"I have what you call a chile addiction; food without chiles is bland. I find a way to get my pepper spice into just about every meal from chili powder to the homemade fire-roasted hot sauce I make. This time of year I prefer fresh peppers directly off my plants.
"In the past I grew most of the peppers offered at Lowe's, but now I am part of an online community of chileheads, thehotpepper.com, and now I grow chiles from all around the world. We trade chile seed and help each other become successful chile farmers. I have chiles from India called Bhut Jolokia, which is the world's hottest pepper (well over 1,000,000 Scoville rating), and a chile from the Caribbean called Trinidad Scorpion, which is not far behind. I also have Tabasco, Red Savina, Bishop's Hat, Devil Tongue, Naga Morich, Fatalli, Chocolate Habanero, White Habanero, Jamaican Scotch Bonnett, Datil and the trusty Jalapeno.
"I have probably 60 to 70 plants, and 20-25 varieties. I've been growing them most of my life, seriously for about 10 years.
"I love HOT peppers. I have an online photobucket account to view my backyard pepper garden here.
"It's almost impossible for me to pick my favorite pepper. I have 20 different favorite peppers. Each are unique in their own right. But three at the top my list are the Caribbean red habanero, Satalli, and the Bhut Jolokia.
"I'll take peppers that will fill up my whole grill and fire-roast them and (to make sauce) just put vinegar, salt and sugar, four simple ingredients, including the peppers. It makes an excellent hot sauce. I definitely enjoy the hot sauces. I can it and keep it through the winter. I put hot sauce on ice cream, if you can imagine that. Hot sauce and ice cream is excellent; I love it!"
David "Cappy" Cappiello
Mount Pleasant
