Candy Bell Hybrid Pepper Seeds

Days to Maturity: 70 from transplant

You’ve heard of a horse of a different color—well, here’s a pepper of a different flavor. Candy Bell combines the succulent sweet, non-peppery flavor of red and yellow bells with the rugged holding power and thicker, meatier walls of green bells. The fruit stays green, but has 50% more sugars and vitamin C than others.

Candy Bell is from the same breeding program as Sweetgreen, the bell that won the Fruit Logistica Award in 2009 for innovation. These blocky fruits measure 4 to 5 inches long, with juicy-sweet flesh and a smooth, glossy green skin. What a great way to introduce kids to green vegetables—and the perfect solution for that member of your family who doesn’t care for the spicy bite of traditional green bells.

Resistant to tobacco mosaic virus, these plants grow vigorously, producing freely all summer. The peppers may acquire a slight blush when fully ripe, but mostly they keep their emerald gleam. Packed with up to 50% more vitamin C than other green bells, they’re as good for you as they are delicious.

Start seeds indoors. When all danger of frost is past, set seedlings out in the garden, spacing about 18 inches apart in direct sun.