🌶️🌶️ It’s chile time!

These chiles are anything but chilly! 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! 2024 Pre-Orders Available Now! Celebrate your Love of Gardening with The Old Farmer's Almanac Gardening Club! [OFIE Image]( Save 31% with your Gardening Club Charter Membership! [Claim your Old Farmer’s Almanac Gardening Club Charter Membership!]( [Yes, place my pre-order!]( [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 Digital Edition, which is yours as part of your membership in The Old Farmer’s Almanac Gardening Club. By joining the club, you'll get access to digital Almanacs going back to 2010! When you join the Gardening Club, you get: [Image - Tiny Chiles]( - The 2024 Old Farmer’s Almanac Classic Paperback Edition - 2024 Gardening Wall Calendar, filled with rich illustrations and useful gardening tips and secrets. - Gardening for Everyone, Vol. 4—This beautiful softcover print edition covers the best of The Old Farmer’s Almanac's gardening advice. - The 2024 Old Farmer's Almanac Online Edition—Everything you love about the Almanac, and then some. It’s portable and printable! - The Old Farmer’s Almanac Online Library—The library is packed with Garden Guides, digital Almanacs going back to 2010, over 80 issues of EXTRA! Magazine, and more! - The Old Farmer’s Almanac EXTRA!—Our monthly digital magazine often includes an article on gardening and always features calendar lore, Moon phases, a Sky Map, Weather Update, Best Days to Do Things, and gardening by the Moon. - BONUS: 2023 Garden Guide—128 inspiring pages on vegetables, flowers, herbs, houseplants; also recipes, DIY projects, and more! 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](