Chili Peppers used as crop defense

Conflicts between farmers and elephants have long been widespread in Africa and Asian countries, where pachyderms nightly destroy crops, raid grain houses, and sometimes kill people. Farmers have found the use of chilies effective in crop defense against elephants.   Elephants don't like capsaicin, the chemical in chilies that makes them hot. Because the elephants have a large and sensitive olfactory and nasal system, the smell of the chili causes them discomfort and deters them from feeding on the crops. 

By planting a few rows of the pungent fruit around valuable crops, framers create a buffer zone through which the elephants are reluctant to pass. Chilly-Dung Bombs are also used for this purpose. They are bricks made of mixing dung and chili, and are burned, creating a noxious smoke that keeps hungry elephants out of farmers fields. This can lessen dangerous physical confrontation between people and elephants.

Halloween Decor with a SPICY twist

YES, it has a chili pepper on it.

I am showing it off because I love the ghosts and skull/bones in the background.

Sooooo Halloweeny!

Boooo!

Chili Pepper Nutritional Value

A Chili Pepper a day, keeps the doctor away.

*Take THAT Affordable Health Care Act!*

Red chilies contain large amounts of vitamin C and small amounts of carotene (provitamin A). Yellow and especially green chilies (which are essentially unripe fruit) contain a considerably lower amount of both substances. In addition, peppers are a good source of most B vitamins, and vitamin B₆ in particular. They are very high in potassium, magnesium, and iron. Their very high vitamin C content can also substantially increase the uptake of non-heme iron from other ingredients in a meal, such as beans and grains.

Chili pepper leaves in cuisine

The leaves of every species of Capsicum are edible. Though 
almost all other Solanaceous crops have toxins in their leaves, chile peppers do not. The leaves, which are mildly bitter and nowhere near as hot as the fruit, are cooked as greens in Filipino cuisine, where they are called dahon ng sili (literally "chili leaves"). They are used in the chicken soup, tinola.   In Korean cuisine, the leaves may be used in kimchi.  In Japanese cuisine, the leaves are cooked as greens, and also cooked in tsukudani style for preservation.

5 Things you didn't know about Srirracha

Hubby's ketchup 

You pass it in the grocery store and see it at restaurants all the time. You might not be able to read all the words on the bottle, but you know what's in it: Sriracha.

The hot sauce in the clear bottle with the rooster on the side is incredibly popular. Quartz recently profiled Huy Fong's founder, David Tran, and learned that Tran is a bit of an accidental entrepreneur. 

Tran, 68, founded Huy Fong 33 years ago with no intention of it going global. Quartz reported that he simply wanted to give Vietnamese immigrants "a hot sauce worthy of their pho soup."

He did, and then some. Last year, the company racked up $60 million in sales and posted a double-digit sales growth percentage. He told Quartz that he has never once raised the wholesale price,despite inflation having more than tripled the price of food since 1980.

Oh, and Tran doesn't advertise.

Below, five things you may not have known about Tran and his creation.

1. Why the rooster? According to a New York Times article, Tran chose the rooster as the sauce's logo because it is his astrological sign in the Chinese zodiac.

2. Why is it so good? A question that would no doubt flatter Tran, who, according to Quartz, loves reading fan mail. The answer, according to the company's official site, is a bit of letdown, though: High quality ingredients.

3. And how do you pronounce it? It's pronounced, SIR-rotch-ah, according to Thrillist. The term is a generic one (like ketchup or mustard), named for the Vietnamese town where it was supposedly created.  Huy Fong, by the way, was the name of the ship that Tran came to the U.S. on.

4. Is it true there's a documentary in the works? Glad you asked. It is true. The project was funded via Kickstarter and is set to hit film festivals this fall. Filmmaker Griffin Hammond calls it "an anthem for sriracha lovers."

5. It's been to space. A photo from a 2003 mission aboard the International Space Station features two astronauts, Yuri I. Malenchenko and Edward T. Lu. See the bottle with the green cap floating by? That's the real stuff. Take that, imitators.

Fall Harvest

Fall Harvest

What would you do with a selection like this?

We would add onion and cilantro with a bit of vinegar... 

and giant bag of taco chips.  

Evolutionary Advantages to Chili Peppers

Birds do not have the same sensitivity to capsaicin, because it targets a specific pain receptor in mammals. Chili peppers are eaten by birds living in the chili peppers' natural range. 

 The seeds of the peppers are distributed by the birds that drop the seeds while eating the pods, and the seeds pass through the digestive tract unharmed. This relationship may have promoted the evolution of the protective capsaicin. 

 Products based on this substance have been sold to treat the seeds in bird feeders to deter squirrels and other mammalian vermin without also deterring birds. Capsaicin is also a defense mechanism against microbial fungi that invade through punctures made in the outer skin by various insects.

Honorary St. Louis Baseball Contract

Does anyone else have one of these?
It is an honorary contract from the St. Louis Cardinals made out to me. 
I received it when i was born in February of 1967. The Cardinals went on to win the World Series that year with Red Schoendienst and Stan Musial.
Both of their signatures are on here, although I am not sure they officially signed it.
Did anyone else get one of these or am I special? Not the window licking special, tho ; )

Bring on the spicy hot cocoa

a chilly fall walk..

and a little something to warm you up.  

Spiced Hot Cocoa

Now for a bonfire... 

Winter chili plant migration

Moved the jalapeno and habanero plants into the atrium.  

Threw in the aloe for giggles.

This is the best they will look through the winter.  Hopefully some of the green fruits will still ripen.  

More to come!

Study: Hot Chili Pepper Compound Kills Cancer Without Side Effects «

Study: Hot Chili Pepper Compound Kills Cancer Without Side Effects «

For the gentlemen only ;)

C'mon boys, you know this one is toooooo hot for you!

Scorpion Chili Pepper

For the ladies only ;)

Ladies... I bet this is the hottest 3 inches you can find. 

350,000 Scoville Units in 3 inches

Habanero Chili Pepper 

A great article on where the world hottest chili's originate

The 17 tribes of Nagaland are united, historically, by an enthusiasm for heads. The Nagas: Hill Peoples of Northeast India—my reading matter on the two-hour drive from Dimapur to Kohima, in the state of Nagaland —contains dozens of references to head-taking but only one mention of the item that has brought me here: the Naga King Chili (a.k.a. Bhut Jolokia), often ranked the world’s hottest. “In the Chang village of Hakchang,” the anthropologist J. H. Hutton

is quoted as saying in 1922, “...women whose blood relations on the male side have taken a head may cook the head, with chilies, to get the flesh off.” Hutton’s use of “cook” would seem to be a reference to Chang culinary practice. Only on rereading did I realize the Chang weren’t eating the chilies—or the flesh, for that matter—but using them to clean the skull.

read the rest of the story on where the worlds hottest chili's originate

Another chili pepper presentation idea

If you could put a little cup inside of these to hold any condiments or dips, that would be an adorable way to decorate a fall snacking table.

Hot chili presentation

Such a pretty presentation.  

Only missing the ranch!

I could so see this on a glass platter with various dips and cheeses on each point.  You would have to pay me to bite into some of these.

Top 10 reasons for canning

Red Jalapeno Jelly in the making. Makes great Christmas Gifts!

Red Jalapeno pepper jelly in the making.  

Doesnt look like much here, but lemme tell you... This stuff is sensational.  

Who wants to be on my Christmas list for a jar of this

Chili Pepper Gummies.

Chili Pepper gummies.  

I bet these would be sooo yummy!

Would you try one?

Chili peppers as the cure-all?

The Mesoamericans used chili peppers to treat severe headaches, relieve cold and flu symptoms, and to treat tooth aches.  

Beautiful Red Jalapeno's

Red goodness from my deck garden.  

These were made into jalapeno jelly, but there are plenty on the plant for another harvest.  

A lot of people have asked me about my jelly, and if I sell it or not. 

I have sold it in the past.  This is my first year with only one plant.  Normally we have 5-10 of these plants in order to make the jelly needed to keep up with the demand.  This is our first year living in the city.  Our deck is 8x10 and with growing so many other chili's we just didn't have the room.  

Comment here if you might be interested in purchasing jalapeno jelly or know someone who is.  

I am trying to get an idea for next year and to see if there is still demand.  

Chili Pepper Ice Cubes

Now this is one "Chilly" item!

What a cool idea for the chili pepper head in your family.  

Just fill with water and freeze.  Keeps drinks cold without diluting.