More than 100 years ago, Hungarian immigrant Joe Hussli brought the seeds for a medium-hot pepper from his homeland and planted them in his new hometown of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. The pepper was popular enough to be named after the town where it arrived, but like many other heirloom vegetable varieties, it fell out of favor after hybrids (plants created by cross-pollinating two closely related species, usually to select for certain characteristics) were introduced in the 1950s, and the pepper was all but forgotten—even in Beaver Dam—until recently.
Since 2010, Lee Greene has been on a one-woman mission to resurrect the Beaver Dam pepper. She's the founder and owner of Scrumptious Pantry, a Chicago company that makes various products with the pepper (as well as other heirloom fruits and vegetables), and has organized multiple Beaver Dam pepper festivals in Chicago and Milwaukee.