By Joseph Paxton Editor’s Note: Sir Joseph Paxton (1803–1865) was an English gardener, architect, and Member of Parliament, best known for designing The Crystal Palace. Paxton began publishing a monthly magazine, Magazine of Botany in 1834. In 1838, when Capsicum nomenclature was still in its infancy, Paxton wrote about a new chile pepper species that was called Capsicum ustulatum. “Ustulatum” …
New Find Proves Chile Sauce Use 2000 Years Ago
By Dave DeWitt Using the same technology that proved the use of chocolate at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, researchers have analyzed the contents of the residue of pots from ancient Mexico and discovered traces of chiles without chocolate. This indicates that either chile sauces were being made, or that they were used to spice up other beverages, about a thousand …
Jefferson on Peppers: “Planting is one of my great amusements.”
Editor’s Note: This excerpt from Peter J. Hatch’s book, “A Rich Spot of Earth”: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello, is reproduced by permission of Yale University Press (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012, 145-148). Order it from Amazon.com here. By Peter J. Hatch Jefferson grew various forms of Bells, Bullnose, sweet, and cayenne pepper (Capsicum annuum), as well …
The Grains of Paradise
By James Street Editor’s Note: This short story about a chile-eating contest in Tabasco, Mexico, was first published in The Saturday Evening Post on May 14, 1955. The author makes so many errors about chile peppers, black pepper, and melegueta pepper that it’s humorous. How many errors can you spot? I do not like stories that suggest one thing and …
Development of Superhot Chile Peppers in Trinidad and Tobago
By Dave DeWitt Author’s Note: This is a work in progress, so comments would be appreciated. Updated 2/19/2016 Background The species Capsicum chinense spread throughout the Caribbean basin in prehistoric times, carried by indigenous people via boat from the Amazon basin to what is now Venezuela to Trinidad, and then through the Lesser Antilles to the Greater Antilles, and finally …