Who we are and
how to reach us.
South-East Brazilian
Wild Capsicum.
XVth EUCARPIA
Capsicum and Eggplant
My name is Claudio Dal Zovo. I'm an Italian keen on hot chile peppers.
In my home town Verona I grow and study hundreds of Capsicum varieties.
There are many chileheads here in Italy; we meet on the forum www.pepperfriends.com which I admin together with my wife Stefania.
The forum www.pepperfriends.com, created in 2007, deals with every aspect of hot chile peppers (growing, classification, wild species, cooking etc.); it counts about 2700 users and hosts almost 280000 messages, which increase day by day.
The Association PepperFriends, established in 2012, is the natural evolution of the forum, to give an official capacity to contacts with botanists and Capsicum experts and cooperation with Institutions.
Its aim is to deepen and spread the knowledge on hot chile peppers and promote the conservation of the biodiversity of all the species of the genus Capsicum.
With the help of all association members and forum users we wish to become a reference point for all the keen on Capsicum.
The Association participates to events about Capsicum, cooperates with Institutions and gives support to members initiatives such as trips to South America searching for wild Capsicum.
The project of exploring South-East Brazilian wild Capsicum was conceived few years ago.
After passing through all possible levels in our "crazy" passion (cultivating the hottest, most beautiful, rarest varieties) I fell in love with wild Capsicum.
I have grown all species for which seeds are available in the seeds banks or through exchanges with pepper enthusiasts around the world.
The species of the South-East Brazil were instead almost completely unknown, only names in the books on botany and articles in professional journals and few photos in black and white.
I wished to know more; the only way was to go right to the source.
So I started, alone or together with other keens on wild Capsicum, our destination Brazil! Four times!
I was pushed by the thirst for knowledge; simply I could not resist the call of species still unknown and mysterious.
My contribution to Eucarpia 2013 shows my results.
I wish to thank all the PepperFriends users who supported me. Special thanks to Roberto Gallicet, author of this presentation.
Forum: http://www.pepperfriends.com/forum/
Association: http://www.pepperfriends.com/associazione/
E-mail: presidente@pepperfriends.com or segretario@pepperfriends.com
© 2013 Associazione PepperFriends. All Rights Reserved