Peppers and middle of the night cleaning binges

I decided to eat.
That involved going to kitchen to make something.
That involved the kitchen had devolved into a pit and needed a strong hand with the scrubber sponge and the cleaner stuff.
That involved the day's harvest still sitting in the colander.

I grow peppers. Insane peppers. From zero to death-warrant.

I forgot. That wasn't a mild cow-horn (torino) pepper.

It was the over the threshold oh-my-ghod pepper that LOOKS like a torino when it's ripe. 500k scoville. Cat's meow in certain Italian stuff.

I handled it. I rubbed near my eye.

My eye is puffy around it, and I am LUCKY that though I'm celiac and vegan my spouse isn't and he had some heavy whipping cream around for his breakfast omlettes (puts a dollop in the eggs).

I will remember next time what pepper I picked. !!!

Later today I will put on the proper safety gear, seed that not so little blighter, and chop it for dehydrating and some of it gets flaked. The chunks get used in cheesecloth for pots of goodness. The flakes, a little dab'll do ya. As they say.

What sinus problems?

The Puckerbutt Carolina Reaper is making peppers. Those you can't miss the shape on. Those get picked with tongs. I shall learn! Especially at 2 am.

Deb, Sorry about your eye, but man, was it funny.  

If you want to sell some seeds from some "OMG they're hot" peppers, I would love to buy some.

Great post, Deb.  Can relate much to this when we had a overabundance one year of habaneros.  My wife was trying to can a jar full of them on the stove when the jar broke in the boiling water pot, ..... sent "habanero steam" into the air and the house pretty much needed to be evacuated for several hours.  Other than that, know well the 'eye rub' mistake, which is often the prelude to the 'handling mr. happy mistake'.....    That's the kind of 'heat' in my life I don't need....  Now, habaneros just get put into vinegar and used, very minutely, to give a little kick to the meal being prepped.

Habaneros have nothing on some of these little friends... trust me.

https://puckerbuttpeppercompany.com/  where they have a lot of unusual and mild to lethal pepper seeds and other stuff for sale.

Some of these you take out your contact lenses BEFORE you even think of getting near them and make absolutely sure you use protective gear and wash really good. Get that into gas permeable hards and you will be throwing them. (I wore these for a decade, I know of what I speak)

I know of a poor dude that picked some scotch bonnets and hadda go and ended up with cutting the top off the milk jug and hanging his parts in there to get some relief. He learned to wear gloves.

Sorry to hear about that Deb. Hope you're okay.

Another life lesson:
Although not considered very hot by some people's tastes, jalapeno peppers can🔥pack a punch. For any young man making jalapeno poppers for his pals without gloves on, do remember to wash your hands before and after going to the bathroom. Just saying. 😱


(Edit: Too funny! We were typing a similar story at the same time.)

And there is some scientific work on that milk fat will help neutralize capsaicin. the nasty stuff that burns you with peppers. Hence I grabbed some cream and put it on my face where it was burning and puffing up.

And the fellow soaking parts in milk. It's not perfect but it helps.

Peppers can vary a lot on growing conditions, individual plant, and ripeness and how it ripened. I have some called 'cherry bombs' and they are potent and the oils on the ripe peppers, you can light with a lighter and they will burn for a moment.

Deb Rebel wrote:
https://puckerbuttpeppercompany.com/  where they have a lot of unusual and mild to lethal pepper seeds and other stuff for sale.

They have some really interesting stuff, and I'm even willing to pay $6.00 for a packet of ten seeds, but I'm not willing to pay another $5.00 for shipping when I know they can send them for the cost of a stamp.  Habaneros will just have to be hot enough

I live in the middle of nowhere and I did buy six different packets the last time I ordered so shipping was reasonable. I can understand where shipping isn't worth it. But it just isn't the stamp, it costs to put the seeds into something that they won't get mangled, too. Anyways, germ of seeds from them are good if you use bottom warmth to keep the soil warm as most peppers need to sprout well.

There's a few varieties they keep being out of when I'm in the mood to buy, so someday I may score.

Still, I did process that one, been moving the box to maximum sun angle and turned things twice already. Should have nice dry pepper bits today yet. AND been very careful about what I touch.

Another one to learn. Do not leave anything pepper related near where spouse may make his morning omlette. I caught him before he sprinkled that one with the new pepper flakes.

Some days I might feed them to him on purpose (see compost fodder) but today I was merciful. No that's the insane one that you lost half a carton of cream to. I'm certain. Yes I AM certain. Your pepper flakes are THESE.

And also, wash the handling stuff about three times before it goes in the dishwasher. Normally you don't unless you're dealing with molten death...  else everything in there will be "cursed"  

Funny stories....I have my own from years ago when I began down the path of raw foods.  I was eating tons of fresh made guacamole.  I think the spiciest chili's I was eating at that time were serrano.   I had to go the bathroom......mild burning sensation, but it was enough to make a lesson.  Now when I'm dicing a habanero....without gloves.....I've very prudent.

Lemons are good for neutralizing the capsacin.  If it's too spicy, just cut a wedge or half a lemon and squeeze/bite the juice into your mouth.  I think it's the citric acid neutralizing the capsacin alkaloid..??

About sharing seeds, I think peppers are one of those that freely cross pollinate, so if you save seeds from a garden that has various types of peppers, you may get very unpredictable peppers the next generation. Unlike some other plants, like, say, tomatoes.

Rebecca Norman wrote:About sharing seeds, I think peppers are one of those that freely cross pollinate, so if you save seeds from a garden that has various types of peppers, you may get very unpredictable peppers the next generation. Unlike some other plants, like, say, tomatoes.

Tomatoes can be quite promiscuous too. Your best bet if you want true seeds is to do the bag-blooms and pollenate with a qtip then rebag until fruitset.  I have done this with several kinds of plants. You choose the blooms before they open, the bags I make of old sheer curtains with a little drawstring to fit... bag the blooms, then the morning they open, you go out there and do the pollenate and rebag the blooms. That way you know your genetics. Other tip, use about three blooms for pollen donor that way you get enough pollen.

I was out to visit pepperville this morning. I need to go out and tuck everything back in cages and harvest. Not every pepper needs to be red ripe to be used. I WILL remember to take the herd of colanders (I get cheap thrift store ones, plastic, and marker ID numbers on them) and keep the largess separate and pick from mildest to wildest... take the sealing goggles (they seal to the face like you would use in a chem lab) the tongs, the gloves, and make notes on what is in what colander. Some of those peppers look the same!!! (hence me handling the 500k scoville when I thought it was a mild one).  

Then there are these little friends. They sell them as ornamental peppers. They tell you they aren't for eating. Why? They're actually very very hot Tepin types or what they call 'bird peppers'. Keep out of the reach of children.

One more relayed to me through a friend:

Their oldest son, in highschool, had an afternoon period (studyhall) and they were allowed to eat if they brought food. One other fellow would steal food from the others all the time and seemed to like this boy's sandwiches. When confronted, the guy denied it all the time and blew it off. So the sandwich maker put a scotch bonnet in the sandwich he brought. And made sure to be the first one to sign out for hallpass, and took his sweet time coming back. (only one could be signed out at a time). The other kid was red and crying and suffering well by the time he got back. That kid quit stealing food from the others.

Twice in a row. Trying to post a reply and put a few pictures in and it does 'This page can't be displayed' and the post totally disappears. It happens to me randomly all over the site. I watch names of photos, and photo size. There is no rhyme or reason to it.

Edit: above posted so trying the pictures again as an EDIT to this.

Today was a sad day. The hot pepper that caused all the problems, the mother plant got sampled by a hornworm (I found 10 in four days, usually one round is all you get) and though the worm moved on, the plant acted droopy and never perked back up so I removed it (I ended up removing six tomato plants and the pepper plant for various health and yield issues.

Finally I got out a baguette baking pan I have and put incoming peppers onto it and stuck color code stickers so until I process he knows what to touch or not to touch. Blue is zero (no heat jalapenos and bell peppers0 up to red (500k scoville and higher). A few need a few days to redden up before processing or I am waiting or a few more to process that batch. (I remove so the bugs don't chomp them).

I also got blackberries and I harvested them first. I had to put a blue sticker on them to convince him I harvested them BEFORE the hot peppers today. Geeze he doesn't trust a plate full of (labeled) USE THESE peppers in the wee hours for an omlette attack?

I had to buy some plants this year as well as start my own. When I harvest I put the plant tag with the peppers and take a picture so I know what is what. Spider is harmless orb but I don't want to walk into that, so the pick a weed to wave in front of you to take out the webs is IMPORTANT, and a vastly undervalued part of gardening.

In fairness to spouse, I have made a little chart and drawn relative size and labeled the color of all the ones he has to worry about. Including the death peppers. I got out the screens/racks from one of the dehydrators and have gone to laying the small potent ones out on those to let them dry and get a sort then go in the solar dehydrator to make flakes. The word NO markered large on a flake containing jar means they're too hot for him.

When handling Grim Reaper Scotch Bonnets--best if you have someone else handle them for you then ban them from your place for a week so they can't touch anything. Just smelling a fresh cut one is enough to sear everything out of your sinuses, it is helping combat whatever is in the air right now that is stopping me up so hard I think my sinuses will explode.

I wrapped that stuff up really well but whoever dove the dumpster, cut that garbage bag and stole those rubber gloves, they probably have learned their lesson. I did write on the cuffs, 'used on grim reaper scotch bonnets'.