Last week’s Your Produce Man’s Produce Puzzzzle dealt with the Bible and fruit: What is the most talked about fruit in the Bible? Probably the most talked about vegetable in the Bible is the onion. In fact, the Hebrew nation wanted to go back to Egypt for the "leeks and onions." The most talked about fruit appears in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis. Adam and Eve clothed themselves with the large leaves of a…Fig tree. Figs, the most talked about fruit in the Bible. This week's Your Produce Man’s Produce Puzzzzle deals with a fall fruit: If it is not ripe, it will drive a man’s mouth awry with much torment, but when it is ripe, it is as delicious as an apricot. What is it? See next week’s Fresh Tips for the answer.

Bite Your Tongue…with Chile Peppers.

This is the chemical make-up of Capsaicin. This is what bites your tongue.

CHILE PEPPERS (Monday, September 12): The English names chile or chilli are borrowed from Náhuatl (native Mexican), where the plant's name chilli allegedly derived from a root meaning “red”. There is considerable zeal in the discussion whether the spice should be called chile, chili or chilli in English. The form chilli is probably closest to the Náhuatl original, and it is the preferred form among historically minded USians and in Australia. The word chili has come to mean almost exclusively the Tex-Mex-food chili con carne in the USA, but is used for the spice in British English. The variant chilly (also the adverb of chill) has become obsolete; it bears connotations to the British Colonial Era and sometimes appears in brand names of products that go back to the first half of the 20.th century. Lastly, chile is the name of the spice in contemporary Mexican Spanish, and it is also quite popular in the USA. To make things worse, chiles are often referred to as peppers in English, which is of course a never-ending source of culinarily fatal misunderstandings. 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, chili peppers (Capsicum) have come to dominate the world spice trade. They are grown everywhere in the tropics as well as in many temperate regions of the globe. Their genetic recessive non-pungent form (Bell Peppers) has also become an important "green" vegetable crop on a global scale, especially in temperate growing regions. According to Dr. Kevin Crosby of Texas A&M, the original peppers were most likely hot. “We find hot peppers in the wild still,” Dr. Crosby says, “which tells us that is the most likely original pepper.” So, Dr. Crosby, how does the pepper become tame? “There is a single gene,” Dr. Crosby says, “that shuts off the heat. This gene is kind of like a traffic cop. It keeps the road shut off from the chemicals that make a pepper hot.” What puts the heat in chile peppers is a colorless, odorless alkaloid called capsaicin (kap-SAY-ih-sin) which is produced by the white membrane attached to the ribs of the pepper. The seeds are not hot in themselves, but pick up the heat by their close proximity to the membrane. An alkaloid substance called Capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) that causes the heat of chiles and peppers is a flavourless, odourless chemical concentrated in the veins of chiles and peppers. When eaten, capsaicin stimulates the brain to release a neurotransmitter called substance P, which lets the brain know something painful is going on. The brain, 'thinking' that the body is in big trouble, mistakenly responds by turning on the waterworks to douse the flames. The mouth starts to salivate, the nose starts to run, the eyes might start to water and the face breaks into a sweat. The heart beats faster and the natural painkiller endorphin is secreted. In other words, Chile-Heads get a buzz! Capsaicin stimulates the pain receptors of broken skin or soft tissues such as the mouth, nose and eye areas and cause these areas to 'water' which spreads the effect - which is why reaching for a glass of water or other liquid such as beer or wine is like applying a blowtorch. The best and quickest relief is a small mouthful of yoghurt or milk held in the mouth for a few seconds. It is the casein (milk protein) that neutralizes the effect of the capsaicin. It is not without reason that raita, a yoghurt based side dish, is often served along with Indian curries. The degree of heat in peppers is measured using the Scoville Scale. Mild peppers such as bell peppers are 0 SHU (Scovill Heat Units), cayenne at 30,000 to 50,000 and the hellish habanero at an impressive 100,000 to 300,000 SHU. But don't confuse hotness with flavor - which is a little like confusing quantity with quality. The flavor of a pepper is in the fleshy outer tissue. Color can be a good indicator, though not absolutely infallible. As a general rule, the stronger the color, the fuller the flavor. The official state vegetables of New Mexico are the chile and Frijoles (pinto beans). Hatch, New Mexico is known as the "Green Chile capital of the World". Texas has 2 official peppers, the jalapeno and the chiltepin (both used in its official dish, chili) The seeds are NOT the hottest part of peppers. It is at the point where the seed is attached to the white membrane inside the pepper that the highest concentration of capsaicin (the compound giving peppers their pungent flavor) is found. As early as 7000 BC native Indians in the New World were eating the wild "chiltecpin" (piquín) pepper. This is a small and very pungent chile eaten like peanuts today only by the brave. It is believed that chile peppers were domesticated between 5200 and 3400 B.C. by nomadic Indians dependent on the harvesting of wild plants for more than half of their food. Chile peppers were first cultivated in South America around 2300 BC by the Incas who called them "Uchu" in the Quechua language and "Huayca" in the Aymara language. The Incas worshipped the chile pepper as one of the holy plants and used it to represent the teachings of the early kings. Before 1500 B.C. chiles traveled north into Mexico and gained the reputation as a spicy condiment, becoming an important part of the native diet. Around this time the Olmecs, one of the first agricultural tribes, settled in what is now Veracruz in Mexico. At about 500 B.C. the Monte Alban culture of the Zapotec Indians from the valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, began exporting to neighbouring tribes the "Suchilquitongo" bowls that resemble the handheld mortars or molcajetes. These bowls are believed to be the first evidence that people crushed chiles for chile powder. When the Mayas reached the peak of their civilization about 500 A.D. in southern Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula. They were growing many different varieties of chiles, an important ingredient in the Mayan diet. They used chiles in almost every meal, from breakfast, which was a hot cereal of ground maize spiced with chile peppers called atole or pozol, to the evening meal of various stews spiced with chiles. The Aztec were the last agricultural tribe to arrive in the area of Mexico City around 1200 A.D. The marketplaces of the Aztec overflowed with chiles of all shapes and sizes and many colors. They called this pungent fruit "chillis" in the Nahuatl language, which referred to both the red and green chile peppers. Diego Alvarez Chanca, a physician on Columbus' second voyage to the West Indies in 1493, brought the first chile peppers back to Spain, and was the first to write about their medicinal effects in 1494.

Bite Your Tongue…with Chile Peppers.

CHILE PEPPERS (Tuesday, September 13): Choose firm, crisp, shiny peppers with a good bright color and a green stem. They should be hard, not limp, with no wrinkles or withering or signs of mold. Those that have lost some of their crispness can be fried or chopped and added to cooked dishes. They should feel heavy for their size. Avoid peppers with sunken areas, slashes or black spots. Left at room temperature they'll lose their crunch in a matter of hours. If you like the heat of the Jalapeno, then look for “stretch marks” on the pepper. It’ll look like somebody scartched the pepper. Stretch marks mean the chile pepper was grown in hot temperatures. The hotter the temperatures, the hotter the chile pepper. Chili peppers are available year round and in the United States they are grown in California, New Mexico and Texas. Chilies should be stored unwashed and wrapped in paper towels in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. Dried chilies should be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for a maximum of four months. To keep dried chilies for more than four months, store them in the refrigerator.

Wilbur Scoville developed the method used to determine just how hot is that Chile Pepper.

CHILE PEPPERS (Wednesday, September 14): Peppers are rated based on Scoville Units, a method developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912. The original method used human tasters to evaluate how many parts of sugar water it takes to neutralize the heat. Nowadays human tasters are spared and a new process called HPLC, or High Performance Liquid Chromotography measures the amount of capsaicinoids (capsaicin) in parts per million. Capsaicin is the compound that gives chiles their heat.

There are several varieties of chili peppers and each differs in flavor and heat intensity. Even within each variety, there may differences in how “hot” each particular chili is. Typically, larger chilies are more mild because they contain less seeds and white membrane in proportion to their size. Most varieties can be found dried, canned, or fresh.

VARIETIES
Anaheim: (California Green Chile or Long Green Chile): One of the most commonly used varieties in the United States, especially in stuffed chiles. This chili is long, slender and lobed, green or red in color and mildly hot. They can be eaten when green or when they are their mature red color.
Ancho: Dried or fresh poblano pepper. Dried anchos are flat, wrinkled, and heart shaped. They range in color from very dark red to almost black. Anchos are mild to moderately hot and often soaked and ground for use in sauces.
Cascabel: Green or red, small and round, moderately hot and typically available dried. When dried, their skin turns a translucent red-brown color and their seeds rattle inside.
Cayenne (Long Hots): Red when fully mature, long (6 to 10 inches), thin and straight or curled at the tips. Very hot. Cayenne can be found dried and ground into a powder that is seen as generic "red pepper" in the spice aisle.
Cherry: Round and red like a cherry. Sold fresh or pickled in jars, these peppers range from mild to moderately hot.
Habanero (Scotch Bonnet): Typically yellow-orange but they can be green, red, or orange. These peppers are lantern shaped and typically about 2 inches long. The hottest pepper grown commercially; intense fiery flavor; a unique floral flavor and an extremely intense heat that affects the nasal passages.
Hungarian: These peppers start out yellow and ripen to orange or red; they are moderately hot.
Jalapeno: Most often green when mature but sometimes red, these peppers are about 2 inches in length with cracks around their stems. They are very hot, with an immediate bite. Jalapenos are sold canned, sliced, and pickled and are added to many products during processing including sausage, cheese, and jelly.
Poblano: Ancho peppers that are green. Poblano peppers look like small bell peppers and are mild to hot in taste. They are often roasted and peeled prior to being used in soups, sauces, casseroles or even stuffed with meat and cheese for a dish called chilies rellenos.
Serrano: Sold red or mature green and about 1 to 4 inches in length. Moderate to very hot with an intense bite. Serrano chilis are often used in Thai cooking and they are also quite popular in Mexico and the southwestern United States.

CHILE PEPPERS (Thursday, September 15): If they can’t take heat, tell them to stay out of the kitchen. Well, that doesn’t help. Here’s some Heat Prevention 101. The “heat” in a pepper comes from Capsaicin. The “burn” results from the molecule's long hydrocarbon tail. The capsaicin key opens a door in the cell membrane that allows calcium ions to flood into the cell. That ultimately triggers a pain signal that is transmitted to the next cell. Capsaicin is insoluble in cold water, but freely soluble in alcohol and vegetable oils. This is why drinking water after munching an habanero pepper won't stop the burning. A cold beer is the traditional remedy, but the small percentage of alcohol will not wash away much capsaicin. For relief from a chile burn, drink milk. Milk contains casein, a lipophilic (fat-loving) substance that surrounds and washes away the fatty capsaicin molecules in much the same way that soap washes away grease. So have a glass of milk ready for the burn victim. Also, about 60% of the “heat” in a chile pepper, is found in the seeds and white membrane. You could cut those out before adding the pepper to your recipe. That way, you get the flavor of the jalapeno, just not all the heat. It is very important not to touch your nose, eyes or mouth after handling or eating hot peppers. If you do, flush with water immediately. The capsaicin in the peppers can be extremely painful to your eyes and can even burn or irritate your skin (especially if you have cuts on your hands). If possible, wear thin rubber gloves while preparing chili peppers. Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water when done working with chilies. If the bite is too strong when you eat a chili, chew on bread or another starchy food; water only makes the bite worse as it spreads it. To decrease the heat intensity of chilies, wash them, cut them open and remove the seeds and veins. Also, soaking cut up chilies in salt water for at least an hour will help cool them off. To add a mild pepper flavor to your dish, poke holes in the chili of your choice with a toothpick (or cut slits in it) and add it to a food that is already cooking. When cooking is complete, remove the chili from the dish. Chilies can also be roasted whole over a gas stove, broiler, or on a grill. Use a cooking fork to hold each pepper over flame. Turn frequently until the chili’s skin is blackened. After cooking is complete, place chilies in a paper or plastic bag for 15 minutes. Scrape off skin, cut off stem and pull out core. Scrape any remaining seeds. Make Chile Peppers part of your 5-A-Day plan with these simple suggestions:

• Cut up and add to pizza as a topping!
• Dice and add to your favorite salsa recipe or any store bought salsa.
• Chop finely and add to salads.
• Serve as a garnish next to a meal and eat the garnish!
• Add to stews and soups for a stronger flavor.
• Sprinkle chopped hot peppers into meat loaf, tomato sauce or macaroni and cheese.
• Cook in corn bread for a zesty jalapeno corn bread.

BACK TO SCHOOL (Friday, September 16): School bells are ringing. School doors are opening. All around the country, kids are heading back to school. For kids, when they head back to school, it’s once again time for the 3 R’s, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. For parents and grandparents, we also need to head back to school, back to the basic, back to the 3 R’s of healthy diets. The first “R” is “Role Model.” If want our kids to eat healthy, to live healthy, to exercise, then we have to model it for our kids. More is “caught” then “taught” when it comes to kids. It’s very difficult to teach your kids to eat healthier snacks when they watch you gain weight by not eating right, or eating too much of the wrong things. You, as the parent or grandparent, have to take this serious before your kids will. The second “R” is “Reduce Fats and Sugars.” There are a lot of little tiny steps you can do here without really turning your child’s world upside down. For example, why does your child need a whole donut, or a whole candy bar? They are about half the size of you. Why don’t you give them half of a donut, half of a candy bar? How about French fries? For our little Claire, we simply took her age, doubled that, and that became the number of French fries she could have. Ten French fries for a little 5-year-old is just fine. The third “R” is “Remember 5-a-Day and Exercise.” Less than 15% of kids in America eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. The average child in America today eats less than two servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Here we are, in the most industrialized country in the world, where the fruits and vegetables are the most plentiful, the cheapest and the safest, and yet, we are facing obesity as one of the largest health issues of the century. How does that happen? I talk to a lot of parents who tell me their kids don’t eat fruits and vegetables. Why are you making it an option? If your kids have to go to the doctor or the dentist, does the child have a say whether they go or not? Of course not. Take the same attitude in eating fruits and vegetables. It’s not an option. It’s mandatory. To help the process along, get your kids involved in what they eat. Take them to the grocery store and have them pick out the bananas for the week, the apples for the week. Have the produce manager give your kids samples of the different apples so your kids will begin learning some of the different flavors. And don’t forget exercise. It’s not an option. It’s mandatory. Walk more. Take the time for your kids to exercise. Sometimes it’s as simple as turning off those silly kid’s programs and turning the computer off. Get your kids involved in sports, either an individual or a team sport. Get back to the 3 R’s.

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