New Section! Chile Pepper and Hot Sauce Articles and Information!

We here at Loco Luna Gourmet Foods are like you: we love hot sauce, salsa, marinades, chile peppers, chile sauce - you name it.  In a continuing effort to entertain and inform fellow chileheads, we are going to add useful information to all of our readers to do just that.  You might find some scientific data about chile peppers, capsicum or Scoville Units.  You might find hot chile pepper growing tips.  You might even find recipes for salsa or hot sauces. 

And don't forget to let us know what you think.  If there is something that you'd like to learn about let us know.  If you disagree with something, let us know that.  Either way, Loco Luna Gourmet Foods wants to be a primary resource for your hot sauce and chile pepper knowledge base.  Come back often!  We'll be adding more information all the time!  Dive in - you won't get burned.

Growing Peppers in Containers

by Dave DeWitt and Paul W. Bosland

There are many advantages to growing peppers in containers. People who live in apartments and townhouses without gardens can grow peppers and other plants on their balconies, patios, or even in a closet under lights. Fresh pods from potted peppers are available all year long. The peppers can be moved around easily, transforming the peppers from patio plants to ornamental houseplants. They can be rescued from heavy downpours or hail, or moved to areas of varying light levels. In pots, peppers are easier to isolate for plant breeding or to produce pure seed. Treasured varieties can be wintered over in a greenhouse or sunroom and returned to the garden the following year.

From Pods to Powder: Drying Chiles

From Pods to Powder

by Dave DeWitt, Nancy Gerlach, and Jeff Gerlach

For many gardeners chile harvest time means "too many chiles". Here's what you need to know about drying the pods, making powders and beautiful ristras. Plus eight recipes using dried chiles.

Pepper Gardening 101

Pepper Gardening 101

By Dave DeWitt

Here are the basic steps for growing your own pepper crop, from selecting the seeds to harvesting chiles

Fried Peppers

Fried Peppers with Recipes Included

By Dave DeWitt

This article explore the techniques of frying peppers. Frying peppers is a common culinary practice, and most of the time, chopped bell peppers are fried along with onions and garlic as the basis for some other dish. This is particularly true in Italian and Cajun cooking. Bell pepper strips are also stir-fried in various Chinese recipes, and in Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean, the sweeter peppers such as Cubanelle are fried and served as appetizers and side dishes. In addition to Spain, peppers are fried in Italy and Greece and it wouldn’t surprise me to discover they are fried in a lot of other countries as well.

The Story of Commercial Hot Sauce - How it got to your table

A Brief History of U.S. Commercial Hot Sauces

By Dave DeWitt and Chuck Evans

(Excerpted from The Hot Sauce Bible, The Crossing Press, 1996.)

Two experts take us from the birth of hot sauce, through its growth, challenges and transformations, and finally to its place in today's hot-head culture.  A history lesson and an epic adventure all in one.

Chile Pepper History

Peppers: History and Exploitation of a Serendipitous New Crop Discovery

By W. Hardy Eshbaugh courtesy of Uncle Steve.

Few could have imagined the impact of Columbus' discovery of a spice so pungent that it rivaled the better known black pepper from the East Indies. Nonetheless, some 500 years later, on the quincentennial anniversary of the discovery of the New World, chili peppers (Capsicum) have come to dominate the world hot spice trade and are grown everywhere in the tropics as well as in many temperate regions of the globe. Not only have hot peppers come to command the world's spice trade but a genetic recessive non-pungent form has become an important "green" vegetable crop on a global scale especially in temperate regions.

Gardening with Peppers

Easy Gardening ... Peppers

Written By Extension Horticulturists with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service.

This handy article includes information on varieties, soil preparations, fertilizing, planting, watering, harvesting and more.

Growing Peppers

Peppers - Watch Your Garden Grow!

Prepared by Extension Educator-Urban Horticulture & Gardening, and Extension Educator-Nutrition and Wellness, University of Illinois Extension.

The pepper is a tender, warm-season vegetable and this article has great information on growing, including recommended varieties, when to plant, spacing and depth, harvesting, nutritional value and home preparation and storage.  Chile pepper growers will love this!

Chile Pepper Chemistry

A Little Chile Chemistry For The Visiting Rocket Scientist

Courtesy of Uncle Steve.

Chiles are members of the Capsicum family. Heat range is diverse, ranging from very mild to extremely wild. The particular class of substances that determine their disposition is known, by those who study such things, as Capsaicinoids.

Chili Pepper Effects on the Body, Endorphins, the Anatomy of a Chili Pepper and Fun Facts

Provided by Matthew Bellringer, a chemistry student at the University of Bristol.

A group of small items discussing just what chile peppers do to the body and a few interesting facts too!