🔥 The heat is on 🔥

These chiles are anything but chilly! But how hot is hot? Let’s find out. Having trouble viewing this email? [View this email on the web.]( [OFA Banner]( [Turn Up the Heat! It’s Chile!]( [Hero]( These chiles are anything but chilly! But how hot is hot? Let’s find out. Dear Almanac Reader, You can find them in your tacos, chocolate, and Pad Thai—and even your muscle cream. They may be fiery red, brilliant orange, or deep green. What are these fascinating things? Hot peppers, of course! These small fruit are native to South America. Specifically, they originated as vining plants in an area that is now part of Bolivia and Brazil. Thanks to cultivation and natural dispersion, we now have numerous varieties of hot peppers that grow in almost any sunny location. With so many peppers to choose from, the real question is, “What do I want to grow?” If you don’t like too much heat, serranos, cherries, or jalapeños are good bets. And, yes, you read that right. As far as hot peppers go, jalapeños are on the milder end of the scale! [Image - jalapenos]( Jalapeños weigh in at around 8,000 Scoville Heat Units. The Scoville Heat Unit is a measurement on the eponymous scale invented by a chemist named Wilbur Scoville. The higher the number of Scoville Heat Units assigned, the hotter the pepper is. So how hot is hot? Peppers in the C. chinense family are so hot that some of them have Scoville Heat Unit counts above 1 million! Why on Earth would anyone eat that? Well, it turns out that, you aren’t supposed to. To be more precise, some scientists believe that capsaicin (the alkaloid that gives chiles their heat) evolved to keep mammals from eating hot peppers. Interesting, indeed! [Image - Tiny Chiles]( There are more chile facts and gardening tips to explore in the 2023 Old Farmer’s Almanac, too. Did you know that the famed Anaheim pepper isn’t an actual pepper variety? Or that in some regions, a string of peppers—known as a ristra—is hung on front doors in place of a “Welcome” sign? You can learn more about chile peppers in the 2023 Old Farmer’s Almanac, which is yours as part of your membership in The Old Farmer’s Almanac Gardening Club. When you join the Gardening Club, you get: [Image - Tiny Chiles]( - The 2023 Old Farmer’s Almanac Classic Paperback Edition - 2023 Gardening Wall Calendar - Gardening for Everyone, Vol. 3 - The Old Farmer's Almanac: 2023 Online Edition - The Old Farmer's Almanac: My Local Almanac - The Old Farmer’s Almanac Garden Guide Online Library - The Old Farmer’s Almanac EXTRA! - BONUS: Not only will you get a new Old Farmer’s Almanac EXTRA! each month, but also you’ll receive free access to every issue of EXTRA! in our digital library. That’s more than 60 issues! Ready to get chile? Or maybe that would be “Ready to get hot with some chile?” Either way, click the link, and all of this is all yours! Join the Old Farmer’s Almanac Gardening Club today! [Sign up today!]( Are you on social? Enjoy more Almanac wit & wisdom! [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( [Pinterest]( [Twitter]( [Visit Almanac.com]( [Shop Our Store]( You received this email because you signed for updates from The Old Farmer's Almanac. If you do not wish to receive our regular e-mail newsletter in the future, please [click here to manage preferences](. *Please do not reply to this e-mail* © 2023 Yankee Publishing Inc. An Employee-Owned Company 1121 Main Street | P.O. Box 520 | Dublin, NH 03444 [Contact Us]( [View web version](