![]() “Normally only one out of a dozen should be hot. Responding to students’ burning questions, Winsberg shared his opinion on hot peppers – eating peppers is “supposed to be fun, not torture,” he said – and explained that there are ways to control a pepper’s heat. The field trip took students out of the classroom for a practical lesson in agriculture and small-scale farm economics. Image credit: Elise Overgaard Tuljapurkar’s seminar covers chili pepper history, anthropology, biology, culture, and cuisine. In addition to freshly picked peppers, the Winsbergs sell a wide variety of homemade pickles, relishes, sauces, and freeze-dried crops in colorful displays at local farmers markets. Image credit: Shubha Tuljapurkar Students also toured the farm’s production facilities. It’s part of an adjustment to climate change, which Winsberg says has made planting and growing seasons less predictable. Image credit: Elise Overgaard Winsberg’s “greenhouse-within-a-greenhouse” protects seedlings through late winter and early spring. Image credit: Elise Overgaard Students asked many questions about the business side of small-scale specialty pepper farming. Winsberg fielded students’ questions on everything from pepper genetics to combating plant disease to controlling a chili pepper’s heat. The Winsbergs are always on the hunt for new varieties. Any given year his family might be growing padróns, shishitos, cubanelles, habaneros, ají amarillos, or a rainbow of sweet bells – red, orange, yellow, lavender, or chocolate. Inside the greenhouse, against a backdrop of rows of freshly planted dark green pepper plants, Winsberg explained the logistics of producing up to 30 different varieties of specialty peppers. Chili challenges on a specialty pepper farmīehind Winsberg’s home, a greenhouse covers the back half of the 1-acre plot. Wowed by the display, Tuljapurkar struck up a conversation and asked Winsberg if the chili class could visit the farm. The field trip came about when Tuljapurkar stumbled across Winsberg’s stand at a local farmers market. But they hadn’t yet seen an operating pepper farm. They’d even visited the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm and used the facilities there to whip up a harissa, prepare a pepper-based chutney, and fry up some padróns. The class had also surveyed the spice trade, analyzed chili pepper anatomy and biodiversity, and traced the trade winds and ship routes that spread chili peppers from their South American origins to Europe, Asia, and Africa. ![]() It was fun to have them actually see and touch and smell them.” Most of them had never seen a nutmeg, or cloves. “I try to take some things to class,” said Tuljapurkar. In the weeks before the field trip, students savored Mexican moles, sampled Sichuan peppers, and tasted Thai curry pastes. Some students were attracted to the class because of the cultural and historical topics it advertised. So we talk about the positive and negative effects that global spread has had on the kinds of foods that you get to eat.” A spicy seminar And a lot of civilizations that produce chili peppers contributed to that in various ways. “The global spread of chili peppers has led to a mixing of flavors. Tuljapurkar specializes in population studies but loves traveling, food, and food history. “This was an ideal topic for an Introductory Seminar because it includes history, anthropology, and biology,” said Tuljapurkar, the Dean and Virginia Morrison Professor of Population Studies in the School of Humanities and Sciences. As suggested by its name, the course is all about chili peppers. That day, he was playing tour guide to the Introductory Seminar Chilis: Biology, History, Travels, Cuisine. “I think this is one of the last lots being farmed in East Palo Alto,” he said. But Winsberg still uses the land to produce a vast array of specialty chili peppers. The land was originally part of the Weeks Poultry Colony, an experimental small-farm community where Charles Weeks f amously developed his revolutionary chicken farming methods and “1 acre and independence” motto. David Winsberg, the owner of Happy Quail Farms, and his family have farmed this 1-acre plot since 1984. ![]() Within minutes, a man in work pants, a blue-gray T-shirt, and a baseball cap of the same color greeted the group. “This is the right place,” he declared, as 12 undergraduate students filed off the bus and gathered near the home’s mailbox. ![]() This was a residential neighborhood – weren’t they touring a farm? Shripad Tuljapurkar, the class’s professor, checked the address. Everyone on the bus looked slightly confused. On a warm, blue-sky Friday in May, a black charter bus rolled to a stop in East Palo Alto. ![]()
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