Blog Archives
5 things you may not know about Chile Peppers
According to Stephanie Walker, an “extension vegetable specialist” at the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University, chiles are tough crop for farmers because they’re sensitive to drought and parasites, and they have to be harvested by hand.
Here are a few of her facts on chilies:
- If you just bite into the tip of a very hot chili pepper and not into the placenta or vein, you won’t get any heat.
- Chile peppers and bell peppers are the exact same genus and species.
- The heat in chili peppers is not detected by birds.
- Chile pepper is used to feed flamingos in zoos to keep them pink.
- Chemicals from the peppers are put in paints to put on boats to keep barnacles from attaching to the sides.
Chile Pepper Profile #5 – Cayenne
Cayenne
The cayenne pepper is named for the city of Cayenne in French Guiana, it is a cultivar of Capsicum annuum related to bell peppers, jalapeños, and others. The Capsicum genus is in the nightshade family (Solanaceae). The fruits are generally dried and ground, or pulped and baked into cakes, which are then ground and sifted to make the powdered spice known as cayenne pepper.
Cayenne is used in cooking spicy dishes, as a powder or in its whole form (such as in Sichuan cuisine) or in a thin, vinegar-based sauce. It is generally rated at 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville Units.
DARN HOT — DARN GOOD !
In the past few weeks we’ve welcomed several new customers who love our products. And this one says it best,….E.S. ( a new customer and fellow pepper grower) thinks that our “salsa is Hot, but amazingly flavorful” and further, he feels “it’s great to know there are small companies in the US that still have that HOME TOWN attitude!”
We thank you heartily, E.S.. What a way to kick off the 2010 pepper season! Those seedlings are even now growing well and just about ready to put into the ground.
Hoping for some Mother Nature moderation in the amount of rainfall in order to do this soon.
Our 21 varieties plus our Herb Garden is coming along well. Hope to see many of our newly attracted customers, if they are within local traveling distance, to call up and reserve a date for a group of friends to visit the farm for our Tours which Start in July. See you there?