Capsicum annuum
Poivron Doux Très Long des Landes, Landes sweet pepper: an old variety from south-western France, it has long accompanied Basque and Landes cuisine. Its very thin skin — so thin that it often does not need to be peeled — and its sweet flesh make it one of the ingredients in piperade, alongside Espelette pepper.
Characteristics:
-
Very elongated fruits: up to 15 cm long, tapered, green then bright red when ripe.
-
Very thin skin: its main distinctive feature, making it pleasant to eat raw and often eliminating the need to peel it after cooking.
-
Sweet, fragrant flavour: completely mild.
-
Very productive: an old variety selected for its yield.
Sowing advice:
-
Exposure: full sun, in a spot sheltered from the wind.
-
Soil: deep, rich and well drained. In a pot, mix planting compost and coarse sand in a deep container.
-
Method: sow from February to April under cover, at 20-25 °C: below 18 °C, the seeds will not germinate. Cover with 5 mm of soil. Germination takes 2 to 3 weeks. See how to sow your seeds.
Planting advice:
- Transplant when nighttime temperatures exceed 12 °C, spacing plants 50 cm apart. Unlike tomatoes, do not bury the stem: peppers do not form adventitious roots, and a buried crown will rot.
- Stake the plants: the long fruits weigh down the branches, which can break in the wind.
Care advice:
- Water regularly at the base and steadily: irregular watering causes blossom-end rot, the black mark at the end of the fruit. Apply a thick mulch.
-
The market gardeners' tip: pinch out the first flower, known as the royal flower, which appears at the stem fork. The plant will then branch out more and produce many more fruits afterwards.
- Rotate crops over three to four years: do not grow it after tomatoes, aubergines or potatoes.
Harvesting advice:
- Cut with secateurs, leaving a piece of stem attached.
- When green, it is still firm and herbaceous; if left to turn red, it becomes distinctly sweet — this is when it is at its best in piperade.
Beneficial companion plants:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- Its white flowers are visited by bees and bumblebees throughout the summer.
- An old, regionally adapted, seed-saving variety: growing it helps keep the vegetable-growing heritage of south-western France alive. See our heirloom seeds.
Uses:
- In piperade with tomatoes, onions and Espelette pepper, pan-grilled, preserved in oil or eaten raw in salads. Its thin skin generally means it does not need to be peeled.
Saving your own seeds:
Leave a beautiful fruit to ripen fully on the plant, open it, remove the seeds and dry them flat for a few days. Be careful: peppers cross readily with hot peppers grown nearby, so isolate your seed plant if you are also growing hot varieties. See how to save your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne volcanoes, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatment. Our conviction: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
The piperade pepper, with skin so thin it does not need to be peeled.
