A Peri-Peri Grower in Virginia

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A bucket of just-harvested peri-peri peppers.

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A Peri-Peri field.He calls himself a “plant-to-bottle” grower and last year he had 150 peri-peri (or piri-piri or pili-pili) plants in the ground and will put in 200 this year. George Gordon grows near Alexandria, Virginia, not far from Mount Vernon, where George Washington grew hemp and bird peppers. From the peri-peris he makes African Heat, a sauce with but four ingredients: the peppers, kosher salt, brown vinegar, and garlic. The sauce is aged for six months and George has promised to send me a bottle, which I’ll report on. Note that these peppers are quite similar to tabasco chiles.