"Devil Pepper" turned to hot sauce in case of cold disaster.

Original title: Changfeng "Devil Pepper" suffered heavy losses when it froze

The planter made the remaining chili into chili sauce, hoping to recover the loss.

A normal devil pepper is much bigger than a frozen devil pepper.

When asked about the hottest chili peppers, people will immediately think of Chinese Chaotian pepper, but in front of the Indian devil pepper, the hotness of Chinese Chaotian pepper can only be subdued. In Fumin Village, Shuangdun Town, Changfeng County, Hefei City, nearly 200 mu of land is planted with the hottest chili peppers in the world. However, with the snow and frost some time ago, half of the devil chili peppers were damaged and reduced production, so Hu Jing, the head of the farm, had to make the remaining chili peppers into chili sauce, hoping to recover some of the losses.

Devil pepper is seven times hotter than Chaotian pepper.

In Fumin Village, Shuangdun Town, Changfeng County, Hefei City, under the leadership of Hu Jing, the reporter came to this greenhouse where the hottest chili peppers were planted in the world. The pepper seedlings that were supposed to be green all wilted after frost, and only a few small chili seedlings were still hung with short red chili peppers.

The reporter picked up the remaining chili peppers on the ground and found that the devil chili peppers were smaller than ordinary chili peppers and smelled nothing spicy, which seemed very common. So how hot is the hottest chili in the world? The reporter picked one and tasted it. He just bit off the tip of the pepper and felt a faint sweetness, but when he chewed gently with his teeth, there was an extremely strong spicy taste that stimulated the taste buds, which gradually spread to the whole head, and his lips and mouth were in spicy pain. I was drooling and crying, and I was sweating all over my body.

Chen Qingquan, an associate professor at the School of Agriculture of Anhui Agricultural University, told reporters that Indian devil pepper, also known as broken Soul Pepper, was originally planted in eastern India, and this is the only place for large-scale cultivation in the province. "when you taste it, you may not feel spicy at first, but after about three or four seconds, the spicy taste will get stronger and stronger." In 2007, it was rated as the hottest pepper in the world by Guinness. According to the Scoville hotness test system, the spicy degree of devil pepper exceeded 1 million.

According to Chen Qingquan, Scoville is a unit of spiciness, which can be obtained by diluting the chili juice to the point where you can't taste it. 1 million units means that the chili juice must be diluted 1 million times to completely neutralize the spicy taste, while the hottest Hainan Chaotian pepper in China has a spicy degree of about 150000 Scoville units.

Only a few seedlings are planted in half a jin of seeds.

Hu Jing told reporters that she found the news of Indian devil chili in a newspaper three years ago. At that time, there was no precedent for this kind of pepper to be planted in China, and the seeds were still in the research stage, but she chose to gamble. "if you want to be the first person to eat crabs, you have to be bolder." So Hu Jing spent more than 6000 yuan to buy half a jin of seeds from an agricultural research institute in Yunnan to carry out the experiment.

When she got home, Hu Jing planted the seeds herself. Take good care of it bit by bit in accordance with the method taught in the book. But after more than 20 days, only a few small pepper seedlings grew sparsely. "half a jin of seeds, only a few small seedlings, spent so much money, I do not know what to buy, I thought she had entered the pyramid scheme." Hu Jing's husband said.

Although only a few seedlings grew, Hu Jing mastered the method of planting devil pepper, which gave her the confidence to continue to plant. So this year, Hu Jing expanded the planting area to more than 60 mu. At the same time, drive nearby residents to plant together. At present, nearly 200 mu of land in Shuangdun Town, Changfeng County is growing devil chili, which is mainly sold to restaurants and enterprises.

Nearly half of the chili peppers were lost by frost

This summer, when the chili peppers began to bear fruit, the sudden heavy rain flooded Hu Jing's 20 mu planting land. "the devil pepper has grown into shape, and it will be harvested in the first crop. As a result, all 20 mu of pepper seedlings have drowned." Aunt Ding, who is in charge of managing the farm, said.

It was expected that the remaining 40 mu of pepper seedlings would bear fruit smoothly, but after the heavy snow some time ago, we found that almost all of the pepper seedlings in the greenhouse suffered frost damage overnight. Except for the middle part of the pepper seedlings are still green, the other pepper seedlings are all frozen yellow.

According to Hu Jing's statistics, there were more than 10 mu of chili peppers damaged by frost, with a loss of more than 100,000 yuan. Hu Jing was very distressed to see that the villagers had packed more than a dozen sacks of frozen chili peppers in the fields. "the situation of other growers is similar to mine. About half of the chili peppers have been damaged, and the losses are very heavy."

Switch to chili sauce, hoping to recover the loss.

There is a large factory building in Hu Jing's plantation. The reporter saw more than 20 large earth vats inside, all sealed with red lids. "fresh chili peppers, if they cannot be sold, can only be preserved by pickling to preserve their best taste."

Hu Jing told reporters that the chili sauce made from devil pepper tastes better, and long-term fermentation and pickling will also reduce the spiciness. Hu Jing said that after losing most of the devil chili peppers, the loss can only be recovered by pickling chili sauce. "I hope more people can taste such a good variety of chili peppers." Hu Jing said. (morning Post star reporter Zhou Kunwen / photo)