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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Chiltepin: In the Land of the Wild Chiles
  • Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 17:24:58 -0700


http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/chiltepin.html

Both of us had attended a symposium on wild chiles that was held in October,
1988, at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. The leader of the conference
was the ecologist Dr. Gary Nabhan, author of Gathering the Desert, director
of Native Seeds/SEARCH, and an expert on Chiltepins. Other chile experts
attending included Dr. W. Hardy Eshbaugh, a botanist from Miami University of
Ohio; Dr. Jean Andrews, author of Peppers: The Domesticated Capsicums; and
Cindy Baker of the Chicago Botanical Garden.

As the conference progressed, I was amazed by the amount of information
presented on Chiltepins. Botanists believe that these wild chiles are the
closest surviving variety to the earliest forms of chiles which developed in
Bolivia and southern Brazil long before mankind arrived in the New World. The
small size of their fruits were perfect for dissemination by birds, and the
wild chiles spread all over South and Central America and up to what is now
the United States border millennia before the domesticated varieties arrived.
In fact, Dr. Eshbaugh believes they have the widest distribution of any chile
variety, ranging from Peru north to the Caribbean, Florida, and Louisiana and
west to Arizona.

There is a wide variation in pod shapes, from tiny ones the size and shape of
BBs to elongated pods a half inch long. By contrast, domesticated Piquins
have much longer pods, up to three inches. The Chiltepins most prized in
Mexico are spherical and measure five to eight millimeters in diameter. They
are among the hottest chiles on earth, measuring up to 100,000 Scoville Units
and a 9 on the heat scale.

The word "Chiltepin" is believed to be derived from the Aztec language
(Nahuatl) combination word "chilli" + "tecpintl," meaning "flea chile," an
allusion to its sharp bite. That word was altered to "chiltecpin," then to
the Spanish "chiltepín," and finally Anglicized to "chilipiquin," as the
plant is known in Texas. We have settled on a non-accented "Chiltepin" as the
English term for the plant and fruit. Its botanical name is Capsicum annuum
var. aviculare.

In Sonora and southern Arizona, Chiltepins grow in microhabitats in the
transition zone between mountain and desert, which receive as little as ten
inches of rain per year. They grow beneath "nurse" trees such as mesquite,
oak, and palmetto, which provide shelter from direct sunlight, heat, and
frost. In the summer, there is higher humidity beneath the nurse trees, and
legumes such as mesquite fix nitrogen in the soil--a perfect fertilizer for
the Chiltepins. They also protect the plant from grazing by cattle, sheep,
goats, and deer. Chiltepins planted in the open, without nurse trees, usually
die from the effects of direct solar radiation.

Although the Chiltepin plant's average height is about four feet, there are
reports of individual bushes growing ten feet tall, living twenty-five to
thirty years, and having stems as big around as a man's wrist. Chiltepins are
resistant to frost but lose their leaves in cold winter weather. New growth
will sprout from the base of the plant if it is frozen back.

There is quite a bit of legend and lore associated with the fiery little
pods. In earlier times, the Papago Indians of Arizona traditionally made
annual pilgrimages into the Sierra Madre range of Mexico to gather
Chiltepins. Dr. Nabhan discovered that the Tarahumara Indians of Chihuahua
value the Chiltepins so much that they build stone walls around the bushes to
protect them from goats. Besides spicing up food, Indians use Chiltepins for
antilactation, the technique where nursing mothers put Chiltepin powder on
their nipples to wean babies. Chiltepins are also an aid in childbirth
because when powdered and inhaled they cause sneezing. And, of course, the
hot chiles induce gustatory sweating, which cools off the body during hot
weather.

In 1794, Padre Ignaz Pfeffercorn, a German Jesuit living in Sonora, described
the wild chile pepper: "A kind of wild pepper which the inhabitants call
chiltipin is found on many hills. It is placed unpulverized on the table in a
salt cellar and each fancier takes as much of it as he believes he can eat.
He pulverizes it with his fingers and mixes it with his food. The chiltipin
is the best spice for soup, boiled peas, lentils, beans and the like. The
Americans swear that it is exceedingly healthful and very good as an aid to
the digestion." In fact, even today, Chiltepins are used--amazingly
enough--as a treatment for acid indigestion.

Padre Pfeffercorn realized that Chiltepins are one of the few crops in the
world which are harvested in the wild rather than cultivated. (Others are
mushrooms, piñon nuts, Brazil nuts, and some wild rice.) This fact has led to
concern for the preservation of the Chiltepin bushes because the harvesters
often pull up entire plants or break off branches. Dr. Nabhan believes that
the Chiltepin population is diminishing because of overharvesting and
overgrazing. In Arizona, a Chiltepin reserve has been established near
Tumacacori at Rock Corral Canyon in the Coronado National Forest. Native
Seeds/SEARCH has been granted a special use permit from the National Forest
Service to initiate permanent marking and mapping of plants, ecological
studies, and a management plan proposal.

The symposium on wild chiles was fascinating, and we even got to taste some
Chiltepin ice cream. But, it was even more interesting to see the
Chiltepineros in action years later.

I asked Pedro how the harvest was going, and he said it was the best in more
than a decade because the better than average rainfall had caused the bushes
to set a great many fruits. Antonio added that during the drought of 1988,
Chiltepins were so rare that there was no export crop. According to Pedro,
factors other than rainfall also had an influence on the
harvest--specifically, birds and insects. Mockingbirds, pyrrhuloxia (Mexican
cardinals), and other species readily ate the pods as they turned red, but
the real damage to the entire plant was caused by grasshoppers.

The total harvest in Sonora is difficult to estimate, but at least twenty
tons of dried pods are collected and sold in an average year. Some
Chiltepineros have suggested that in a wet year like 1990, fifty tons might
be a better estimate. The total export to the United States is estimated at
more than six tons a year, and the Durans account for much of that. As I
watched Antonio and his mother weigh huge sacks of Chiltepins on the small
scale in front of the market, I asked Antonio about prices.

He declined to tell me what he paid the Chiltepineros, but he offered a
wealth of information about other pricing information. Between 1968 and 1990,
the wholesale price of Chiltepins had multiplied nearly ten fold. Between
1987 and 1990, the price had nearly tripled, mostly because of the 1988
drought. Currently, Chiltepins were being sold in South Tucson in one-quarter
ounce packages for $2.00, which equates to a phenomenal $128 per pound. Thus,
at that time, Chiltepins were the second most expensive spice in the world,
after saffron.

Why do people in the United States lust after these tiny pods? Dr. Nabhan
suggests that Chiltepins remind immigrants of their northern Mexico homeland
and help them reinforce their Sonoran identity. Also, they have traditional
uses in Sonoran cusine, as evidenced by the recipes we collected. In addition
to spicing up Sonoran foods, they are an anti-oxidant and thus help preserve
carne seca, the dried meat we call jerky. No wonder the Chile Queen and her
son work hard to import many hundreds of pounds of pods.

Chiltepines en Escabeche

In the states of Sonora and Sinaloa, fresh green and red Chiltepins are
preserved in vinegar and salt. They are used as a condiment or are popped
into the mouth when eating any food--except, perhaps, oatmeal. Since fresh
Chiltepins are not available in the U.S., adventurous cooks and gardeners
must grow their own. The tiny chiles are preserved in three layers in a 1
pint, sterilized jar.

*

Fresh red and/or green Chiltepins (as many as you want to pickle)
*

3 cloves garlic, peeled
*

3 teaspoons salt
*

3 tablespoons cider vinegar
*

water

Fill the jar 1/3 full of Chiltepins. Add 1 clove garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and
one tablespoon cider vinegar. Repeat this process twice more and fill the jar
to within 1/2 inch of the top with water.

Seal the jar and allow to sit for 15 to 30 days.

Yield: 1 pint

Heat Scale: Hot


Chiltepin Ice Cream

This novelty was first served in 1988 for the symposium on wild chiles at the
Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix and at the Fiesta de los Chiles at the
Tucson Botanical Gardens. It is very hot in the proportions given (despite
the tendency of ice cream to cut the heat), so you may want to reduce the
quantity of Chiltepins.

*

½ cup Chiltepines en Escabeche (see recipe), rinsed thoroughly
and pulverized (or substitute fresh green or red pods)
*

1 gallon vanilla ice cream

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly in a blender until green flecks
appear throughout the ice cream. Serve in small portions.




  • [Livingontheland] Chiltepin: In the Land of the Wild Chiles, Tradingpost, 03/14/2004

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