About Our Presenter

Steve Bellavia has worked for Johnny's for 28 years, 4 in the sales department and the remainder devoted to conducting vegetable research on the farm. As a Product Manager, Steve oversees our pepper program as well as most of our heading brassicas, rutabaga, parsnips, and other less common root vegetables. He is responsible for managing the assortment of these crops.

Welcome to the Resources page for our Webinar on Peppers: Mostly Sweet with a Touch of Heat, a list of materials covering the basics of our award-winning pepper breeding and trialing program, key distinguishing characteristics to look for in your peppers, our product assortment rationale, and a few of our favorites. Plus! comparison tools and guidance for determining which varieties will perform best for your unique needs and preferences.

Q&A Panel

As Product Technician at Johnny's, Nate Gorlin–Crenshaw manages variety trials for peppers and a range of other crops, including pumpkins and squash. Nate works in parallel with members of Johnny's Breeding team at the research farm.

Wesley Palmer is Johnny's Commercial Sales Representative for the Southeastern U.S. and U.S. Island Territories. Having grown up in Georgia, Wes is intimately familiar with the heat-associated challenges that southern growers face, and years of farming in the Virgin Islands have added to his experience with heat tolerance in vegetable production.

OVERVIEW: Steve Bellavia, Peppers Product Manager at Johnny's, together with Nate Gorlin–Crenshaw and Wes Palmer provide a tour of our sweet peppers line. While the focus is primarily on sweet peppers — bells, specialty sweet, snack, and shishito types — we take a look at jalapeños as well. Delve into this selection of mostly-sweet with a touch-of-heat peppers with Steve, Nate, and Wes, and learn about such defining characteristics for pepper types and cultivars as adaptability, habit, flavor, yield, disease resistance, and best uses.

A Q&A session with participants follows the presentation.