and shipping

Scoville scale:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale

Bailey Farms website:  baileyfarmsinc.com

Bailey Farms Instagram

Bailey Farms on Facebook

The post How Americans Love of Spicy Food Gave Specialty Peppers Room to Grow appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Peppers are one of those foods that people are really passionate about. And Randy Bailey is definitely a pepper person. He’s passionate enough that he started a pepper farm and this video provides us a short glance at Bailey Farms Inc. It is a family farm that has grown since it started in the 80s and now warehouses, packs and ships a range of peppers. I stopped by the Oxford, NC headquarters facilities where one of the members of the team — Paul Strasser — shows us around and opens up the world of peppers for us.

I met the Bailey family years ago and have had the chance to visit their pepper farms a few times. As he says on their website, he appreciates that more people want to know more about the foods they put on their plates. So he has hosted bloggers and the like (Leanette did a great post about her visit to the Florida farm and still tells me how this experience helped her family start eating more vegetables.

Randy and I recorded the episode for this week’s podcast, and net thing we knew there was something that needed his attention that called him away. Luckily, Paul was a perfect stand-in for the tour and helped em understand some of the types of peppers that the Bailey team works with.

Some of the peppers grown on the farm or others the Bailey contract with for shipping & distribution include:

• Bell peppers, both full size and miniature — these have a wide spread geography and can be used for a range of things from stuffed peppers to snacking.
• Jalapeños — A great basic pepper… use these often.
• Cherry bombs — Another medium pepper — Paul has a friend that makes a great Jamaican salsa with these!
• Serrano — One of Randy’s favorites… says he keeps a few in his pocket to spice up food on the regular.
• Shishito — I haven’t used these much but Paul points out that some of the trendy restaurants are beginning to flash fry these and serve them with some balsamic vinegar and I am dying to try that!
• Habaneros — These are too hot for me but my nephew loves them and all the pepper sauces!
• Ghost peppers — Another one that is too hot for me but Paul loves them. He says he makes salsa with them and his wife makes poppers with them like other people do jalapeños!

I love that Debbie Bailey has put together a website that showcases some of the family’s pepper farm as well as an amazing depth of recipes for all things peppers! You will definitely want to check out BaileyFarmsInc.com and their Bailey Farms Instagram or Bailey Farms on Facebook.

And if you are in the eastern half of the United States, you may well see their logo in the store if you take a look. I know I catch them now and then here in St. Louis as well as when I visit family!

The post Pepper Farm that Provides A Full Slate of Peppers appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.