The couple behind The Sweatshop Pepper Farm unleashes flavorful hot pepper mixes for salsas
She's an aerialist who works with silks and owns Darker Marker Productions, a live entertainment production company that specializes in circus arts, with her husband, a drummer for the Des Moines-based rock band Audio Curve.
During the pandemic, when their work dried up, Charlie and Celestino Ramirez quarantined in Des Moines and decided to grow and dry their own very hot peppers. It started as something to do to get through the long days of no work but soon turned into a steady business.
Now the couple is one of the 30-plus new vendors at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers' Market for the 2022 season.
The couple grew 250 pepper plants, starting them in their tiny Des Moines apartment then moving them to a quarter acre of farmland in Ankeny. They cross-pollinate peppers to grow their own unique blends.
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“We’re looking at peppers sort of like a wine connoisseur when we're trying to find something unique," said Celestino, who says he would lick the sun if he could. He likes that much heat.
"We're looking for a profile that will pop but then also complement that capsaicin, which is the heat part of the pepper that comes in afterwards.”
Charlie doesn’t like heat, and sometimes develops a rash while grinding peppers.
Their move into farming came after friends asked them to make salsa for them. The couple tested different pepper combinations to add to salsas, and ended up with dozens of half-eaten jars in their refrigerator.
An idea clicked. They needed to come up with a flavor combination to make the perfect salsa base with no heat. Then each person could add their own heat preference, just like adding salt and pepper to a dish.
"I mean, what is medium heat?" Charlie said. "Medium can mean different things to different people."
Now the couple sells their salsa base and dried and ground peppers for added heat at the Downtown Farmers' Market every Saturday on Court Avenue through their business, The Sweatshop Pepper Farm.
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Their stand is hard to miss, sitting on the main Court Avenue thoroughfare in front of Spaghetti Works. The couple wear bright yellow hazmat suits and wrap their stand with neon caution tape. A bowl of chips coated in no heat salsa seasoning awaits sampling, and they'll even hand out samples of their fieriest pepper blends that can bring a grown man to tears.
Charlie uses her degree in biochemistry to cross-breed peppers. One version, called a cherry creeper, melds a cherry tomato and a Carolina Reaper, the hottest pepper in the world. The tiny, gnarly looking pepper looks like a cherry tomato.
“You get that profile of a cherry tomato, and then it kicks like a mule,” Celestino said. The sweetness of the cherry tomato hits you first, followed by the heat kicking in 20 or 30 seconds later.
They grow Dr. Screaborpions, a limited-edition hybrid of Carolina Reapers and Trinidad scorpions that are just slightly cooler than a straight Carolina Reaper.
It’s not easy to cross breed plants of different genus, which is unlike crossing two types of peppers. This season, Charlie is focusing on new flavor profiles.
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"We don't have plants in the ground right now because the genetics phase is where we're focusing at the moment," Charlie said. "And then next year, we'll throw things back in the soil."
It's a decision they might regret. Their salsa blend is proving so popular that they routinely sell out at the market.
Susan Stapleton is the entertainment editor at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com.
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This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Sweatshop Pepper Farm grows hybrid peppers and makes salsa seasoning
