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Pepper-Growing Inmates Aim To Turn Up The Heat

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By KEITH MORELLI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 4, 2007

BRANDON - BRANDON - BRANDON In a patch of earth behind the Falkenburg Road Jail grows pure heat. There are habaneros, jalapeños, long red peppers and stubby yellow ones.

And there's the Trinidad scorpion. The name sounds dangerous and that's no coincidence, said Allen Boatman, who supervises the 20 or so men, all Hillsborough County jail inmates, who tend this hot garden.

The scorpion raised here is one of the peppers used in making a special batch of hot sauce that hits the shelves this week. It's called Jailhouse Fire. Once or twice a year, depending on the harvest, inmates in the jail's horticultural program pick the peppers, make a mash, bottle and sell it as hot sauce under a different, clever name.

The average habanero pales next to the Trinidad scorpion in a heat contest, Boatman said. The Scoville scale, a less than precise measurement of heat, puts a habanero at about 200,000 units. The scorpion is said to rate a million or more.

Inmate Mike Frawley, 55, knows the danger. Sitting inside a doublewide mobile home — the classroom, lunchroom and office for the program — Frawley patiently used a razor blade to extract tiny seeds from a jellybean size pepper. He wore surgical gloves to keep the hot stuff off his skin and eyes.

He chuckled at the memory of people who weren't so careful.

"I've never seen a guy with sweat beads on the back of his neck," he recalled.

Inmates generally enjoy working outside and being a part of a profitable enterprise, Boatman said.

"I requested to be in this program," said Jay Leonard, 60, as he finished up repotting some plants inside the greenhouse. "We've got 50 or 60 different kinds here and a couple of the hottest peppers on earth."

Plus, greenhouse inmates get the sauce with their lunches every other day.

Hot Item

In 2005, Jailhouse Fire grossed about $2,500, Boatman said. This year, he has packaging and marketing partners and enough mash to make about 50 cases, each containing a dozen 5 ounce bottles. The price has doubled to $7.

"We have a little overhead now," Boatman said.

All profits go to the jail canteen fund, which fronted the program $250,000 to build the greenhouse seven years ago and get the horticultural program started.

"We're just paying the canteen back," Boatman said. No taxpayer money is used.

Boatman likes to chat about the making of the sauce. A confirmed "chili head," his interest in growing peppers took root a few years ago as a way to teach inmates a skill. Occasionally, things go wrong.

"We kind of had a bad year this year," he said, with some of the crop decimated by white flies and pepper weevils. He said he tries to make the crop as organic as possible, "not for the environment so much as it is cheaper."

Bugs aside, the project has expanded beyond his dreams. Boatman now trades pepper plant seeds with other aficionados across the world, all members of an online pepper forum.

In the doublewide is a file cabinet containing folders filled with pepper seeds from around the world. They come from plants grown in Russia, the Baltic region, Africa, Hungary, the Caribbean, Thailand and Europe. There's a seed called Unknown Brown No. 3 and one from the Netherlands called CGN 16947.

"Caribbean Red is one of my favorites," Boatman said, holding up a plastic bag containing dozens of tiny seeds.

Most of what is grown here, about 60 varieties, is tossed into the sauce. The number of peppers used has decreased every year, he said, as the recipe is tweaked for flavor. Mixing and matching of peppers creates new sensations. Sometimes citrus juice is tossed in from the lemons also grown on the site.

What Makes It Hot

The chemical known as capsaicin makes the pepper hot. "It's in the placental tissue," Boatman said, referring to the oozy, yellowy fluid around the seeds. He suggests a spoonful of yogurt or a glass of whole milk if you exceed your comfort level.

The batch that goes on sale this week has a distinct smoky flavor. The peppers were plucked from their plants, cleaned, and the seeds removed before they were put into a smoker. After that, they were ground into powder.

Already, Boatman is thinking of the next harvest.

"We have 'No Escape' coming in the spring," he said. "That will be one nasty hot sauce."

At the end of the day, Boatman said, "Growing peppers is fun.

"They are all different colors and textures and shapes," he said. And ultimately the goal "is to get a good-tasting pepper with a lot of heat. If it's interesting, we will grow it. But we're really looking for the heat."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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