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 …
So You Want to Be a Pepper Farmer?
By Dave DeWitt [Editor’s Note: This piece of satire was written in 1993, so some of the estimated costs may have changed. Do you think they might have gone up?] After a particularly good harvest, many of us amateur pepper gardeners yearn to go pro. We dream of hitting the big leagues and making a fortune by growing and harvesting …
Wilbur Scoville and the Organoleptic Test Centennial
By Dave DeWitt [Author’s Note: The year 2012 marks the Centennial Anniversary of the Scoville Organoleptic Test, so I decided to apply all my food history online research skills that I’ve honed over the past five years to create what is the first definitive—however brief—biographical essay on Scoville. Fortunately, the combination of Google Books, Google Scholar, and other online resources …