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Long
before there was Bruno Pepper Company, the Bruno family was pickling peppers in Lodi, California. Like many of the families
in the San Joaquin Valley, the Bruno's began farming when they settled in the area in 1926. Tomatoes and grapes were the popular
crops in the area. While the Bruno's worked in large fields and orchards, they also kept
a small garden so the family could enjoy fresh vegetables and make pickled peppers. The first batches of peppers supplied
the family and were traded with other farmers for food items like canned peaches, eggs and canned tomatoes. The popularity of the product
grew and Bruno Pepper Company commenced business in 1947. The pickled peppers were first sold by the barrel to Carlo Georgetti,
a pickle packer from Oakland, California. By 1954 the product's popularity had pulled the family into the pepper business
full-time and the Bruno's brand was born (see the original label below).
The Bruno's brand name and Bruno's Wax Peppers celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2004, a testament to delicious
pickled products, a commitment to making quality food and customers who enjoy the unique and zesty. Bruno’s Wax Peppers have been serving the Northern California market longer than many popular products – Hamburger Helper,
Sprite, Pop Tarts, Mrs. Butterworth’s, Starburst, Lucky Charms, Bugles, Mini-Wheats and Pringles to name a few.
The photograph to the left (circa 1956) shows fresh peppers being weighed
in bushel baskets then placed into a barrel. The man in the picture is Chester Bruno, part of the first generation of owner/operators
at Bruno Pepper Company.
When the company first started most steps in
the process involved manual labor, typically of the endlessly-tedious or back-breaking variety! The peppers were picked,
packed and labeled by hand - even the oak barrels (see photo above) were coopered by hand. The photograph to the right shows
first and second generation Bruno's packing peppers - in three generations the business has employed twelve family members. As
the popularity of Bruno's grew around Lodi,
Stockton and Northern California and production grew from tens of barrels to hundreds, the Bruno family was unable to
keep up with local demand. In the early in 1960's the company began using machines to duplicate or simplify tasks that had
to be done manually.
Like all peppers, the variety made famous under
the Bruno's label originated in South America thousands of years ago. From the capsicum baccatum family, this unique
variety and its close relatives are known by many names - White Wax, Aji Amarillo, Yellow Wax and others. As the local
legend goes, around 1870 the pepper made its way to Northern California with Chilean immigrants who were seeking
riches in the mines of California and Nevada. Consequently, the variety of pepper is also called chileno. It is not a common
variety and develops unique pepper traits in the Northern California climate. When the Bruno family began pickling this
variety in the 1940's it was called an Italian Wax Pepper. How rare and unique of a pepper is it? --- Of the 235+ cultivated
varities of peppers less than 20 are classified as baccatum. When the world’s 2004 pepper production was estimated by
FAOSTAT and NASS, they did not include any baccatum varieities in there harvest numbers because of their relative insignificance. The United States is responsible for about 4% of the world's pepper
production; the leading countries are China, India and Mexico. So, the total amount of the baccatum variety that is commercially
harvested in the US is likely below one one-hundredth of a percent of world production!
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