Editor’s Notes: This description is taken from The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, by John Gerard (Publisher: John Norton, London, 1597). Gerard is the best known of all English herbalists mostly because of this herbal. His official career was a barber/surgeon but his first love was horticulture. For twenty years he had a famous garden in a fashionable London …
Lord Harris, the Ghost Pepper Governor
By Dave DeWitt An Indian Mystery It’s fitting that a British Lord should be the one to carry the hottest chile pepper in the world from Trinidad to India in 1854. By stumbling on a key entry in an obscure Indian encyclopedia during a Google Books search, I believe I have unlocked a major mystery in the world of …
Dining with the Aztecs
By Hubert Howe Bancroft, 1887 In preparing and cooking their food, the Aztecs displayed their usual ingenuity, though many of their dishes were of a very simple character. Maize, or Indian corn, when in the milk, was eaten boiled; when dry, it was parched or roasted, though it usually came to table in the shape of tortillas, then, as now, …
Trinidad Scorpion or Trinidad 7 Pot? Both!
Text and Photos ©2010 by Jim Duffy, RefiningFireChiles.com I grow the hardest-to-find strains of rare hot chiles and any chile I grow for seed is isolated on one of 23 different properties in San Diego county. I have been growing the Trinidad superhots now for 3 years, trying to get the develop the best strains I can. After all that …
19th Century Chile Varieties in London and Paris
Grown in the garden of the London Horticultural Society, 1832: Chili Peppers: Yellow Tree Capsicum, Red Chile, Small Red Chile, Tree Capsicum, Piment Longue Petit Tardif, Long Chile from the East Indies, Long Chile, Long Red Chile, Black Chile, Piment Violet, Indian Small Red, Cayenne Pepper. Large Long Yellow, Piment Gros, Capsicum Paprika, Short Red, Piment Cerise, Tall Cherry Red, …





