looking for Pimientos de Padrón in the Chicago area

Anyone have a local source for Pimientos de Padrón

TIA

mhill95149 wrote:Anyone have a local source for Pimientos de Padrón

TIA

In past years, Green Acres farm has grown them and offered them for sale at the Green City Market.

Kennyz wrote:

mhill95149 wrote:Anyone have a local source for Pimientos de Padrón

TIA

In past years, Green Acres farm has grown them and offered them for sale at the Green City Market.

TY, just left them a message

cool, I hope you get a positive answer. My guess is that if they are growing them this year, the season is probably still a couple of weeks away.

I think Kinickinick Farms tried them last year or the year before, so check their stand too (they also have email from their web site and are very responsive). I don't know how successful they were, I had a few plants that I grew and they didn't get enough sun in my garden to do well I think someone else on the board tried to grow them, not sure how theirs did.

http://www.kinnikinnickfarm.com/

I grew them from seed last year - they did pretty well, but you need at least 4 plants to have enough maturing at a good tapas rate! I didn't know they were at Green City - very excited. I also ordered from La Tienda last year (with other items and free shipping) 2 lbs! They were very fresh - we fried them up for a party and they were a big hit.

As I recall, I got mine at Henry's Farm at the Evanston Market on Saturdays last year

This morning at the GCM, there were none from Green Acres, but Majestic Farm & Nursery had 'em. Said he'll have 'em all summer.

I bought some yesterday from them but haven't tried them yet. Will report back after I've had a chance to sample. Memories of Cal Pep and Bar Pinotxo dance fondly in my mind.

Success!


These were found at the GCM and boy were they good! grilled with a hit of EVOO and sea salt.
Somewhat of a crapshoot on the level of heat in each pepper but that just makes it fun in my book
none were too hot.

Looks great mhill. I have seen Melrose peppers annually at the Evanston Farmer's Market which look very similar. Anyone know if one can stand in for the other?

gastro gnome wrote:Looks great mhill. I have seen Melrose peppers annually at the Evanston Farmer's Market which look very similar. Anyone know if one can stand in for the other?

i think as long as you pick/buy the melroses when they're still the size of the padrons, you would barely be able to tell the difference.

I liked these little guys a lot:



Shallow-fried in olive oil until softened and blistered, then a sprinkle of fleur de sel. 3-4 of these peppers were seriously hot, the rest ranged from almost no heat to mild tingle. All had a very strong green pepper flavor and aroma that I think does separate padron peppers from others. In fact I smelled the padrons side by side with some melroses and shishitos yesterday, and the aroma alone told the story about who was the boss pepper.

I bought some today from Seedling at the Wicker Park market. They seemed big to me, about the same size as the Melrose peppers being sold at Nichol's. I'm not sure I could tell the difference now if they weren't in different bags I am going to do some of each pepper tomorrow night and see if I can tell the difference. We'll do some traditionally, in the iron pan, and some on the grill.

Edited to add: I can definitely smell a difference. The Padron peppers are much more fragrant!

HOLEY MOLEY - these things were HOT! I got them cooked right before the power outage, and they were tasty, but hot. Too big, I think. Seedling needs to pick them when they are smaller.

We were able to find these at the logan square farmers market last year. Wondering if anyone has seem them yet this year or know when they'll be in season?

If you look above, you'll see that in the past (at least) quite a few different farmers have grown them. Peppers should be later in the season, in general. But who knows with this screwy season when they'll arrive.

Growing both shishitos and melrose pepper this year could not find seeds for the padróns

Check Amazon, of all places! Also I was pleased to discover that La Tienda will ship fresh ones ($16/lb) once the season starts next month.

Geo