Wish I could get permission to post this gem on my pueblaprotocol experiment
in communicating Mexican food lore....

Wayne

"John?] "
> wrote in message
. net...
> In article >, Sonoran Dude
> > wrote:
>
> > I was down at the Native Seeds Search Store in Tucson.
> > www.nativeseeds.org and I discovered the secret to growing your own
Tepin!
> > Since the plants were originally brought up from birds from south
> > America it makes sense to pass these little guys through a bird first.
> > They say that the seeds must be passed through a bird or soaked for
> > sometime before the seed will germinate. Some kind of protective coating
> > on them.
> > I started feeding whole tepin peppers to my girlfriend's parrot and the
> > bird loves them! I will soon be knee deep in parrot poop! I do not have
> > any tepin peppers to work with from my own plant for a few more weeks
> > but we have been feeding it the peppers from the Sierra Madres species
> > and so far so good. We plan to plant those at her place so not to cross
> > polinate with my AZ variety.
> >
> > I will keep you posted on when I can feed her bird some of my new crop.
> > I wonder what I can get for parrot poop on ebay?
> >
> > B
>
>
> Reprinted with permission from the exaulted one, his holiness, the
> Grand Pequinary.
> ************************************************** *********************
> The Chile Pequin
> A Brief Tutorial
>
> The chile pequin (also rendered as chiltecpin, chiltipin, and chile
> petín) is a small berry-like pepper which grows on a rather pretty
> little green bush, although older plants can get as tall as a man. It
> is indigenous from South Texas to South America, where it apparently
> originated. Biologists believe that the pequin was in fact the
> original chile, from which all other Capsicum varieties derive,
> including Bell peppers, jalapeños, serranos, etc.
>
> The origin of the word "pequin" is apparently a Nahuatl term meaning
> "flea-bite pepper" ("Some flea," you may well say). One authority
> describes the flavor of the pequin as "pungent." Heh.
>
> The pequin is prized as a condiment throughout its normal range. Many
> families in South Texas have a bush or two in the yard; your reporter
> has seven, at last count. Native Americans of the Southwest make
> pilgrimages each year to Mexico to pick pequins; they are one of the
> few wild crops that still can be harvested for a profit. In June, 2001
> they were on sale in one Austin, Texas supermarket for $20.00/lb.
> I had no success whatever in getting a pequin seed to sprout until I
> was advised to first soak the seed from a mature, red pepper in a 5%
> solution of muriatic acid. It seems that the pequin has evolved a
> reproductive strategy that includes being eaten by birds, which
> then--ahem--distribute the seed together with fertilizer. This is why
> the wild pequin is so often found along fence rows and beneath other
> roosting places. Soaking the seed in an acid solution mimics its
> passage through the digestive tract of a bird and, for whatever reason,
> begins germination.
>
> Green and red pequins are equally sumptious, but slightly different in
> taste. The red ones are not hotter, in fact they are slightly milder
> and more mellow--although neophyte samplers of the pequin may have
> difficulty making this subtle distinction. Green pequins will ripen to
> red after picking.
>
> Popular wisdom notwithstanding, beer, while good, is not the best
> beverage for extinguish-ing conflagrations sparked by chewing this
> pepper. The best remedy is cold milk, in large quantities. Cheese is
> also good for this.
>
> Always take the pequin with other food; never imbibe this pepper by
> itself. The only person I ever knew who regularly did so was my first
> sweetheart's father, Salomon ("Crazy Salo") Garcia, may he rest in
> peace, who lived down the street a couple of houses. While sitting on
> his front porch steps in the evening, Salo would break off a branch
> from a nearby pequin bush, strip the chiles from it in one motion, and
> pop them into his mouth one at a time like peanuts, washing them down
> with Lone Star. Ordinary humans used to fall silent at Salo's
> approach.
>
> Always wash your hands after handling pequins. This lesson was brought
> home forcefully to me as a child, when I rubbed my eyes after throwing
> pequins at my chums during a chinaberry fight.
> Pequins will keep in the refrigerator for a week to ten days. After
> pickling them, I have kept pequins in the fridge for over a year. They
> are more flavorful that Thai chiles, and hotter. But the habanero
> pepper is far hotter than the pequin.
>
> Warm regards,
> Grand Pequinary
> ************************************************** *******************
>
> John