The Planting

Planting

Yesterday I put in 24 plants in. 12 Roma Tomatoes and and twice that number of peppers of several varieties. But as this chronicling of the growing season is about peppers we'll pretty much ignore the Romas. Up top is a picture of one of the 2 Habanero plants. Tiny, isn't it? With an ideal growing season, which for peppers is very warm, especially at night, that little thing will produce about 30 to 50 extremely hot peppers. I also planted 6 Cayennes, 6 Sweet peppers, 2 Habaneros, 2 Chocolate Habaneros, 0ne Tabasco, one Chocolate Bhut Jolokia, 2 Anchos one Kung Pao, 2 Jalapeno and two others that I can't even remember. They're all labelled so I can write about them the next time I go out. A hard part will be the weeding until they bear fruit, but harder still will be the patience to endure until they do. To posit these in heat order (Remember our pal Wilbur Scoville?) they go about as follows in ascending order: Sweet Bell, Ancho, Kung Pao, Cayenne, Tabasco, Jalapeno, Habanero, and the most dangerous--not an exageration-- Bhut Jolokia. The Bell Peppers are about neutran on the Scoville Unit scale. The Cayennes and Jalapenos range from 20,000 to about 60,000. Habaneros can crack 100K. The Bhut Jolokia exceed 1,000,000 Scoville Units. I say without shame that I'm more than a little afraid of the Bhut Jolokia. Cooking with hot peppers is dangerous. If precautions are not taken you can have a fairly intense burning sensation after chopping up a bunch of Jalapenos and Habaneros for Chili. If you get it on your hands and make the mistake of rubbing your eyes it is much more than anybody would want. You will feel that burn for several hours. Ten Cuidado. (Be Careful in Spanish)