I'm seeing them at NaturesCrossroads.com

Just did some reading on them, and i'm tempted to buy a seed packet. I like complex tasting peppers like that.

Here is a link that might be useful: Direct link to Urfa seeds

I think I found Urfa pepper seeds, on eBay of all places. A seller in Urfa Turkey is selling the seeds. I purchased some today and am really looking forward to growing them this season. Go to eBay and put "urfa isot" into the search bar and you should be able to find them.
Lou

I would be wary of ebay... On another forum, I was reading a thing by a guy who had ordered super hot seeds, and recieved an illegal plant seed in its place... ebay being the crooks that they are left him with little recourse. Paypal as well. By the time he knew they were not pepper plants, the window had closed - as had the sellers account.

less illegal but still discouraging stories abound about people getting cayenne seed, or orange hab seed in place of whatever they ordered... in 90 days when it becomes clear what the plant is, its too late to do anything about it.

Yes, a few years ago there were Ebay people selling Habanero seeds as well as other seeds and saying they were Ghost Pepper seeds back when there was a huge demand for Ghost Pepper seeds but low supply. People wouldn't realize they were not Ghost Peppers for months after wards and in the mean time already gave positive feedback to the sellers so their ratings still looked good. By the time their ratings started going down, they had already sold hundreds or thousands of fake seeds for $5 a shot.
Bruce

Well, I guess I'll find out. Urfa pepper seeds are definitely not "in demand" and they were inexpensive. I've bought seeds on eBay many times without problem, especially pepper seeds from Spain that I bought through the Spanish eBay site and they're some of my favorites that I grow every year now. I also buy tomato seeds from Maria Stenger on eBay and they're wonderful. Regardless, thanks for the warnings.
Lou

I just bought a bottle of urfa biber flakes from a spice merchant while I was on vacation. I just love the flavor. I'm a real hot pepper girl, and while these flakes were not hot, they defitely had a complexity of flavours.

Had a few friends over this past weekend, and while we were whipping up some fresh mojitos, I passed around the bottle of urfa biber and asked a few of the guys to have a little taste and tell me what they tasted. Everyone had different answers, slight sweetness, lemony, orangy, fruity, chocolately, nice spice..and so on. No one mentioned tobacco however. I would definitely describe an initial sweetness, then fruitiness, then the heat starts to creep up. Definite earthiness to the flavour. Everyone said how the flavour gradually changed in your mouth. We decided to make some fresh salsa right then using the urfa biber flakes. It was very very tasty.

Definitely want to get my hands on some of these pepper seeds to try for next year. Not sure I want to try ebay as the source, but if I have to I have to :) LOL

I see the flakes are selling online at a few different merchants for a LOT less than I paid for them. Lesson learned...shouldn't treat myself so much while on holidays.

I grew out the Urfa pepper seeds that I got on eBay. They did very well and produced a lot of beautiful red peppers. The fresh peppers are slightly sweet with mild heat. Some plants produced peppers that look exactly like the ones photographed for the article in Gourmet magazine, others were more blocky. They all taste the same. I isolated blossoms on the first ones, saved those seeds and will grow those out again next year. The man featured in the online Gourmet article (Diary of a Foodie: Maras and Urfa a tale of two peppers), Ihsan Gurdal, owns Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, MA which is 30 minutes from where I live. I took some of the peppers to him. He said they are exactly right. He said that if these peppers are dried the resulting flakes will be red, not the almost black color like the flakes you can buy online. He said that is achieved by some traditional process that compresses the flakes in Turkey. That's a little disappointing but the peppers are still very worth growing.
Lou

Thanks for your feedback. That is the first sweet pepper that has caught my attention. I will consider it.