Welcome to ‘pepperdise:’ Florida couple finds a home and business on Zanesville farm

ZANESVILLE − It was their love of spicy food and finding the hottest concoctions they could in Jacksonville, Florida, that brought Thera and Nick Snyder together in the first place.

And now it’s the thing that binds them together in love and business in Zanesville.

“We are loving it,” Thera said of their Ohi:yo Pepper Company business located just off Neal Avenue, up the road from Riverside Park. “At times it is definitely overwhelming, but we enjoy it every second.”

The Snyders grow more than 60 varieties of hot peppers on their “pepperdise,” ranging from poblanos and jalapeños to dragon’s breath, scorpions and Carolina reapers. They use the peppers to make powders, salts, rubs and honeys on the farm that Thera’s family inherited after her grandma passed away in 2019.

“Dad was thinking about selling the property, but none of us were ready to do that,” said Thera. “The idea of us farming came up, so we said, ‘Let’s go up there and try it out.’”

At first they grew hemp, but it was exhaustive.

“That didn’t really work out for us,” said Thera. “But we weren’t ready to quit. Having a homestead and farming was our dream. And we didn’t want to give up our dreams.”

So, they turned to the thing they loved most — peppers.

“We grew 1,500 plants,” she said. “And we were like, ‘We have so many peppers, what are we going to do?’”

They had been toying with freeze-drying the peppers and making them into powders and spicy salts for their own personal use. But after taking those products to a market in New Albany in 2021, they knew they’d hit a much bigger nerve.

“It was a huge hit,” said Thera. “We realized we might be onto something.”

From there, they doubled up on their peppers and added more products. Now, the burgeoning company offers five different dry rubs, a variety of spicy salts and powders, hot honey, and the fresh peppers and pepper plants themselves, as well as Jalapeno-candied pecans and Ghost-candied pecans.

“We’re also working on making some hot pepper jellies and relishes,” said Thera. “We’re hoping to have that by the August/September timeframe.”

For the super spicy fanatics, Thera said the dragon's breath powder is a favorite, while those angling for just a kick of spice like the jalapeno salt. And for a good overall product, she said the A Kick in the Peach, whose main ingredient is freeze-dried peaches with freeze-dried datil pepper powder, is a sure bet.

Overall, Thera said the powders are the best-selling product.

“They’re so versatile,” she said. “I even tell people they can make their own hot jelly and hot honey. But start small — you can always add more later.”

Customers can buy them online or at the Winerak Market in Zanesville. They can also find them at the Worthington Farmer’s Market, in Dublin at the Bridge Park market, the Clintonville market, the Columbus Taco Festival, and the Columbus Fiery Foods Festival.

“Our goal this year is to get bar codes and get on more shelves in Zanesville,” said Thera. “Then start branching out to other stores in Ohio.”

Thera said they make all their products in one of the leased commercial kitchens at Foodworks Alliance in Zanesville.

“That really helped us get off the ground,” said Thera. “It would not be feasible for us to do what we’re doing without them. And we love what we’re doing.”

You can learn more at ohiyopepperco.com or follow them on Instagram at @ohiyopepperco.

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Family farm in Zanesville transformed into the Ohi:yo Pepper Company