A Chile Pepper Museum in Europe’s Headquarters of Heat

Dave DeWitt Chile History, Chile Pepper Museum, Chilehead Stuff, Europe, Food Travel Leave a Comment

Story and Photos by Harald Zoschke Calabria is not only the southernmost tip of the Italian boot, it is also one of the hotbeds of European chile pepper culture. So it’s no wonder that — besides plenty of traditional “hot” dishes and products — a highly popular chile pepper festival and even a museum dedicated solely to the hot pods …

Chile Pepper Nomenclature

Dave DeWitt Chile History, Chile Nomeclature Leave a Comment

By Dave DeWitt A great deal of discussion and controversy has erupted over the terminology of the Capsicum genus in English. There are hundreds if not thousands of common terms for the pods in languages from all over the world, so it is curious that the following ones have been debated with such passion. Ají. This word, from the Arawaks …

Watch Your Back, Hatch—Pueblo Chiles Are Making a Move

Dave DeWitt Chile History, Chile Varieties, Historical Gardening Leave a Comment

By Dave DeWitt They’ve got their own Growers’ Association. They have a festival of their own: The Chile & Frijoles Festival. They have their own supermarkets: Colorado Whole Foods Market locations dumped Hatch chiles and replaced them with Pueblo chiles. And governor John Hickenlooper has even designated the last Saturday of the Colorado State Fair as Pueblo Chile Day. History …

New Mexico’s Chile Kings: Fabián García and Roy Nakayama

Dave DeWitt Chile History Leave a Comment

By Rick Hendricks [Editor’s Note: This essay is excerpted with permission from Sunshine and Shadows in New Mexico’s Past: The Statehood Period 1912-Present, published by Rio Grande Books (www.RioGrandeBooks.com) in collaboration with the Historical Society of New Mexico.] New Mexico is the only state in the United States that boasts a state question: “red or green?” While such a question …

Spices: Cayenne Pepper, 1836

Dave DeWitt Chile History Leave a Comment

Besides the Piper nigrum there are many varieties of pepper in use among the natives of the countries where they grow; of these, that best known to us is called Cayenne pepper. The plant Capsicum, from which this spice is procured, is a native of both the East and West Indies, but the variety named Capsicum baccatum, or bird pepper, …