Market Look-For’s

• Bright, tight skin
• Avoid peppers that are bruised or have rotty tips. Or buy them and cut away the blemishes, but beware that bruised vegetables never store for as long.
• Talk with your farmer about the heat level of particular varieties. Heat not only varies by variety but also by growing season.

Storage

• Store in a plastic bag in the fridge if using within a couple of weeks
• If preserving either dry the peppers, steep in vinegar, blend and freeze or ferment into hot sauce. This is why it is worthwhile to buy them in large quantities.

Notes

• The heat of a pepper depends on the season in which it was grown. Like radishes, the pepper will get hotter when under a bit of stress. If it was a particularly hot or dry summer, the peppers should be hotter. But ask your farmer.
• The heat of the pepper lives in the seeds and in the white capsaseum. Remove that if you want your end result to be less spicy.
• Use gloves when cutting/handling hot peppers and for real, don’t rub your eye or any other sensitive body parts. This is not a joke.