I just don't like habaneros. Very hot but not the taste I'm looking for.

As for our little patch over the septic tank, the peppers, tomatoes, and basil are all coming in gangbusters. It's a beautiful thing.

You have to build up the pepper love, Randy. Going straight to habaneros can ruin a perfectly good human. We grow several different powers of peppers just so we don't kill anybody.

I appreciate the tip about building up, but I think I'll stick with the canned green chiles and the occasional jalapeno, and maybe a pickled banana pepper every now and then.

P.S. I'm still trying to figure out how you can "taste" anything with your mouth on fire.

It took awhile for the plants (tomatoes and squash) to get going, but I harvested my first squash yesterday and one tomato is about to blush red. The vines have several baby tomatoes in progress though...at least I don't have to bend down to tend them this year.

No matter how much you build up, can you ever be ready for this?

Link

(I saw this story on the AP wire in the KNS today, too, but couldn't find it online at the KNS site.)

I had a similar experience today with a tiny red pepper my neighbor had given me. I just nipped the end of it and almost downed a complete 2 liter bottle of coke trying to stop the burning in my mouth. I think milk works best to ease the pain, but wouldn't you know it, I was out of milk. I don't know the name of it but it was one hot little bugga.

Adrift in the Sea of Humility

It's a bit late now but I read somewhere that dairy, especially high-fat dairy, is a good 'chaser' for hot peppers.

And you're right, food should not hurt.

Wearybottom Associates

I'm with Randy on the peppers. A little hot is ok.

It's a great time of the year. My neighbors have been kind enough to keep us in tomatoes. I love fresh corn. We've been eating healthy, but tonight I fried up some okra and green tomatoes, just like Mamaw makes (that's my Mamaw). With some pork chops and gravy...woohoo.

"I have this salsa recipe....and one for pepper spray as well."

I wanna hear more from talidapali about this. So, did ya find this recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, or maybe Diary of a Mad Housewife? How do ya get it into those little aerosol cans? What else do ya make in this "kitchen" of yours?! ;-)

My garden is going like gangbusters. I've had zuchinni and cukes for months now, tomatoes for weeks. I'm growing some of the best little skinny eggpants and the okra is fixing to flower. The first watermelon is about 12" across.

I was worried about the water bill but then a man came along and offered to pay $45 for an ugly concrete urn that came with the house so there you have it.

I've heard a theory that high power lines fix nitrogen and wonder if this is the key to the garden's sucess. Comments?

The only problem is a hobo keeps stealing my canteloupes. I need to find some small black bags so they'll blend in with the black plastic as they ripen. That might not bother me so much except they are my far and away the best canteloupes I've ever tasted. I do plant tomatoes and cukes along the fence row for the wayfarers. They are welcome to whatever grows outside the fence.
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Less is the new More - Karrie Jacobs

Canned green chile? oh no, please, no. Fresh green chilies are the only thing that gets me to break my never go to WallyWorld promise. Toss'em on the grill, get them nice and bloated and let them rest in a ziplock to steam off the skins. It has nothing to do with heat and everything to do with flavor. They freeze well so I only take on this mess a couple times a year. Rather like a cross between canning day and cleaning fish.

I use pepper spray to keep the squirrels from chewing on the log ends of our house. I swear, they love the pepper and wish I would add some salt to those logs too. Perhaps with the marketing of this new hot pepper they can finally create a pepper spray that deer and squirrels won't enjoy.

Peppers

The Thai basil that goes with these beauties is doing really well this year, as is the normal old green basil.

We've taken to having tomato basil sandwhiches for lunch.

Tali, my son got to try one of the ghost peppers a couple of years ago. An Indonesian family he knew had fixed a fish stew of some kind and he was eating with them. He got a pepper and started to eat it. The lady who had fixed it stopped him and said it was not to eat that she had missed pulling it out before serving the stew. My son explained he loved peppers and ate habaneros and scotch bonnets all the time and he wanted to try it. She was doubious but said ok. He then had a near death experience. Said it was not like anything he had ever eaten. Said never again.

I'm with Randy on the peppers. A little hot is ok.

I'm with these fellers, except only a tiny bit is OK, and only OK. I hate the burning--it ruins my meal every time. I just don't get it, and too wonder how any taste can be discerned through the heat. My wife and my brother OTOH...

That's the way it is for me. I was brought up on spicy food, and I love a meal that can make me break out in a sweat. I don't have any trouble tasting through the heat - it just makes things taste better. One of the best dishes I ever had was a stuffed chile that I split with my dad at a restaurant in New Mexico. We were both crying and blowing our noses constantly (no, we are not the most charming of dinner companions in that situation). It was fantastic. On the other hand, my mother likes medium-spicy food and stays away from the really hot stuff, and my sister hates any kind of spicy food. I really don't know how that happened to my sister.
I will say that while I like spicy food, I don't necessarily see the point in eating just a plain pepper purely for the heat. That doesn't really appeal to me.

My neighbors just got back from Key West and, instead of a tee shirt, I got a tin of Lee's Key Lime. This stuff is not hot enough to hurt you, as a matter of fact, many in this community would find it wuss food.

What can go wrong with a mixture of jalapeño peppers, Key Limes, and cream cheese? Spread it on a cracker and have a Margarita or two.

Wearybottom Associates

Today we think of hot Thai food, Korean food, Indian food, and Mexican food.

Even though we call some of them Thai peppers...All the hot peppers originally came from Mexico a couple of centuries ago. So if you like hot curry or tom yum soup...

Thank a Conquistador.

Seems like it all had to do with the black pepper trade in Java, the vanilla bean trade(which is an orchid fruit), and the explosion of Krakatoa, but I can't remember everything just now.

We were over at the Maryville Farmers' Market this AM and I have confirmed that the pepper plant in question is indeed a habanero. The pepper looked just like this:

Carol, that thought has crossed my mind. Yikes. The character's name was Gene Harrogate.

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Less is the new More - Karrie Jacobs

Gene wasn't really stealing the watermelons in a certain sense, but he was certainly making them somewhat less edible.

Peppers of all sorts are a new world food. It's not so much the conquistadors we have to thank but Columbus. It's very interesting to see how that one boat ride changed food the world over. The tomatoes we associate with traditional Italian food did not exist in the old world before Columbus. The potatoes that sustained the Irish for so many years are also in that list. Many regions in Asia were leaning toward spicy foods, but the black pepper, which is not a pepper, was almost all they had. It's amazing to me to think that, over a very few hundred years, these new foods completely changed the food culture of the countries that adopted them.