Inside the world’s largest chile pepper farm, found in N.J., of course

Peppers, Cross Country Nurseries (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

The world's largest chile pepper farm — 500-plus varieties and counting — is located on a winding back road in Hunterdon County.

Yes, New Jersey, which might be the last place in the world you’d look for it.

"Cross Country Nurseries Chile Pepper Plants" reads the sign out front, but that doesn't begin to tell the story and scope of the Garden State's most unique agricultural wonder.

"Aji omnicolor," says Tom Spies, standing in front of a one-acre field of peppers, shimmering bright green in the late morning sun. The aji omnicolor is his favorite pepper.

"It turns a lot of different colors (from pale yellow to purple to orange to red). It looks beautiful and it tastes great, a bright, citrusy flavor."

Spies, 36, is co-owner and chief plant officer at Cross Country Nurseries in Stockton. You’d expect the world's largest chile pepper farm to be somewhere like California or Texas — or Mexico or India or anywhere but here — to provide the dry, sunny weather chile peppers crave.

What makes New Jersey such a pepper paradise?

"A fairly mild climate," Spies says. "Few extreme weather events. For growing outside, we have fairly high temperatures but no extreme heat."

California and Texas, in fact, comprise the second and third-largest customers of Cross Country Nurseries’ mail-order business. Cross Country will sell 130,000-plus chile pepper plants this year, from scorchers such as Carolina reaper, dragon's breath and brain strain to milder peppers such as ancho, jalapeño giant yellow, and Trinidad perfume.

"Fantastic aroma and flavor with no heat," is the description of Trinidad perfume on Cross Country's encyclopedic website, chileplants.com.

Tom Spies, co-owner, Cross Country Nurseries (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Spies and his wife, Kristin, bought the farm last year after it was put up for sale by its founders, Janie Lamson and Fernando Villegas. Up until then, Tom Spies had been firmly entrenched in the corporate world, working in procurement for multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical and medical device firms — but he was no stranger to the pepper farm, having bought plants there for years.

Lamson and Villegas started growing peppers in 1993.

"We didn't set out to have so many kinds; it just happened," Lamson told a local paper back in 2013. "We started with six varieties, then 17, then 31."

Spies says he's learning fast on the job. Growing peppers is not simply scattering a bunch of seeds in the ground and waiting for them to grow. Growing peppers on such a scale requires know-how, persistence and a fair amount of high-tech.

Sample order, Cross Country Nurseries (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

He installed an inventory management system; a YouTube video shows him scanning greenhouse plants with a curvy handheld device. A tag on each plant contains an embedded circuit that enables Spies to track its growth, movement to another greenhouse, and eventual sale.

He built growing tables for the 11 greenhouses to keep plants above, not on, the ground.

"Plants need oxygen. It's better for them to be elevated," he explained.

His brother-in-law, Matt, is head grower.

"He's been dialing things in using his background in science to study growing methods, watering timing, fertilizer applications, and different amendments to the growing medium," Spies said.

Weather is key to an optimum harvest; so is fertilizer. Cross Country uses an organic diet of fish emulsion and seaweed, and beneficial insects to keep aphids and other pests off the peppers.

"There's a constant cycle of seeding, planting, selling; seeding, planting and selling," he explained. "It's a lot of juggling."

If you want to buy plants on site, there's a limited window; the retail store at Cross Country Nurseries is open only from early April until the end of May.

"People come from Long Island, Connecticut," Spies said. "Opening day, it's ‘I drove four hours to get here.’ "

But the overwhelming majority of Cross Country's business is done by mail order. Live plants, in three-and-a-half-inch deep pots, are shipped by UPS in custom-made cardboard boxes that hold a dozen plants securely and snugly. Their best-seller: the reaper.

If you’re buying fresh chiles, don't forget to heed the advice on chileplants.com. "Don't look at the calendar," it says. "Look instead at the thermometer, at night temperatures. Plant when hight temps are above 55-60 degrees. Young plants hate cold feet, and will perform poorly if planted early. It is better to plant three weeks late than one day early."

Cross Country Nurseries is more than just peppers, though. There are 200 kinds of tomatoes (most popular: San Marzano, Sun Sugar and Cherokee Purple); 50 kinds of eggplant (Cambodian Giant Green, Cloud Nine, Millionaire Hybrid, etc.); 60 varieties of basil and 10 kinds of cilantro.

"We have some really cool basil," Spies noted. "Lemon, lime... "

7 Pot chile pepper, Cross Country Nurseries (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Spies grows pot, too. Don't get the wrong idea. Seven pot chile peppers (so named because one 7 pot pepper is said to be enough to spice up seven pots of stew) are one of the hottest peppers in the world, officially tested as 1.5 million Scoville units, more than 500 times hotter than your basic jalapeño.

The current hottest pepper is the Carolina reaper, although its creator, Ed Currie, has grown a variety called pepper x, which he says is twice as hot as the Carolina reaper. Currie is owner of the South Carolina-based PuckerButt Pepper Co.

Spies is a pepper fanatic; he has 150 kinds of peppers in his home garden alone. But he fears the reaper and other incendiary peppers. "I am not capable of snacking on the super-hots," he confessed.

The website summarizes all 500-plus chile peppers, while Cross Country's Facebook page announces new varieties with language as colorful as the chiles:

"Black Scorpion Tongue is a small hot pepper with beautiful and unique color transitions. The Mad Hatter Hybrid is a large and prolific plant with a sweet and complex taste. The Pink Tiger is an extremely hot pepper that can produce purple striations as it ripens. The Primotalii is in contention for the hottest pepper in the world!"

The store at Cross Country Nurseries (Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

On Saturday, Cross Country Nurseries will host a fundraiser for Roughwood Seeds, whose collection comprises about 5,000 varieties of heirloom food plants. The event will be held from 1 to 5 p.m., and will include farm tours and instruction on how to save seed and pick peppers. Cross Country's retail store will be open at the time for sales of hot sauces, pepper powders and other items.

From the sound of it, Spies has no regrets leaving the corporate world behind.

"In the corporate world, I would have brief periods of satisfaction," he explained. "The pepper farm is fulfilling 100% of the time. ... It's really rewarding that so many people are able to find joy in our plants."

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