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It's About Thyme tel: 512-280-1192 April 22, 2011
Nursery Notes: In honor of Earth Day, we offer a 10% sale on all trees.
Sale begins today, and lasts through Thurs, April 28: apple, plum, peach
and fig trees, and mountain laurels, yaupons, live oaks, crape myrtles and palm
trees... and many more! New shipment of pottery arrived this week. Big
thanks to nurserymen Robert Abraham and his assistant Jason for all their work
on making the front of the nursery look more beautiful. Photos coming soon.
Begonias in Brussels: Since the 1970s, this European city has been creating
multi-colored floral carpets, using almost one million begonias. Thanks to our
gardener friend Cookie Salem for letting us know about this. Writes Cookie:
'I'm lucky enough to have seen it for myself in Brussels in years past. Heaven
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Apologies for the cancellation of last Sunday's Olive Tree/Olive Oil lecture.
We have re-booked Jim Henry for Sunday, June 5 at 2 p.m. No lecture this
Easter weekend. Kurt Hudgeons will speak on Ponds and Water Features
next Sunday, May 1 at 2 p.m.
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This week on KLRU's Central Texas Gardener: a visit to Randy Case's
beautiful garden; and Tom Spencer chats with Bill Scheick about 'the joys and
perils of zone-pushing.' Saturday, noon and 4 p.m. Sunday 9 a.m. or click here
to view now: www.klru.org/ctg/
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Message for Master Gardeners of the Future The application and
selection process begins soon. Info sessions: May 17 and 25. Application
deadline: June 13. Course runs from Aug 23 - Nov 18. Cost: $225 plus
50 volunteer hours. What a deal! More details here: master gardener
India's infamous bhut jolokia ghost pepper 'has the baddest bite of all....'
Sgt. Pepper in the Garden
by Chris Winslow
One garden plant that can match our summer’s heat intensity is the chili. Funny
hat they’re called ‘chilies’ when we all know there is nothing remotely ‘chilly’
about them at all!
Heat intensity of our peppers is measured in Scoville units. This is in honor of
the great American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville (1865-1942), who used human
guinea pigs to compile his scale. I hope he paid them well!
In our modern era, these Scoville units are measured more scientifically, using a
form of liquid chromatography which measures - in a more precise manner -
the amount of pure capsaicin oil.
At the very bottom of this scale, you find the sweet bell peppers, with a zero
Scoville rating. Next we come to the jalapenos - the most popular chili in Texas.
On the cooler side is the TAM mild jalapeno, with very little heat. From there
they range up to 9,000 Scovilles, the hottest being ‘mucho nacho,’ which is also
longer, fatter and wider… and great for stuffing.
Also popular in the Austin area are the New Mexico hatch chilies that we see in
late summer and fall. These Anaheims range from mild to their hottest form, the
Sandia, with a Scoville rating of 6,000.
Further up the scale we find Thai, Serrano, and the chili pequin at 25,000 to
30,000 Scovilles. At this point, there seems to be a big gap until we get to the
different varieties of habaneros. These extremely hot peppers range from
200,000 to 400,000 Scovilles with the chocolate and red Caribbean varieties
being the hottest.
And we’re not at the top of the scale yet.
The Guinness Book of World Records identifies an Indian pepper as the hottest
on the planet. Known as Naga Morich, Bhut Jolokia, or the ghost pepper, this
dastardly little pepper boasts a Scoville scale topping 1,000,000! Naga translates
as cobra or viper, and for sure, this pepper has the baddest bite of all.
Whether you eat them or not, these peppers are fun to grow and make great
conversation. They’re colorful and add great beauty to any garden.
Happy gardening everyone!
