The South Texas Chile Co. is on a dual-track mission that sets it apart from other Rio Grande Valley nurseries.

The first goal is to grow all the chiles, “from jalapeno to the wild chiles like chile de monte,” as the nursery’s website states. The Raymondville nursery does offer more standard plant choices such as cucumbers and beans, but it has set out to be the chile specialty nursery of the Valley. South Texas Chile appears to be getting there with the many varieties it offers.

Secondly, the nursery has an educational purpose. In May 2020, Las Majadas Academy purchased the Caldwell Jungle Nursery. The longstanding business once supplied tropical plants across South Texas. The intent then was to move the academy’s life-skills training program to the nursery to assist individuals with intellectual disabilities. The hope is that later this year, the nursery can begin hosting those students to help them develop job training and social activity skills. 

In the interim, Las Majadas had a nursery on its hands, which needed refurbishment and a new purpose. It was by happenstance from passing motorists asking about chile de monte that the thought processes started stirring about specializing in chiles. Jei Gaither, an information technology specialist who had done work for the academy, took an interest in the nursery and its possibilities.

Gaither would become the nursery’s general manager. He has set out to make the still fairly new South Texas Chile Co. a distinctive brand among the many RGV nurseries. The aim is to make it a viable business that can help fund the programs of the Las Majadas Academy. The El Paso native has relished the new opportunity.

“It’s a joy being around nature,” he said. “Every day I’m not behind a keyboard is a good day.”

Pepper Power 

The history of the old Caldwell nursery can be felt and seen when walking around its successor. 

Thick-trunked trees of several decades are still vibrant and green behind the main walk-around area of South Texas Chile. Some of the wooden structures and shelves appear to go back to the old nursery years. Sturdy and sure they are and now, the whole spread of the nursery is getting new life. It is growing green again with pots of habaneros, tabasco and jalapenos shooting up with new growths. 

Gaither gives an enthusiastic tour of the nursery, providing an overview of the varieties of chile and the intensity of taste bud kick in each type. From the hot habanero to the mild sweet banana peppers, the nursery has something for every scale of pepper preferences. The native chile de monte, which springs up organically in Valley backyards after having their seeds carried by birds, are popular sellers at the nursery as is the much hotter pequin pepper. 

In the Valley, using some sort of chile pepper is a must for meals, be it lunch at a favorite restaurant or a family dinner at home. A walk around the Raymondville nursery is to see the possibilities of what can be done with peppers. The colors of the peppers are vibrant with color as they bounce and sway with the wind. Gaither said his nursery is “cleaning up and scaling up” its business. 

“We want to be the place,” he said of the nursery’s selections of chiles.

Educational Objectives

South Texas Chile also wants to fulfill its educational mission.

Later this year, it hopes to host teenage students and young adults who are autistic and have down syndrome. Learning to plant and care for what is growing provides valuable social and organizational skills and helps students focus on tasks and goals. The goal is that the skills learned and nurtured at the nursery will help the students gain experiences that will help them when seeking employment.

“Our plant nursery will host an inclusive job training and social innovation center,” Las Majadas states on its website.

The preference for Las Majadas is to avoid fundraising as many non-profits must. It instead plans to use the revenues of the nursery to make the academy and its programs self-sustaining, Gaither said. He also wants South Texas Chile to be a successful business in its own right. The combination of the two aspects of the nursery’s operations appeals to the IT guy, who still dabbles in that business. 

“It’s an opportunity to do something that serves a bigger community,” he said of the nursery’s multipurpose. 

The South Texas Chile Co. is located at 12310 Texas Highway 186 heading west out on Raymondville’s outskirts.