Warm, smoky, mouth-watering and full-bodied. That was the dominant sensory experience on a walk around Nancy Heinzel and Brian Marshall’s market garden, Sawmill Creek Farm, in late summer. The entire garden was scented with the heady aroma of Hungarian peppers smoking over hickory chips at one end of the garden.
Nancy Heinzel and Brian Marshall are truly avid gardeners. That love and passion became much of their livelihood, “like all good things, by accident!” says Brian, “about 10 years ago,” when they decided to allow their 1-acre garden to continue on its ever-expanding way and become not just their garden but an outstanding market garden. Today, Nancy tends to the farm as her full-time job and Brian pitches in half time; his other half-time is spent as landscape designer and installer. Much of the goods from the farm are grown to sell at various 
markets around the area – including the Chico Thursday night Market and the Saturday Market in Oroville, April to November.
Nancy and Brian grow most herbs, flowers and vegetables a person might think to grow in a garden in the foothill town of Paradise, California – elevation 2,000 feet: lettuce, carrots, melons, squash, tomatoes, beans, grapes, figs, etc. While the move to a market garden may have been accidental, theirs is a very well tended
“accident,” with a felicitous eye to aesthetics. Behind tall deer fencing – “a must in Paradise” – crops are laid out in neat rows, many vigorously scrambling up hefty trellises “to allow for more production per square foot, and a lot less back-breaking bending,” Nancy told me. The topography of the site is such that the creek meanders along at the bottom of the garden while the poly tunnel and a greenhouse, where many crops are started from seed in the winter months, sit on the slope just above. An incredibly tidy berm of composting manure stretches down a large pathway between the gardens and the greenhouse/poly tunnel. A small orchard sits to another side – although all but the figs and grapes were lost this year to the late spring frost. The grapes are sold for table use and Nancy and Brian are also able to produce about one case of Barbera wine for home use.
Besides flowers, fruits and vegetables, Nancy and Brian regularly experiment with interesting specialty products. In part because it is in their nature to be curious and in part to keep themselves and their customers interested in the ongoing process of the garden and gardening. From dried flowers such as cornflowers, to cattails cut from along the creek, to capers grown on site and then packed in salt, Nancy especially likes to try something new every season. And that was where the idea for their paprika started.
Paprika means ‘red pepper’ to Eastern Europeans and while the spice is generally associated with Hungarian cuisine, dried and ground peppers are used as seasoning, as nutritional supplement, as garnish and even as negative reinforcement for nail-biting, thumb-sucking or unwanted creatures (think pepper spray for human or rodent intruders), in many cultures throughout history. Paprika as a culinary spice ranges in color from deep red to brown and in spiciness from very, very hot, to full-bodied, mellow and sweet. The active element in peppers (Capsicum annuum), and which give them their heat, is capsaicin. Some varieties of peppers are naturally higher in capsaicin, and it is proportionally higher in the seeds and stalks of peppers. Remove them, or part of them, and you will have sweeter, more mellow pepper taste. Paprika releases its flavor when heated, which is why people add it to the top of deviled eggs or other cold dishes as a colorful garnish that will add very little spice or flavor.
Hungarian paprika, according to popular knowledge, was in extensive use in Hungary by the late 18th century. It became a staple of Western European and then American cooks after 1879, when the spice was introduced in France. In 1937, Hungarian scientist Albert Szent-Györgyi was awarded a Nobel Prize for his research on (and isolation of) the high levels of Vitamin C found in paprika pepper pods, which have seven times more Vitamin C than citrus.
Peppers like warm weather to germinate and thrive. The soil temperature, outside or the potting soil/seed tray if starting indoors, should be above 80°F (27°C) to encourage germination. Like most fruits and vegetables, peppers like fairly rich soil and regular/moderate water until well past fruit set.
As for feeding, Nancy explained the care they give to their peppers: “When we do soil prep in the spring, along with about four or five inches of compost, 
we add a mix of powdered amendments; blood meal for nitrogen, bone meal for phosphorus, greensand for potassium, oyster shell for calcium (very important for preventing blossom end rot in solinacea) and azomite for micronutrients. Quantities are ball-parked, with a soil test every three years (at least in theory) to monitor levels and adjust accordingly. We make our own potting mix, and then once we bump the seedlings up to four-inch pots, they get fed every week with a combination of fish emulsion and kelp extract. When they’re planted out, it’s another shot of the same, and a second dose about one month after. At that point, they should be rooted in enough to get most of their goodies from the soil, though sometimes I’ll get neurotic and give them some more fish & kelp. This year I might also try doing a supplemental top dress of compost & blood meal about halfway through the season, though you’ve got to careful about allowing the minimum 60 days between application of a manure-based compost and harvest.”
For their paprika, Nancy and Brian Heinzel smoke their peppers, a Spanish tradition, over hickory chips before drying and finely grinding them for the Sawmill Creek Farm Paprika. Sawmill Creek grows many varieties of peppers, but it is the traditional Hungarian Buldog pepper that they use for their paprika. “You can tell the peppers are ready when they turn a deep, robust red,” Nancy tells me. After smoking over the hickory chips, drying them completely in a very low oven and grinding them to a fine powder, the result is amazing. “Because of the oil content,” which you can feel in the powder, “you want to refrigerate your paprika. It should stay fresh and full-flavored for up to three months.” Most of us have probably kept paprika – in the dusty, rectangular, red-and-white tin at the back of the spice cupboard – far longer than that. Smell and taste the Sawmill Creek Farm paprika and you will immediately know that this is whole different creature.
Walking around Sawmill Creek Farm that day, Paradise had already had a first light frost and the fragrance of the smoking peppers went to some primal point in my brain hard-wired for “winter preparation” – the smell conjured images of and desires for warm kitchens and stews. In fact, Nancy and Brian recommend using their paprika (or your own home-grown) for everything from soup to stews to rubs to a zingy addition to sweets such as chocolate chip cookies. “That little kick adds warmth and depth to the chocolate sweet taste,” explains Nancy, handing me my second cookie and fixing me a plate of them to take home.
Frankincense and myrrh are nice – but a bit hard to come by and a bit difficult to know how to use properly. This winter I will be bringing the garden into the kitchen with Sawmill Creek Farm’s fresh paprika, available at Zucchini & Vine in Chico and Country Harvest in Paradise. Next spring look for Nancy and Brian, their vegetable and herb starts (including Buldog peppers), their paprika, and no doubt something new, at the farmers markets.
You can contact Sawmill Creek Farm by email at: marshall-n@sbcglobal.net
Some other good sources for pepper seeds and/or seedlings will include local growers who will have seedlings of many pepper varieties available at regional farmers markets in the spring.
Online or catalogue organic seed resources, among others, include:
Seeds of Change, out of Santa Fe, NM: seedsofchange.com
Territorial Seed, Cottage Grove, OR: territorialseed.com
Bountiful Garden Seeds, out of Palo Alto, CA: bountifulgardens.com
Renee’s Garden Seeds, out of Felton, CA: reneesgardenseeds.com
Non-Organic sources, among many, include:
Burpee, out of Pennsylvania: burpee.com
Johnny’s Seeds, out of Maine: johnnyseeds.com
In a North State Garden is an educational outreach program of the Northern California Natural History Museum and a co-production of Northstate Public Radio.
In a North State Garden is a radio- and web-based outreach program of the Northern California Natural History Museum, in Chico, Calif. The mission of In a North State Garden is to celebrate the art, craft and science of home gardening in California’s North State region. The program is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell. To read more from In A North State Garden or to listen to the podcasts aired on KCHO/KFPR radio, click on jewellgarden.com.
