Sweet Pepper, Ise (Organic)
Capsicum annuum. 60 days green, 90 days red.
Ise is similar in flavor and texture to the common Shishito pepper, but sweeter and larger fruited. Fruit are 3 ½” long by 1” wide and still small enough to prep in all of the classic Shishito ways, but the larger size makes for a quicker harvest. Ise is more well-suited for charcoal grilling since the wider fruit stay on the grill. Shishito peppers took the fresh market scene by storm a few years ago and quickly became popular with restaurants and home cooks for their delicious simplicity, usually served roasted or grilled with olive oil and salt. Ise’s fresh mild flavor is neither sweet nor hot and really pops once cooked. They’re great as a bite-sized stuffing pepper, think jalapeño popper without the heat. Usually harvested underripe when green, they are also good after they’ve ripened to red. Thin-walled and suitable for drying. Originally from Japan where they are a popular snack food. Ise comes to us from Tatiana’s TOMATObase, they originally sourced it from the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook.
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Sow indoors in flats with good potting soil as early as February, but no later than April. Keep warm and well-watered. Up pot seedlings into 4” pots when they have their first two true leaves. Transplant out into the garden after danger of frost has passed, typically late May in western Oregon.
Seed Saving
To save seed, wait until fruit is fully ripe. Remove seeds from fruit and dry. Isolate from other pepper varieties of the same species by at least 500 feet.
Glen Umbaugh (verified owner) –
Where did you grow this variety? Midwestern US
This is a highly productive variety with fruits 2x the diameter of shishito. They are wonderfully aromatic with a rich, mild flavor, that are great stuffed on the grill. I picked these all season.
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katieuppi (verified owner) –
Where did you grow this variety? Oregon
This variety made my “Grow Every Year” list. I grew them alongside Shishitos, and they produced quite a large amount more. The fruits are also a bit bigger and meatier than standard Shishitos, with an amazing flavor. We love to blister them and serve with an aioli. The larger fruit is really nice for that.
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Jessica Engelman (verified owner) –
Where did you grow this variety? Washington
I grew ise peppers in 10 gallon bags in the summer of 2022 in Aberdeen, WA. I started the plants indoors under grow lights in March (which was way too early, it turns out), where they stayed until I planted them out in early June. The plants struggled both with being stuck in pots for so many months and then with the cool weather of Juneuary, but they took off in July. Peppers began forming in early August and were harvestable about one month later. The plants continued producing peppers through October (summer started and ended about one month late in 2022). I didn’t find the plants especially prolific, but they produced well enough. However I did not like them compared to shishitos; I tried grilling them like a shishito and found the flavor comparatively lacking. Also because they’re larger than shishitos I struggled to cook them in the same way; parts would be burnt while others were underdone and a bit mushy. Also unlike shishitos I don’t remember any of them being spicy. I might have liked them better if I’d found a more successful way to prepare them, but alas. Still, they performed decently well with no cover in maritime Aberdeen, even given the rough start. I’d recommend growing both shishito and ise peppers and making your own determination for which you prefer, but personally I think I’m going to stick with shishitos.
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