More than 100 years ago, a Hungarian immigrant named Joe Hussli brought the seeds for a medium-hot pepper. At that time, the region was known as Hungary. He planted them in his new home, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. The pepper was popular enough to be named after the town where it grew. It’s likely, the Hungarian name was impossible to say or spell. The Hungarian language is notoriously difficult to learn. Like many other seeds brought by immigrants, it fell by the way-side after hybrids were introduced in the 1950s.

In 2010 Lee Greene started looking at the Slow Food Ark of Taste. It is a list of “delicious and distinctive foods” that are on the brink of extinction. She quickly settled on the Beaver Dam pepper for her line of pickled products. She began to search for growers of this variety. She discovered that John Hendrickson grew it and gave him a call. He said, “Well, I have only have one row of peppers”. Hendrickson himself had found the pepper in the Seed Savers Exchange catalog earlier that year. Like Greene, he was intrigued because his farm was only ten minutes from Beaver Dam Wisconsin.  Beaver Dam pepper was all but forgotten until they collaborated brought it out from obscurity.

It’s doubtful the pepper still exists in the area Joe Hussli immigrated from in 1912. At that time, it was part of Hungary. Now, it is part of Serbia. During a research visit, Greene did not find anyone who remembered it or identify it. Did it just change a little bit here and there? Or did the pepper adapt itself to the midwest? Did it morph into a pepper that’s so different from what left the homeland that they themselves can’t recognize it?

Regardless, I feel a kinship to a Hungarian Pepper that survived. It flourished into a “naturalized American,” much like myself.   When you take a bite, you get the other flavors first. Then the heat kicks in. It’s a much milder, sweeter heat than a jalapeno. The heat dissipates a little with cooking. I love Beaver Dam and will grow it every single season from now on. 

Maybe someday, I’ll get to the Beaver Dam festival. Who knew such an obscure almost instinct pepper would enjoy such a revival. I’m a fan!