Pete Aiello's passion for peppers is as hot as they come. And that makes sense because he has grown up with them. For nearly 40 years, Pete's family has owned and operated Uesugi Farms, a multigenerational family farm in Gilroy that specializes in peppers.
Theirs is a fully integrated farm, meaning they grow, harvest and pack all of their peppers, shepherding the produce all the way from a barren field to a bountiful harvest, then from processing to the final step of packing. While many of Uesugi Farms' peppers are shipped directly to supermarkets, some of the cosmetically challenged crop takes a completely different journey to a plate near you by traveling to the Mezzetta food company in Solano County.