Andy Padua was a small farmer who ran a stall in Pike Place Market for more than 30 years. His stall sold onions, greens, and peppers. To his customers, Padua was known as “the Pepper Man,” due to the wide variety of peppers he grew. His peppers, winter melons, and ginger root were especially popular with Filipino and Chinese customers. Padua was also an avid salmon fisher.

Padua immigrated to Washington from the Philippines in the 1920s and first farmed in Woodinville with his brother. After World War II, he moved to the Kent Valley and opened his stall at Pike Place, where he was a very popular figure. Andy Padua died in a boating accident in 1977.

Caption information source: “A Market Spirit Dies,” by Kirk Smith, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 20, 1977, page A3.