TIL that in 2023, the seed companies got their pepper seeds mixed up and people across the USA grew different peppers than intended. The mix up is referred to as “peppergate”.

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u/cuntsaurus 1d ago

I've grown peppers for about 10 years now and heard about this a lot in 23. A few of my friends got the wrong seeds but all of mine were fine. I felt left out

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u/dennys123 22h ago

Idk I think it would be kind of fun buying a mystery set of seeds.

27

u/radicalfrenchfrie 21h ago

I’m with you but it’s probably not as much fun if you’re not informed about them being mystery seeds before. Especially if you have already invested money and time.

That being said: for Christmas this year we should both ask someone to gift us a mystery seed set. They’d need to buy seeds, re-package them into blank envelopes and then write the appropriate care instructions on the respective blanks but it would absolutely be doable and an easy fun gift.

6

u/dennys123 21h ago

Oh for sure I'd be upset if I bought what I thought were peas and it ended up being tomatoes. And I think I'm gonna steal your idea for Christmas lol

5

u/radicalfrenchfrie 21h ago

please do! thats why I typed it out c: and apropos tomatoes: did you know that there is an annual tomato festival in Brussels? I just learned about it this morning and now I need to share this adorable discovery with as many people as possible

2

u/cuntsaurus 18h ago

That's why I felt left out. I just grow stuff in my backyard so I wouldn't have been too upset about getting the wrong peppers. Plus I don't spend tons of money on stuff either

129

u/ExpensiveBookkeeper3 1d ago

I bought a bunch of jalapeños (so I thought) and ended up with tons of spicy wax peppers that I didn't really want

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u/mishkamishka47 1d ago

And I got jalapeños when I didn’t want them!

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u/ExpensiveBookkeeper3 1d ago

Give me my jalapeños back!

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u/mishkamishka47 1d ago

Not before I get my spicy wax peppers 🔫😠

17

u/ExpensiveBookkeeper3 1d ago

I dont want no trouble

🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

Here's to help with the heat - 🧀

15

u/mishkamishka47 1d ago

Thanks, sorry to fly off the handle there, pepper withdrawal is no joke

4

u/NakedShamrock 23h ago

Will you give him the jalapeños now, please?

3

u/mishkamishka47 15h ago

Here 😔🫱🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (they got too ripe and turned red)

20

u/plainlyput 1d ago edited 10h ago

Reminds me of when a joined one of those farm box subscriptions, where they send you a box of fruit/veggies every couple of weeks. I got a pound of jalapeños. And that was the end of that.

3

u/RainierCamino 22h ago

Gonna guess that was a rough week or two?

2

u/plainlyput 16h ago

I kid you not, I hate to waste anything, so I looked up recipes and made a quiche with them🤣

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u/Sanch0panza 1d ago

Some Reddit comments about growing the wrong peppers that year and peppergate : PEPPERGATE 2023 comments

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u/itwillmakesenselater 1d ago

I remember this. Rookie gardeners thought the world was ending.

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u/dYWe57WGuP 1d ago

Ah, yes... The "seed companies."

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u/xavPa-64 1d ago

Big seed at it again

26

u/username_generated 1d ago

Ever since Sneed’s sold out to Chuck’s it hasn’t been the same.

10

u/xavPa-64 1d ago

Oh yeah that guy sucks. And fucks.

20

u/Harvey_Squirrelman 1d ago

Not all, as someone into the pepper growing hobby, it was a few places that notoriously gave you the wrong seeds. Pepper joes in particular is well known in the hot peppers sub for it, it became a meme there.

53

u/nickcash 1d ago

It's a seedy business, but somebody's gotta do it

4

u/Sanch0panza 1d ago

Take my poor man’s award 🥇😂

10

u/AndreasDasos 1d ago

Tbf it’s all oligopolies in the US now - most specific agricultural industries in the US are dominated by 2-4 companies which the farmers are effectively beholden to and do all the distribution. So probably yes, the pepper seed companies.

3

u/hoboshoe 1d ago

Tbh, seeds for major crops are pretty split, it's probably like 10-12 major seed players for the big market cap crops. And still like 8 even for smaller crops. I do recall that carrot farming is a duopoly, and seed companies hate that cause of low profit margins.

1

u/AndreasDasos 16h ago

How about peppers?

160

u/SmokinHerb 1d ago edited 1d ago

Was there a conspiracy about it? Adding -gate to the end of words is getting out of hand lol

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u/GayRacoon69 1d ago

You're right. We should call this phenomenon "addinggatetotheendofwordsgate"

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u/softfart 1d ago

Or GateGate for short

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u/GayRacoon69 1d ago

That's perfect! If we find out that gategate is a conspiracy then we can call it gategategate

10

u/Weirfish 1d ago

We did actually have a Gategate in the UK, though it wasn't the most common name for it.

3

u/Peterowsky 1d ago

he resigned from the post of Chief Whip a month later

I can't help but think of whipped cream. Specially after Wimbledon spent so much on that ad with the strawberries. It's what my brain associates with Brits and "Whip".

1

u/Lycaeides13 14h ago

Like a conspiracy that the term was only created for the excuse of saying a silly word? I don't believe that tinfoil hat nonsense

3

u/Dayvi 22h ago

I assume the original "Watergate" was about water..

1

u/Mr_Wolfgang_Beard 15h ago

The "gate" suffix is used to denote scandals or controversies, not exclusively coverups.

1

u/SmokinHerb 14h ago

Well, then it got "out of hand" past tense lol

42

u/Lele_ 1d ago

That's what you get for buying from Sneed's Seed and Feed (formerly Chuck's)

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u/Squall9126 1d ago

I hate adding gate onto every scandal, be more original like The Fappening instead of the boring Celebgate. Look I get Watergate was a huge scandal and unprecedented in many ways but its had a stranglehold on how we name scandals for too long.

26

u/JesusStarbox 1d ago

How about instead of peppergate we can it the Peppering?

Peppergeddon?

Pepperpacalypse?

21

u/Squall9126 1d ago

I like Peppergeddon

5

u/driftingfornow 1d ago

Saying “Peter Piper Picked a Pepperpocalypse,” does feel better though.

1

u/itsfunhavingfun 13h ago

Pepperidge. Then you can say you remember Pepperidge.

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u/leonitus35 1d ago

What drives me nuts about it is Watergate wasn't about water so why apply -gate as a suffix to these "scandals?"

10

u/turniphat 1d ago

You mean Watergategate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9JgxhXW5w

6

u/Luxky13 1d ago

Don’t you mean richardnixongate?

3

u/Pheighthe 1d ago

Yes. Why didn't they call it WaterPepper? Would make as much sense.

6

u/ramxquake 1d ago

The Peppering.

5

u/Peterowsky 1d ago

I think you will be pleased to know that's a US-only thing at least. The rest of the world names scandals as they come, not that there is ever any shortage of them.

0

u/radicalfrenchfrie 21h ago

nu uh :/ it’s done just as much in Germany at least

4

u/rutherfraud1876 1d ago

As a W.G. Harding fan, I have to go with Pepper Dome

4

u/SolarApricot-Wsmith 1d ago

What on gods green earth was the Fappening

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u/Squall9126 1d ago

When all those celebrity nudes got leaked

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u/SolarApricot-Wsmith 1d ago

Oh thank goodness I thought I missed an invitation to something important

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u/Logondo 1d ago

I wish we didn’t label every controversy with the “gate” suffix.

Watergate was called Watergate because that’s where it took place!

8

u/RedSonGamble 1d ago

“There were no survivors”

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u/bigbootywhitegirl78 1d ago

I remember that! I ended up with ten very spicy jalapeño plants. I do not like jalapeños.

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u/Colseldra 1d ago

Hopefully it led to people enjoying a new pepper

2

u/alphalegend91 1d ago

This happened to me! Bought a ton of “Jalapeno” starters. They ended up being some yellow pepper with the same amount of burn, but all upfront on the tongue instead of slow and steady down the throat like jalapenos are.

2

u/LEPNova 1d ago

Did you see those comments on that onion post too?

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u/hunkydorey_ca 1d ago

Pepper joe'd

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u/Todd-The-Wraith 13h ago

The OG sender of the wrong seeds “is this a ghost pepper?” Nope! Looks Pepper Joe sent habaneros instead

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u/PreferenceContent987 1d ago

They got me. My chili peppers turned out to be sweet cherry peppers

2

u/Jack_Kentucky 22h ago

My parents had an overly spicy crop and I told them there was probably just a mix up. Had no idea I was actually right

2

u/theMIKIMIKIMIKImomo 21h ago

I FUCKING KNEW IT

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u/shogunhitotiri 19h ago

I was a part of this. We got some bird eye chili's out of it and made some spicy pickles. Honestly, one of the best company mess ups in recorded history in my opinion.

2

u/nevergonnastawp 18h ago

47 people went to jail over this

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u/minedreamer 1d ago

why gate? this is a mixup not a conspiracy

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u/Consistent_Option_82 1d ago

Mine were fu

1

u/Novel_Quote8017 22h ago

So many gates, someone should really consider closing them.

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u/NotReallyJohnDoe 16h ago

Watergate had nothing to do with water. This naming thing has to stop.

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u/drossmaster4 16h ago

Yeup. 100% happened to me

1

u/kolodrubka_offical 14h ago

I like these kind of scandals.

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u/Kaiisim 12h ago

Wow who came up with peppergate so witty I would never have guessed

TIL that in 2023, the seed companies got their pepper seeds mixed up and people across the USA grew different peppers than intended. The mix up is referred to as “peppergate”.

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