Quote:

---

I've had some habanero peppers, and diced them real fine to put on my subway sandwich. It wasn't a problem to eat, it was just that after a while the burning sensation crept up on ya. Before you knew it your mouth and lips were in agony.

Habaneros have awesome flavor. It's when that white pith kicks in with that creeping heat that flanks the flavor before you know it you're in agony.

But for deadly peppers I've worked with in the mid-'90s the red savina habaneros were some deadly pods! At that time they were the hottest pepper known. I had to wear two pairs of latex exam gloves to work with them because the capsaicin oil is so abundant. Just slice a fresh one and you can see the oil bead upon the pith as it oozes from the veins.

I only wish I had a digital camera to snag a shot of that. To see that red flesh with the orangish-white pith inside with those drops of glistening oil. That's when I gave all respect to mother nature. But somewhere I have a scan of a bunch of peppers that I placed on top of a flatbed scanner and draped with a black cloth. It made for a nifty desktop background.

And the funny thing is that at the time I had my pepper garden going. But I had two plants in large pots: One red savina and one orange habanero. The potted plants were also fed with epsom salts because that's the secret for very big thumpin' peppers. These two potted plants were more like pepper bushes loaded with large and deadly fruits. So they wound up getting wheeled near the house for further culinary curiosity and care.

I have a feeling that the two plants cross-bred with each other. ;-)

Anyway, I may have to start a couple plants to see if I can recreate the glory. I was really impressed with the garden but those two plants were prized.

--Bekki

---

Combating functional illiteracy with latex-clad drama since the '80s, because old video games rule!