Chile Habanero

Pictured above is a typical branch of the habañero chile that our former tenant Nacho planted several months ago.  It seems to have about 30 chiles growing in various stages at any given time.  Most everyone is familiar with the habañero chile, especially those who live in the Yucatán, where most of the crop is grown.  I've noticed that many Mexicans who aren't Yucatecan shy away from it, saying it's just too hot.  Evidently we habañero eating residents of the area like to sweat, because if we're not sweating to 100+°F air temperatures, we're sweating through our cochinita or lechón taquitos loaded with fresh salsa.  I am, anyway.

On my daily revision of the edible plants in the garden, I noticed the chile below on the same plant pictured above.  It skipped orange and turned itself the brightest red.  Our know-it-all store owner on the corner told me it is a hybrid habañero, and that I should be sure to plant the red seeds.  When I looked up habañeros, they come in more colors than I'd imagined.  I've seen green, yellow and orange habañeros, but never bright red.  One type of habañero is called Red Savina and is much hotter than a regular one. I got tired of researching my harvested habañero, so the bottom line is it could just be a red habañero or it could be the hottest one on the bush. 

I just decided to quit horsing around....I bit into it.  It tastes like a delicious sweet red capsicum!  It is leaving just a hint of heat on my lips, but nothing like a regular habañero....the orange ones have been hot!! hot!! hot!! This sweet red one will be the perfect addition to the potato salad I plan to make when 'la banda' is finished with their dinner.

Meanwhile the larger Guatemalan chile bush is still spitting out little red bombs by the hundreds.  I have to harvest at least once a week.  I've managed to dehydrate the first batch and grind them.  I like to mix the fresh ground red pepper with black peppercorns, allowing me to spice up food to my liking without making anyone else suffer.  I like my pepper hot.   These pictured below are sort of like chile máax - in Mayan, which is chile tepín, or is it piquín? Since no one has been certain what this chile is, I call them Huehuetenango Cherry Bombs! 

Back in 1912 William Scoville created a scale rating the heat of chiles.  Below is a partial list of chiles and their ratings.

Scoville rating   -    Type of pepper

15,000,000–16,000,000 Pure capsaicin
8,600,000–9,100,000 Various capsaicinoids (e.g., homocapsaicin, homodihydrocapsaicin, nordihydrocapsaicin)

5,000,000–5,300,000 Law Enforcement Grade pepper spray, FN 303 irritant ammunition

855,000–1,075,000 Naga Jolokia (ghost chili)

350,000–580,000 Red Savina habanero

100,000–350,000 Guntur Chilli, Habanero chili,Scotch Bonnet Pepper,Datil pepper, Rocoto, African Birdseye, Madame Jeanette, Jamaican Hot Pepper

50,000–100,000 Bird's eye chili/Thai Pepper/Indian Pepper, Malagueta Pepper, Chiltepin Pepper, Pequin Pepper

30,000–50,000 Cayenne Pepper, Ají pepper, Tabasco pepper, Cumari pepper (Capsicum Chinese)

10,000–23,000 Serrano Pepper

2,500–8,000 Jalapeño Pepper, Guajillo pepper, New Mexican varieties of Anaheim pepper, Paprika (Hungarian wax pepper), Tabasco Sauce

500–2,500 Anaheim pepper, Poblano Pepper, Rocotillo Pepper, Peppadew

100–500 Pimento, Peperoncini

0   No significant heat,     Bell pepper, Aji dulce

Enough about chiles.  The pitaya plant willing its way over the wall flowered again.  The last flowering, a month ago, as beautiful as it was, was fruitless.  We had so much rain the never had a chance.  It's a cactus, after all.  These three look like they may have potential.  After last week's deluge, the rainy afternoons have subsided for now. 



The First Edible Dragonfruit

Here it is! The first pitaya we harvested from the plant growing over the wall from the neighbor's property. I'm not sure what kind of gardening this would be....YOU plant, I reap??? We have a tall ladder thanks to the cable guys, so Pablo climbed up and cut back the vine that was choking this poor pitaya plant.  It was so happy it gave us one fruit for starters.  It was delicious!

The fruit above was harvested(big harvest) on the 1st of September. A few flowers opened up over the first week of September.  I know I posted these kinds of photos last year when we had a few flowers....but this freak of nature that opens up for one night, then creates a wonderful fruit at its base amazes me.

This information quoted below I copied from a website called Foodlywise.  It descibes the health benefits of dragonfruit, more commonly known here as pitaya.  It's written in poor English, but the info is worthwhile.

"One special health benefit of dragon fruit which has been verified by the authors of this web site is the special dragon fruit health benefit that dragon fruit helps control levels of glucose blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes (and type 1 diabetes by some reports). This is one of the health benefits of pitaya fruit in addition to the pitaya fruit nutrient profile being full of dietary fiber and Vitamin C. The pitaya nutritional benefits even include a high level of pitaya fruit antioxidant levels. All these great dragon fruit nutrients make fresh dragon fruit or dried dragon fruit both great additions to a healthy diet - and you get the nutrition benefits of dragon fruit from the dried or fresh fruit just as well."


Here is the pitaya cactus reaching over to live on our side of the wall.  It had 13 flowers ready to open.  I kept my eye on them.  In this photo, they still have a couple days....

Voila!  What a great site to wake up to. They stay open for a day so the bees can do their thing, then they just disintegrate and fall off, leaving behind the green base which becomes your tasty dragonfruit.  I was surprised how tasty the fruit is.  Usually I stay away from food with little seeds, they all get stuck in my teeth and that annoys me.  But the flavor was light and sweet.  It is tasty when juiced, but it turns a funny gray color that isn't too appetizing. It would be nice with vodka.