Which Chili Pepper Is The Hottest?

There are many opinions on the subject of chili pepper strength, and which chili is the hottest. Many of these opinions are based on taste tests and some on actual test data. One of the most popular and accepted scales for measuring pepper strength is the Scoville Scale shown here in the Chile Heat Chart. The scale is named after its inventor, Wilbur Scoville, and measures the hotness of a chili pepper as defined by the amount of capsaicin it contains. On the Scoville Scale pure Capsaicin has a rating of 15 million. The hottest chili pepper is the Bhut or Naga Jolokia (a.k.a. Ghost Pepper) with a rating of 1 million. Law Enforcement Grade pepper spray has a rating to 5.3 million.

Here are several interesting facts about the chemical Capsaicin. First, the highest concentration of Capsaicin is found in the white pith around the seeds inside peppers. It is interesting to know that birds do not have the receptor in their bodies to which Capsaicin binds, so that they are not affected by the seeds they eat. In fact birds are the chief means of distributing pepper seeds as they pass harmlessly through their digestive tract.

Cold milk is the most effective solution against the burning caused by Capsaicin. A cold sugar solution is also effective. Capsaicin is used in many topical ointments used in the medical field to reduce pain in muscles and joints, and is available in large bandages that can be applied to the back. It is interesting to know that the American Association for Cancer Research has shown that Capsaicin can kill prostate cancer cells. Studies in Japan and China have shown that it also inhibits the growth of leukemic cells. A study at the University of Nottingham suggests that it can also be effective in the treatment of human lung cancer. Another interesting suggestion was made to use Capsaicin to prevent the abuse of drugs that are crushed and snorted. The idea is to add Capsaicin to those drugs so that if used properly there is no ill effect. However, if the drug is crushed and snorted, injected or chewed, the abuser would be in for a surprise. Clifford Woolf, a professor at Harvard Medical School joked, “Imagine snorting an extract of 50 jalapeño peppers and you get the idea”!

Everyone is familiar with the use of Capsaicin in Pepper Sprays used for riot control and personal defense. The chemical can also be used to control mammalian pests such as squirrels and rabbits.

Whatever your appetite for chili peppers with their numerous varieties and Scoville ratings, remember to use them safely, as you enjoy one of nature’s greatest products.

Our Family Garden Is Finally Planted

With all the activities going on around at our house this summer, I haven't had the time to get our garden planted. We were fortunate that we had a volunteer giant pumpkin come up on its own from last year, which helps out, since they usually take 120 days to produce these giant Prizewinner Pumpkins.

But today I planted the following:

- Celebrity Tomato
- Cherry Tomato
- Cucumber
- Egg Plant
- Giant Bell Pepper
- Cantaloupe/Melon
- Zucchini
- Normal size Pumpkin
- Radishes

It is going to be exciting to see how they do after being planted so late in the season. However, this is Southern California so the growing season is long and I think we should have a bountiful harvest this year.

Along with our new vegetables, we have our existing fruit trees:

- Navel Orange
- Tangelo
- Fuji Apple
- Haas Avocado
- Bacon Avocado

- Apricot
- Lime
- Lemon
- Peach
- Pink Grapefruit
- Two Kumquat trees

And don't forget our berries:

- Boysenberry
- Blue Berry

We have always had a garden in our backyard and it is great to be able to eat fresh fruits and vegetables right from the garden. They taste so much better than the tastless stuff you buy in the stores.

The Company Refrigerator

I work for an aerospace company of about 70 employees. We have a nice breakroom with tables and chairs, coffee and vending machines, a microwave oven, sinks, a dishwasher...and YES we also have a Company Refrigerator. The company provides the refrigerator so that employees can bring their lunches to work and keep them cold during the day until lunchtime. I often bring a plate from home with leftovers from our previous night's dinner. Some people bring sack lunches and some people bring Tupperware containers with leftovers or a salad and dressing. The top of the fridge has a large freezer with an ice machine and space for frozen items.

As with any situation, there are always those who lack simple common sense, and who fail to understand basic ideas. They often cause problems. Let me explain.

We all know that food is cheaper when you buy it in bulk. For example, a frozen dinner costs less if you buy it in quantities of 50 or 100 than it is to buy one at a time. The same goes for peanut buttter. You get more peanut butter for your money if you buy the five gallon size container than if you buy it in a 16 oz. size. This idea of bulk buying is one that engineers easily understand because it involves mathematics including fractions and ratios. Therefore it is common to see an engineer buying things in bulk, whether it is food or quarts of car oil or postage stamps. This idea of buying things in bulk meshes nicely with another characteristic of engineers.

Most engineers tend to be a bit lazy. For example if engineers had their way, they would never make their beds in the morning. After all, you're just going to sleep in it the next night so why bother making it? And if they DO make their beds, they often just sleep on the floor or on the couch for the same reason. This is especially true of engineers that are not married, but that is another story.

If you combine this laziness with the desire to buy in bulk you have big problems with company refrigerators. Let me explain what I mean.
Our company is located across the street from a Costco. Costco is the perfect place to buy in bulk. It seems that everything at Costco comes in packages of two or more. In addition, all the containers are huge. If you go to Costco to buy a bottle of Asprin, you have to buy two 1000 tablet bottles in a single package. Milk is sold in gallon containers that are joined together in pairs with a nice plastic handle that makes it easy to carry two containers with one hand. Apples come in containers of 20 and bannas are sold in 10 pound boxes. When one of our engineers goes to Costco to buy lunch, he nearly fills the company refrigerator with his purchases when he returns. He is often too lazy to take his stuff home, since he will end up using it for lunches anyway, so why not leave it in the company fridge.

Our company refrigerator is full of bulk bottles of catsup, mustard, salad dressing, peanut butter, jam and numerous entire loaves of bread. In addition there are gallon jugs of milk and juice, 2 liter bottles of soda, and 5 pound packages of cold cuts. The freezer is full of stacks of frozen dinners, gallon containers of ice-cream and large bags of frozen vegetables. To keep their supply of food from getting mixed up with another engineer's stuff, they will often commandeer a drawer or a shelf and fill it with their personal items.

Sometimes employees will eat out at lunch. It is quite common for the women employees to return from lunch with doggie bags filled with left-overs. Of course they plan to eat it in the near future, but they soon forget about it and there it stays taking up even more of the limited space.

Now if all of this wasn't bad enough, there is the constant problem of spoilage. Left-overs don't usually last more than a few weeks before they start to decompose. The odor of rotting food can be quite strong until it becomes intollerable, and begins to taint the other food items inside the fridge. When that happens, one or two employees join together to clean the company refrigerator. No matter how much advance warning they provide the other employees, the cleaning day arrives and the fridge is usually full to its maximum capacity. It takes a lot of courage to toss out expensive Tupperware, family dinnerware, and perfectly good food items. There is usually some scraping to do where something has leaked out and dripped down the inside of the refrigerator. Hot water, soap and disinfectant along with plenty of elbow grease, and the company refrigerator is soon empty and clean. The odors are gone and you feel confident that it is now safe to store food inside without fear of food poisoning or contamination.

But it is a losing battle... for on the morrow the engineers return to work with their bags and plates and boxes and bottles and jars and ........