I have discovered the secret to growing Tepin!
 

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

Sonoran Dude wrote:

> 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.

How about germinating your seeds by spreading them on a porous paper
towel on a plate, covering with a second paper towel and keeping the
paper wet? Then just plant the bottom towel with all the sprouts...

kriyamanna wrote:
> Sonoran Dude wrote:
>
>
>>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.
>
>
> How about germinating your seeds by spreading them on a porous paper
> towel on a plate, covering with a second paper towel and keeping the
> paper wet? Then just plant the bottom towel with all the sprouts...
>
The seeds from this chili will not germinate as well as passed through
the digestive system of a bird... I like the parrot doing all the
work... I all I need to do is cover his poop in some fertile soil.

We are good to go. I'll keep everyone posted. If you have not discovered
the wonderful heat and flavor of these chilies give them a try. The Seed
Coop I mentioned can ship you a small bag.

Even though dried tepin are the bomb when it comes to chili flavor! (Use
as a table condiment crushed on every day foods including ice cream) the
Fresh tepin is out of this world! no other sweetness and heat combined
on earth.

If you love chili you must try tepin. pequin are ok but not even close
to the original cousin of the chilitepin.

Sonoran Dude wrote:

> The seeds from this chili will not germinate as well as passed through
> the digestive system of a bird... I like the parrot doing all the
> work... I all I need to do is cover his poop in some fertile soil.
>
> We are good to go. I'll keep everyone posted. If you have not discovered
> the wonderful heat and flavor of these chilies give them a try. The Seed
> Coop I mentioned can ship you a small bag.

Around 14 years ago, I had a Tepin bush growing in a large planter from
a packet of seeds I bought at the super market. It seems to me that it
took about two or three years before the seeds got around to
germinating. When the bush came up, I had forgotten about planting the
seeds. The peppers were about 1/2 an inch long and orange colored and
were very hot.

kriyamanna wrote:
> Sonoran Dude wrote:
>
>
>>The seeds from this chili will not germinate as well as passed through
>>the digestive system of a bird... I like the parrot doing all the
>>work... I all I need to do is cover his poop in some fertile soil.
>>
>>We are good to go. I'll keep everyone posted. If you have not discovered
>>the wonderful heat and flavor of these chilies give them a try. The Seed
>>Coop I mentioned can ship you a small bag.
>
>
> Around 14 years ago, I had a Tepin bush growing in a large planter from
> a packet of seeds I bought at the super market. It seems to me that it
> took about two or three years before the seeds got around to
> germinating. When the bush came up, I had forgotten about planting the
> seeds. The peppers were about 1/2 an inch long and orange colored and
> were very hot.
>
Sorry dude but what you describe is not a Tepin...You may be thinking
habenero. The tepin is a small red berry. The tepin is a round red chili
pod about the size of a whole black peppercorn but a true fruit and
hollow when dried. The skin is green and turns red as it ripens. The red
berry is delicious fresh and will explode with intense heat and flavor
when eaten on pizza or in a salad.
Dried the small red balls contain about 6 or 8 yellow seeds. This red
ball is nothing more than a shell with the fire inside. The parrot will
crack the outer red chili skin to eat the precious yellow seeds inside.

This is a plant that uses nature to propagate. You can not buy seeds for
this plant. They are useless, they are not easily cultivated. It's all
about the preparation for the seeds. I am letting nature do it's work
with the parrot.

John, in a separate reply, mentions the cousin of the tepin the pequin.
That is also a good chili for crushing on pizza, making salsas, etc but
I don't believe it can hold a candle to the flavor of the tepin. The
heat of a pequin (pear shaped) is much milder than the tepin. The tepin
is not for the mild chili lovers. One small tepin can make 4 people
sweat in a small portion of food. I on the other hand have developed
great tollerance to the searing heat inflicted by these little jewels
and can eat up to a dozen or more per serving.

If you have never had a small red round berry called the tepin I
encourage you to get some and try it for yourself. Pequin are also good
if you can't find the tepin but they are about half the heat.

I have a small vile full of round berries on my table all the time. I
take a few out to crush over just about anything. Try it over vanilla
ice cream sometime! It is unbelivable!

John‰]
wrote:
> 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
The tepin and the pequin are cousins that is for sure. You are correct
about the acid and the preparation of the seeds. However the Pequin does
not come close to the fire of a habenero but the tepin is at least 3 to
4 times the fire of the common pequin you describe. I can eat fresh
pequin out of hand easily but I am cautious with the tepin. Eating
straight habenero is silly because I just don't find the flavor that
appealing. Biting a fresh tepin is the most intense and climatic chili
rush a guy can get but eating more than one without food is complete
insanity.

If my parrot dies I will try your solution, but so far he can't eat
enough of them! He loves them!

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

John=89]wrote:

> The chile pequin (also rendered as chiltecpin, chiltipin, and chile
> pet=EDn) 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, jalape=F1os, serranos, etc.

Here's a researcher that really did a nice job of sorting out peppers
and chiles all over the world:

http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/...?Caps_ann.html

kriyamanna wrote:
> John‰]wrote:
>
>
>>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.
>
>
> Here's a researcher that really did a nice job of sorting out peppers
> and chiles all over the world:
>
> http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/...?Caps_ann.html
>
Excellent page. My variety is about half way down the page. I have
snipped his definition. The picture of the flower and tepin on his page
are exactly what I have in the back yard.

Chile tepín, flower and ripe fruit
It is, however, difficult to explain (i) how the chiltepín could have
travelled from its diversification locus (Amazonas basin) that far into
the North without human help, and (ii) why all early records of chile
cultivation point to Central and Southern México, never to the North. So
the chiltepín is more probably a cultivar that has escaped back into the
wild, not an original wild form. The chiltepín is quite hot and can be
fiercily hot; it is much used for North Mexican cuisine and has quite
recently established itself on the US market, fueled by the large number
of Mexican immigrants and the general interest in Mexican and other
spicy food. It should be noticed that the tepín is still a wild plant,
and all of the crop is collected from the wild. So far, all attempts for
cultivation in commercial scale have failed.

Other experts have speculated on the fact that birds have brought the
pepper to this region. I am not sure why this guy has not concluded
that. It's a no brainer when you see how ferociously the birds enjoy the
fruit. I have cardinals constantly feeding on my bush. And now I have
discovered that Parrots crave the little fruits! I'll let you know in
about 3 to 4 months if the bird theory is a winner.

Sonoran Dude wrote:

> Other experts have speculated on the fact that birds have brought the
> pepper to this region. I am not sure why this guy has not concluded
> that. It's a no brainer when you see how ferociously the birds enjoy the
> fruit. I have cardinals constantly feeding on my bush. And now I have
> discovered that Parrots crave the little fruits! I'll let you know in
> about 3 to 4 months if the bird theory is a winner.

Looking at the paprika page, I suppose the chile bush that my two white
kittens enjoyed climbing in was a chile pequin bush, not a tepin bush.
I only tried one pequin and was amazed at its heat...

The bush either grew from the seeds I'd planted years before, or my El
Salvadorean neighbors threw some chile sees over the fence. I will
never know...

For those that can't devote the time to keeping a bird company, the 5%
muriatic acid solution might be simpler. Swimming pool acid is easily
obtainable. But the acid in a digestive tract is probably hydrochloric
acid which is a lot weaker.

Awesome site! Puts my feeble attempt to shame.

"kriyamanna" > wrote in message
oups.com...

John?]wrote:

> 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.

Here's a researcher that really did a nice job of sorting out peppers
and chiles all over the world:

http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/...?Caps_ann.html

"Wayne Lundberg" > wrote in message
...
> Awesome site! Puts my feeble attempt to shame.

Gernot is THE expert in all things in spice and herbs. He is also an
extrordinarily nice person. Having once done so, I can advise never to
challange his information! Hee, hee!

Charlie