Jason from Texas found these dual pods on one
of his NuMex Barker Hot plants. He writes:

I'm not sure how common these "mutant" chiles are, but I was very surprised to find it growing in our garden this year. We had a wonderful harvest of over 600 Sandia, Barker's Hot, Espanola, Chimayo, and Big Jim chiles from around 15 plants in our small garden in the Dallas, TX area. I still have this chile in a dried state if anyone doubts it's authenticity ;-)
Jason H

Hi Jason,

This condition is called double pollination, resulting in conjoined pods.  Good shot! We rotated it a bit - hopefully Hugh H. won't mind ;-)
--Ed.

Dave,
This is my Datil pepper plant. It was 2 years old but passed away this harsh winter due to a lack of water. I think. The first year I didnt get any pods but the second year I got about 30 small pods from it. I saved the seeds also. I am so proud of this plant. This is the first really good datil plant I have ever produced in 10 years of growing peppers. Hope you like it as much as me. This strain of Datil was from the Alfrey seed company. Also I have about 1600 varieties of peppers now in my collection of seeds. and still going strong.
Forever Peppers in New York,
Karl Heinrichs

Great Job, Karl!
--Ed.

A Pepper Tree

Our reader (and Scovie winner) Julie Riffle came
up with a great idea, showing true chilehead spirit:

Hey Dave,
We decorated and donated a chile pepper and hot sauce tree for our local "Festival of Trees" which benefits Palmetto Health Children's Hospital. A friend designed a Scovie Award tree topper for our "Molten Golden" First Place win. Thought you might want to check it out.
Cheers,

Julie Riffle
Palmetto Pepper Potions, LLC

www.pepperpotions.com 

Jim's Hydro Habs

Our reader Jim had some great success with hydroponically grown peppers. He writes:

Hello there Dave,

I just got into growing last winter hydroponically with some tomatoes and other veggies. Spring came along and I ended up with some sweet Italian bells and hanabero growing inside the house. The heat was taking over inside and the plants were getting flower drop because of it. So instead of getting a AC unit for the room I just moved everything outside. I buried a 45 gallon reservoir in the ground and setup the aeroflo tube. I guess the Habs loved it becouse this is what I ended up with.

They're still outside and loaded with bright red peppers and there are still some flowers on them and the temp this morning was 41F outside. 

Jim 

Tall Pepper Plant,
and a Chile "Pest"

Mark Bromiley, a devoted chile grower in Germany, sent us this shot of his 'Caribbean Red' Habanero that is 150 centimeters tall! 

Note the chile "pest" at the bottom of the plant.

Strange Habs

Chilehead Greg Mortensen made an interesting discovery. He writes:

I was harvesting the peppers from my potted 'Caribbean Red Habanero' the other day, and picked off 12 or so pods. To make a long story short, I started dicing them up to make hot sauce out of them, and I noticed something unusual: 75% of the pods had fully-formed, but smaller, pods inside of them! 

I cut these miniature pods open, and they look like their bigger brothers. They have a complete membrane running down the middle of them. Both the full-sized and miniature pods are extremely hot; they're the hottest that I ever had, and they're hotter than the 'Francisca' and 'Red Savina' habaneros that I also grew this season.

Giant Hawaiian Pepper Plant

Maxine Steiner, of Ellensburg, Washington, writes:
"I received the plant when it was about 10 or 12 inches high, (a year ago this July, 2003} and so far it has never bloomed so I haven't had any pepper pods. I saw a couple places that looked like blossoms were starting but they did not mature. I have had it in the house to save it, as we have very cold winters. I am an old farm gal and had 1/3 acre of garden every year so I did a lot of canning etc. AND YES, it is a pepper plant!!!!!!!!
Another pepper freak,
Maxine (82 yrs young}.

Beautiful German Habanero

Mark Bromiley (Cologne, Germany) writes:

"You probably get many photos of peppers, but here is a photo that I'm really proud of. It's a photo of the biggest habanero that I have grown so far. It measured 4 cm. in diameter!"
--Mark

Red Hot Chilli Pepper Fiesta in the UK

Hi Dave,

The 'Red Hot Chilli Pepper Fiesta 2003' was held on August 9 & 10 at West Dean Gardens, West Dean College, Chichester, West Sussex, UK. I don't know what the attendence was, but I am sure it was in the thousands. I have included the website:

http://www.westdean.org.uk/gardens/chilli03.htm 

Sue Lackey

Worthing, West Sussex

Rhode Island Chile Harvest

Proof how well chiles can thrive up north
comes from Gary Rumsey, who emailed us
this beautiful picture. He wrote:

Hey Dave:

Got a good color spectrum this year from my garden in Rhode Island. Not bad for the "Ocean" state.

--Gary

Politically Correct Food Chain

Bill "Fire" Reaves is a loyal fiery fellow we meet at almost every single Fiery-Foods & Barbecue Show. Recently he made a great discovery in South Korea:

"On a recent trip to South Korea, I stopped for a burrito (ha!...just kidding!) at one of their "rest stops" on a major highway south out of Seoul. I was on my way to Cheongju. I noticed a very large monument/statue at the end of the rest stop. I didn't have a lot of time, so I just snapped a hurried "digital" and went on my way. When I reviewed my snap.....I was pleasantly surprised to find some sort of monument, perhaps to the "hierarchy" of the food chain........and as you can see.......by jove...."I think they've got it!!....."

Bill and his wife Ann run the Fire & Spice, Inc.
hot shop on the Web: www.fire-spice.com

"Really, officer, it's all just chile pepper plants!"

Finnish chilehead Jukka Kilpinen uses plenty
of growing lights.

Productive Chile Patch: Larry
showing off some of his hot harvest

A true chilehead's kitchen!