Javier Santelices, owner of Pancho Picante, planted 1,000 pepper plants on a quarter-acre at the West Virginia University at Parkersburg Riverhawk Farm last spring. He is in the process of picking the peppers he will use to make salsa, hot sauces and spice mixes for his company. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG –­ After a summer of growth, the pepper crop at Riverhawk Farm at West Virginia University at Parkersburg is being harvested and will be used in salsa and hot sauces by a local company.

Javier Santelices, owner of Pancho Picante, planted 1,000 pepper plants last spring on a quarter-acre he’s leasing at the farm.

As of Tuesday, they have picked 4,000 pounds of peppers and are continuing.

“The peppers have come out absolutely gorgeous and amazing,” Santelices said.

The peppers are hybrids he created from Carolina Reapers, Ghost peppers, Fatalii (an African spicy pepper), Pequin peppers, Hatch peppers, Jalapeno peppers, Scorpion peppers and Scotch Bonnet peppers, among others.

The harvest is underway at the West Virginia University at Parkersburg Riverhawk Farm of a quarter-acre of peppers grown over the past season for use in salsa, hot sauces and spice mixes produced by Pancho Picante, based in Washington, W.Va. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

“I have so many peppers, I don’t even know all the names of them,” Santelices said as he laughs.

Each pepper plant will yield, depending on the variety, several pounds of peppers. Peppers are picked in the fall to early winter when the spicier variety will be ready.

The peppers will be used in salsas, hot sauces, salt mixes and spice mixes made by Pancho Picante based in Washington, W.Va.

The Riverhawk Farm is leasing Santelices ground and assisting with the growing of the peppers.

Over the past season, Santelices has tried a number of different techniques and ways of growing peppers to see what works best in growing these peppers in West Virginia compared to his native California.

Javier Santelices, owner of Pancho Picante, with some of the peppers he has picked by hand at the West Virginia University at Parkersburg Riverhawk Farm where he has grown peppers over the past season to use in his business. The peppers are hybrids he created from Carolina Reapers, Ghost peppers, Fatalii, Pequin peppers, Hatch peppers, Jalapeno peppers, Scorpion peppers, Scotch Bonnet peppers and more. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

They have been trying things like extending the rows at different lengths, doing different watering routines on different rows and trying no till, till and growing them in beds to see which techniques work the best.

“We have a lot of data on what we should and shouldn’t do,” he said.

Throughout the season, Santelices daily inspected his plants while he pulling weeds. He had to tie the plants from snapping under their own weight.

“There is definitely a lot of work involved,” he said of the hours he spent working by hand and then going home at night and making sauces and marketing his business.

All of the peppers are being picked by hand, sorted by hand, the stems are removed by hand and they are washed by hand.

Francisco Santelices, John Riggs, director of Agriculture at WVU-P, and Javier Santelices with peppers Santelices grew over the past season at the West Virginia University at Parkersburg Riverhawk Farm for use in his business, Pancho Picante, which makes salsa, hot sauces and more. The company was named after his father, Francisco, whose nickname is Pancho. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

“It is very labor intensive, but I would call it a labor of love,” Santelices said.

With the recent cold snap this past week, extra care has to be taken.

“If we do it right and cover them up if there is a frost, we should be able to pull peppers out all the way to December as long as it doesn’t dip below 28 degrees for too long,” Santelices said. “The plants have not been damaged yet by the cold. A few have been shocked and dropped their leaves but the majority of plants are well and producing still. (From Tuesday on) these next few days will be a challenge.”

John Riggs, director of Agriculture at WVU-P, said Santelices did a good job in his first year of commercial crop production.

“I’m very happy for Javier and Pancho Picante as they had a terrific yield on their peppers,” he said. “He used his quarter-acre and made it a bountiful quarter-acre.”

A quarter-acre of ground at the West Virginia University at Parkersburg Riverhawk Farm was used this past season to grow peppers for the company Pancho Picante, based in Washington, W.Va., to make salsa, hot sauces and spice mixes for the company. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

Santelices is estimating a few thousand bottles of sauce and salsa as well as a number of spice mixes can be made with this year’s crop.

Pancho Picante was named after Santelices’ father, Francisco (Pancho is a family nickname), who was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and now lives in San Diego, Calif. He came to West Virginia recently to see his son’s enterprise and help out.

“I wasn’t expecting so much,” he said. “It is beautiful. I love it.

“I am impressed and proud of him. This is a lot of work.”

The company is planning to return to the farm next season.

“We have plans to make it better,” Santelices said.

He wants to further organize the peppers as this year they mixed the placements because they did not know which ground would be good for certain peppers and he didn’t want to lose any one kind of plant if he placed them all together.

“There is no bad ground here,” Santelices said.

For the upcoming holiday season the focus will be on gift packs. Orders can be directly from its website.

“Anyone who likes good food, we have something for them,” Santelices said. “We are offering free shipping until the end of the year due to the bountiful harvest we had.”

Because of his Mexican heritage, people may think all of his sauces are spicy, but there is a variety of flavor in their products.

They have a variety of sauces including Sol Fire, Snake Bite, El Greengo, Adobo Chile, Exorcist and Chile Limon as well as seasoning mixes.

“We are purveyors of flavor,” Santelices said. “We focus on flavor.”

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com

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For more information on Riverhawk Farm, email agriculture@wvup.edu. For more information on Pancho Picante, check out the website at panchopicante.com and PanchoPicante on Facebook and Instagram.