By Mr. Garden4Goodies
This last growing season we grew Naga Bhut Jolokia, also known as Naga Jolokia or Ghost Pepper. I found the seeds at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and, liking spicy foods, thought I would give them a try. I had heard they can be difficult to grow and few people have success in cooler climates. This summer was unusually hot with less precipitation then normal, so they did great. I was so happy when the little peepers started showing and couldn’t wait to try them. The plant produced beautiful red peppers and wasn’t much different then grown a habanero chili pepper.
This is a picture of the last peppers that came off of the plant.
Toward the end of summer the peppers started turning a delicious red and I picked one for a pot of pinto beans I was cooking. Mrs Garden4Goodies doesn’t care for hot food so I only added one thinking that still might be too much spice for her. I found them bland with no hint of spice – talk about disappointing! I have made the same recipe many times before using habanero or jalapeno peppers and the spice flavor was much better. I thought the Ghost Pepper challenge was just a bunch of hype for people that have never ate a real plant ripened pepper. Maybe this wasn’t the same Bhut Jolokia that gets all the hype for being the world hottest pepper.
That first pepper off the plant was a bluff. I was set up, the old bait and switch. It was the greatest pepper conspiracy of all time. The fact that I’m writing this post today tells you that I lived. It was a painful journey but I came out victorious and with a new respect for the Evil Naga Bhut Jolokia.
I call it the greatest pepper conspiracy of all time because from day one Mrs Garden4Goodies was telling me to be careful around the plant and wear gloves. Me wear gloves? I never wear gloves pulling seeds out of peppers, because I always wash my hands after. ‘Be careful around the plant’ she would say. But its not carnivorous- it cant hurt me.
As the peppers started to mature and turn that beautiful red towards the end of summer, I decided to remove the seeds from some and dry them. I picked the red peppers off the plant and with a very sharp knife, bare hands, sliced the thin skin open and removed the seeds. I did this outside, spreading the seeds out on a paper plate and the skin on another paper plate, with enough space between everything to dry.
Curious about the flavor when I was done, I touched my tongue with a finger that had been picking out the seeds. It didn’t burn, it didn’t have any taste, but where I touched my tongue immediately went numb. The tip of my tongue felt numb like it had just received a shot of Novocaine. That was the second mistake I made that day. The first was not using gloves.
My tongue was numb but not burning so I got a drink of water and bragged to Mrs Garden4Goodies that I licked a piece of Ghost Pepper and it made my tongue numb. Once again she told me to be careful and once again I didn’t listen.
I put the plate of peppers in the basement to dry. After I cleaned the knife and washed my hands 3 times with two different kinds of soap I thought I was clear. The numbness in my tongue disappeared and I still had taste buds on that part of my tongue. Interesting experience and no harm done.
It was about 15 minutes after I had everything cleaned up the bottom of my thumb started to burn like my skin was on fire. I rushed to the sink and ran my hands under the water to no avail. After a couple minutes the burning became less but my thumb was very tinder. The thought crossed my mind that the burning lessened because some of the nerves in my thumb died. At this point I’m thinking the Naga Bhut Jolokia had tricked me. It disguised itself as a mild pepper to gain my trust. I quickly ran down to the basement, and as I opened the door it hit me. The strong burning smell of Naga Bhut Jolokia had filled the basement. I quickly moved the paper plates containing the peppers and seeds to the garage and opened some windows in the basement to air it out.
The next day my thumb still didn’t fell right and it was 48 hours before it was back to normal. I now had a lot of respect for the Evil Naga Bhut Jolokia. It was chemical warfare and I know I didn’t stand a chance unless I used superior intellect to outsmart it. I had to regroup and rethink. I have never had a plant try to kill me before with chemical warfare. At that point I decided I wasnt taking any chances and picked up some high quility disable dusk mask
Like these
Now I was ready to battle this pepper. After a couple weeks of drying the seeds and peppers all looked dry and the plant had more peppers ready to be dried.
To save the seed I put them into a envelope with about 20 seeds per envelope. Wearing gloves of course.
I decided to make the dried peepers into chili powder. To make them into a powder I decided to use a electric Coffee Grinder. I bought a coffee grinder just for this and will probably only use it for powdering peppers.
A couple tips when doing this. Do it outside in a well ventilated area and wait 5 minutes after all the dusty powder settles.
The fist batch I did in the garage with the dust mask and gloves on. After the first grind I could see through the clear plastic lid that it was very dusty in the grinder so I waited till I couldn’t see anymore dust floating around and removed the lid. Apparently that’s not enough when dealing with these peppers. I have never been sprayed with pepper spray, but I image what I felt was close, even with a dust mask on. I didn’t have my eyes covered and as soon as the lid lifted the whole garage filled with the powder. I immediately closed my eyes and fumbled for the door but it was too late. My eyes started watering and it hurt.
After the pain went away I moved my pepper grinding operation outside. When grinding the rest of the peppers I waited 5 minutes after the last dust settled before opening the lid.
That’s about all the powder we ended up with from the first batch. Didn’t get much powder from the thin skinned pepper.
Apparently I still hadn’t learned my lesson. When I was drying the second batch of peppers I touched some of the dry seeds to make sure everything was dry. After, I washed my hands and thought I was safe. Hours later that night I rubbed my left eye and it begin to burn. I flushed my eye with liquid tears
Because I don’t want to grow the Naga Bhut Jolokia, I’ve decided to give away the seeds to the readers of garden4goodies.com. After reading this if you would like some seeds post in the comments section below and I will send a envelope to you at no cost till I run out. The amount of seeds per envelope very – first come first serve.
