Buena Mulata Pepper was the name on the baby food jar next to the name “Pippin” in the bottom of the deep freezer in William Woys Weaver’s grandmother’s basement, a decade after his plant-loving grandfather’s untimely death. If you’ve heard of the Fish Pepper, this story probably sounds familiar. There were many other seeds besides those of the beautiful, delicious, and now widely-available Fish Pepper in that frozen trove, and many that passed through Horace Pippin’s hands, including this purple-to-red cayenne type Buena Mulata. Please look up #horacepippin to learn about his important and powerful work and life. Meanwhile, in the 1940s, he traded seeds from his friends in the Black catering communities of Philly and Baltimore in exchange for bee sting therapy from Will’s grandfather H. Ralph Weaver’s hives. Seeds stay viable longer in the freezer; our heirlooms only survive if someone removes them from storage and places them in soil; and stories only live when they are told. We eat the ripe red ones. (I wish I knew the origin of this variety name.) #buenamulata #cayenne #capsicumannuum #williamwoysweaver #roughwoodseedcollection #seedsaving #seedkeeping #seedstories #horacepippin #apitherapy #beestingtherapy #buenamulatapepper (at Delaware County, Pennsylvania)
