"Mark Thorson" > wrote in message
...
> brooklyn1 wrote:
>>
>> I grow jalapenos every year, each year they are a different degree of
>> hotness, from eat out of hand mild to fiery ten alarm inferno... and a
>> few years in a row from the same packet of seed. I've been told that
>> the heat element of peppers are prone to alteration from cross
>> pollenating... two years ago my frying peppers were too hot for me...
>
> I watched a program on NHK (Japanese TV) which
> showed a chili buyer from Japan in Korea.
> He was tasting the peppers in the field and
> saying the crop that year was too hot for
> the Japanese, who want mild peppers. He was
> testing the peppers and spitting them out
> on the ground because they were too hot.
> He said it was because of the hot summer that
> year.
>
> I'm a bit skeptical that a hot summer would
> result in hotter peppers, but it's not an
> unreasonable theory, and coming from a buyer
> of chili peppers I suppose it may be true.

From year to year, I've noticed changes in sweetness, hotness depending upon
the weather. . .lots of sun or not so much. The vegetables that display
changes most noticeably are tomatoes, peppers and winter squash.
Janet