Story by Sharon Hudgins A century from now when historians look back at how we coped with the 2020 pandemic, two things will stand out: toilet paper and home cooking. During the past three months, many of us have “sheltered in place” at home, willingly or not. Early into the lockdown, bloggers began posting stories about how they planned to …
Chile Pepper Nomenclature
By Dave DeWitt A great deal of discussion and controversy has erupted over the terminology of the Capsicum genus in English. There are hundreds if not thousands of common terms for the pods in languages from all over the world, so it is curious that the following ones have been debated with such passion. Ají. This word, from the Arawaks …
New Mexico Chile Pepper History Through 1973
By Tom Clevenger and David G. Kraenzel Chile has been produced in the Rio Grande Valley for almost 400 years. The following excerpt from the Rio Abajo Press, February 2, 1863, indicates the importance of the crop more than 100 years ago: “Congress takes fifty thousand dollars out of the pockets of the people of the United States to …
New Find Proves Chile Sauce Use 2000 Years Ago
By Dave DeWitt Using the same technology that proved the use of chocolate at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, researchers have analyzed the contents of the residue of pots from ancient Mexico and discovered traces of chiles without chocolate. This indicates that either chile sauces were being made, or that they were used to spice up other beverages, about a thousand …
A Market in Trinidad, 1887
By William Agnew Patton In the midst of this cooly district there is an open space, an acre or two in extent, densely shaded by a very ancient, and far-spreading banyan-tree, under the branches of which the cooly people hold their market. It would be impossible to imagine a scene more unlike any that I had ever beheld in all …