A small farm that produces hard to find chile powders in Boonville, California
photo courtesy of @boonvillebarn
Boonville Barn Collective is a woman-owned farm that’s been producing unique chile powders for 10 years in the resource-rich Anderson Valley of Northern California. Krissy Scommegna, the owner of Boonville Barn Collective, has devoted three of the seven acres her and her team oversee to growing and hand-harvesting Piment d’Ville, their signature version of the coveted Basque Piment d’Espelette, with organic and sustainable farming practices.
”This might be a Basque chile from France, but we’re trying to make it more of an everyday staple,” says Scommegna. “Once you start using Piment D’Ville, you start understanding its total versatility and flavor. It’s not just for that black pepper flavor. It’s not just a chile flavor. It adds a nice depth and complexity to food when you cook with it. But it can also be used as that finishing spice to amp up the flavor in a different way.”
While working as a chef at the Boonville Hotel and putting Basque Piment d’Espelette on everything, Krissy realized a local option would be better all around from a flavor and cost perspective. That was 10 years ago –they’ve been growing unique chile powders ever since. Thanks to a similar climate to the Basque region with warm days and cool nights, Boonville Barn Collective has become the most significant source for this peppery, sweet, mildly spicy chile powder outside of Europe.
Grown with organic and sustainable practices on their seven acre farm, the chiles are ready to be harvested by hand after five months in the fields. They’re dried in preparation for destemming and deseeding, before being carefully ground and packaged, all on the farm. Boonville Barn Collective is proud to bring the magic and versatility of these fresh, beautiful spices to home cooks and chefs across the country. Their farm is one of the few sources for farm-to-jar, domestically sourced chile powders. In an industry dominated by a commodity market and massive exports, Boonville Barn Collective owns all parts of their supply chain, and takes great care managing the process from planting seeds to growing to harvesting to packaging.
Deli Managing Partner, Grace Singleton says “I’m really excited about Boonville Barn Collective! I’ve been using their Classic Piment d’Ville in almost everything I cook over the last few months. It’s got a really nice full flavored heat without being over powering.” If you like it a bit hotter, we are also carrying the Spicy Piment d’Ville.
Piment d’Ville is perfect on eggs, avocado toast, or roasted chicken, stirred into chili, mole, stew and shakshuka, or sprinkled on grilled corn or a fruit salad, adding depth and flavor without overpowering heat. Ari says he loves it on toasted Paesano bread that’s been first doused with extra virgin olive oil; the pepper melts a little into the hot bread, and the flavor is terrific. It also makes a marvelous lamb or vegetable stew
Recently, Boonville Bar Collective has expanded their offerings to include additional chile powders, whole chiles, beans, and olive oil. We really love their Citrus and Chile Marmalade. Grace suggests using this marmalade on a cheese boards, on top of cream cheese canapes, or as a glaze for pork or chicken.
Piment d’Ville is perfect on eggs, avocado toast, or roasted chicken, stirred into chili, mole, stew and shakshuka, or sprinkled on grilled corn or a fruit salad, adding depth and flavor without overpowering heat. Ari says he loves it on toasted Paesano bread that’s been first doused with extra virgin olive oil; the pepper melts a little into the hot bread, and the flavor is terrific. It also makes a marvelous lamb or vegetable stew
