Camarillo geneticist develops new pepper variety
Villa also created a sweet jalapeno pepper for Campbell Soup
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers HOT, HOT, HOT- Camarillo resident Phil Villa is cultivating a new type of ancho pepper he hopes to take to market next year.

Phil Villa has created a monster pepper.

The geneticist and Camarillo resident said he's developed an ancho pepper much larger than those found in the market or growing in the field.

Named the Villancho by his wife, Faye, the pepper is 8.2 inches long and 3.3 inches wide. Anchos generally don't exceed 6 inches in length and 3 inches in width.

"The industry needs it," Villa, 77, said of his pepper.

People are often confused about peppers, which could be because of the sheer number of pepper varieties. Although only one or two dozen species have been classified worldwide, each one has several, maybe dozens of varieties that have yet to be identified, Villa said.

It doesn't help that different varieties look alike and that names vary according to regions. What people in one region call a particular pepper- or chile in Spanish- goes by another name elsewhere.

Others mistake one pepper for another. Some people, for instance, mistakenly call the popular ancho, commonly used in making chile relleno, a pasilla or pablano pepper. Misunderstandings with names and types even extend to the pepper growers themselves, Villa said.

In addition, the words chile and chili, a spicy meat dish, are often use interchangeably. The two words are not synonymous.

Villa said with his larger ancho pepper on the market, confusion can be reduced.

Villa is also attempting to at least double the usual ancho crop yield with his variety and is applying for a U.S. patent on the pepper with his employer, Arizona-based Curry Seed Company. He hopes to manufacture enough peppers and seeds to hit grocery store shelves and to supply restaurants as early as next year.

Seven years ago, Villa began experimenting to develop an ancho with all of the flavor and mild taste that has made it a popular pepper but without a depressed stem.

He was attempting to help farmers in Veracruz, Mexico, who were finding the depressed stems collected water and led to crops rotting in the fields before they could be harvested.

Over the span of his 50year career as a vegetable breeder, Villa has produced other pepper variations. He developed a sweet jalapeno pepper for the Campbell Soup Company, he said.

Villa worked for several years at the University of California, Riverside's Citrus Research Center and Agricultural Experiment Station, an agricultural research arm and the nation's largest land grant experiment facility.

Later he was a researcher for several seed development companies in Ventura County. He now is a consultant for the Curry Seed Company and has partnered with the Pearce, Ariz., business in developing the Villancho for market.