Love a Little Local: Turning up the heat in Hemel-en-Aarde

Love a Little Local: Turning up the heat in Hemel-en-Aarde

Writer & Photographer Taylum Meyer

From sweet bell peppers and red chillis, to jalapenos and habaneros, chilli peppers (from the genus Capsicum) are regularly used to improve the taste of any meal with their flavour. This can come in the form of the actual pepper itself, or as a spice/sauce. Their primary compound, capsaicin, gives them their distinct taste and spiciness.

Most people have eaten at least one type of pepper in their lives and some use them often when cooking, but how many have had the chance to eat (or have even heard of) a Carolina Reaper?

The Carolina Reaper is as nasty as it sounds and it is largely regarded as one of the hottest peppers in the world, sitting at an astonishing 1.4 – 2.2 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU) on the Scoville Scale, which is used to measure a pepper’s spiciness. To give you an idea of just how HOT that is, a habanero measures at just 100 000 – 350 000 SHU, jalapenos come in at 2 500 – 8 000 SHU, and bell peppers come in at 0 SHU (meaning they don’t have any heat to them at all).

Thanks to Suné Eksteen, the culinary master behind Maná at Bartho Eksteen Family Wine farm, and the Eksteen’s longtime family friend, Rod Haestier, we now have the chance to taste this infamous pepper right here in the Hemelen-Aarde Valley!

At the end of 2018, Rod completed a 55-day solo sailing trip across the Atlantic from Brazil, and after arriving in Hermanus, was invited by the Eksteens to stay and mentally reset on their farm after the challenges he had faced on his journey.

Suné and Rod both share a love for gardening and spicy food, so it was only a matter of time after he’d settled in that the two set about growing Suné’s pepper collection and food forest (a diverse planting of edible plants that attempts to mimic the ecosystems and patterns found in nature).

Click on the newspaper below to read more (see page 9).