It’s About Thyme
by CHRIS WINSLOW
Welcome to Spring 2010. Brrrr! Who would have thought, after the beautiful warmth of Spring Break, that we would be shivering our tails off at the end of the week?
If you’re one of those “early birds” who like to get tomatoes in the ground before the heat sets in, I hope you had your plants properly protected. If not, there’s still plenty of time to pull off a successful crop.
Second on the list (after tomatoes) of the most popular spring / summer vegetable crop is peppers. Part of the fun is choosing which varieties of pepper to grow.
On the sweet or mild side there are the bell peppers. They come in a variety of colors: red, green, rainbow, gold, yellow, orange, chocolate-brown, and purple. (I can bet I missed a color or two.)
Mild peppers also come in a variety of shapes from blocky, almost square, to long, narrow bananas.
On the hot side, we have peppers as small as a pea – chile pequin and chiltipin – as well as giant forms of jalapeno that are great for stuffing and bacon wrapping. And there are of course all manner of shapes, colors and sizes in-between.
The heat of hot peppers is measured in Scoville units. This tells you how much pure capsaicin the pepper contains.
‘Bells’ and most all the sweet peppers have no Scoville units.
Jalapeno peppers measure between 1,500 and 5,000 Scovilles. Serranos, chili pequins, and Thai peppers are in the 30,000 Scoville range. Higher up the scale are the habanero peppers at 200,000 to 400,000 Scovilles, with the Caribbean Red being among the hottest.
The Guinness Book of World Records has identified the world’s hottest pepper at a staggering 1,050,000 Scovilles. This is the Indian naga pepper. Naga means cobra – and this is unquestionably the one with the deadliest bite!
However, for those of you who enjoy the flavor of the hot peppers without the crying, spicy heat, there are some options.
Those clever horticulturalists over at Texas A&M University have actually managed to breed some of the heat and intensity out of peppers.
There is, for example, a mild alternative to the jalapeno called TAM-MILD Jalapeno. A&M has also developed a mild form of habanero pepper with 10,000 Scovilles instead of the 200,000 plus.
Whatever pepper or peppers you like to grow, I wish you great success in the coming summer. Mild or hot, peppers love the summer heat. With good spacing and adequate water, they’re easy to grow.
Happy gardening everyone!
If you have a question for Chris, send it via email to [email protected]. Or mail a postcard to It’s About Thyme: 11726 Manchaca Road, Austin, TX 78748
www.itsaboutthyme.com
