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sheeshshe
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um it is one of those things that I eyeball it? LOL! I started with a recipe online and ended up just tossing it in after making it a few times. I don't do a cooked recipe, just the raw one. I do a bunch of tomatoes, some onion, jalepeno, garlic, oil, and salt. it called for cilantro but I don't like it. I jjust blend it up in the food processor. its runny, but I like it that way because all the flavors are blended together.

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stella1751
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Thanks, Sheeshshe! I'll keep trying different recipes until I find one I like.

How's the Jalapeno doing? Is it producing again for you?

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well... out of 6 plants I have 1 jalepeno growing. and I picked one a few weeks back. that is IT! I give up. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I really want to try again but hate to buy a whole thing of those big jim seeds for just a couple plants. do you know if people do little co-ops or trades in the spring with seeds?

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sheeshshe wrote:well... out of 6 plants I have 1 jalepeno growing. and I picked one a few weeks back. that is IT! I give up. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I really want to try again but hate to buy a whole thing of those big jim seeds for just a couple plants. do you know if people do little co-ops or trades in the spring with seeds?
Isn't this where the discussion started?

Ted

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ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I do believe we've come full circle LOL!!!!!

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sheeshshe wrote:well... do you know if people do little co-ops or trades in the spring with seeds?
Sheeshshe, I never plant all of my seeds, because sometimes things don't go as planned. I just pulled out the packet that friend sent me, and there are five seeds left. Unfortunately, I fear I assumed they were Nu-Mex, and they may well be Nu-Mex, but the label he put on them reads simply, "Big Jim Hot Pepper."

I haven't taste-tested the peppers yet. They are just now starting to turn red, which they do working from the base to the tip, quite attractively. The plants are currently, I suppose, 30" tall, but this summer hasn't been a fair test of any peppers up here, having only begun on July 8. I suspect they'll go at least 4' tall under ideal conditions. The peppers are slender, and long, 6 to 7", I suppose, and curl all over the place, especially the ones at the bottom of the plant.

If you're interested, PM me with your mailing address, and I'll send you these five seeds. (Why do I feel like Jack the Giant Slayer? I'm gonna need a cow in exchange, I hope you know.) Five seeds should be enough to make certain you get two to four plants.

Ted, I went online, and I can't find a Big Jim that's not the Nu-Mex type. Are you sure there are other Big Jim's?

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Stella,

According to the following website, the Big Jim pepper was developed at NMSU in 1975 and is sometimes known as an Aneheim pepper.

https://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/cgi-bin/catview.cgi?_fn=Product&_category=30

According to this site, they have the Numex Big Jim and the Numex Heritage Big Jim.

https://chile-pepper-seeds.net/varieties.html

The Chile Pepper Institute at NMSU lists both the Numex Big Jim and the Numex Heritage Big Jim at the following link.

https://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/cart/seeds/nmsu_varieties/

Apparently, the Numex Heritage Big Jim is the larger variety. I am almost sure I read on one page, the Big Jim pepper was a normal sized Jalapeno in a variety of colors, but I don't remember where.

Ted

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According to the following website, the Big Jim pepper was developed at NMSU in 1975 and is sometimes known as an Aneheim pepper.

https://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/cgi-bin/catview.cgi?_fn=Product&_category=30
How interesting! That means the pepper I've been labeling "Anaheim NM" because it was called "Anaheim New Mexico" in the 10+ year old souvenir multi seed hot pepper packet that I planted from could be the very pepper you have bee talking about? They're about 8 in long on the average.

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Good stuff, Ted; thanks! Based on the photos, mine looks more like the NuMex Heritage, no Big Jim about it. The ninth photo down on the last site you listed looks more like what I have, which was why I was surprised to learn these are good for chili rellenos. My peppers are not 2.5" at the base, more like 1.5".

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Ah, even more interesting... I think mine looks MOST like New Mexico. 8)

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Numex Big Jim are supposed to be like jalpenos, aren't they? I thought that Anaheim pepper where chili peppers?

Ok, now I'm starting to get confused :?.

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Look at the link tedln posted and Stella mentioned. :wink:

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stella1751 wrote:Thanks, Sheeshshe! I'll keep trying different recipes until I find one I like.

How's the Jalapeno doing? Is it producing again for you?
Stella, shoot me a PM to remind me and I'll dig up my salsa recipe for you. It's always a big hit and easy to customize.

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When I eat peppers in any way, I want the most taste I can get with some heat. According to the CPI in the following statement, The NUMEX Heritage Big Jim has five times the flavor of the regular Numex Big Jim.

"Our research can be hot and cool at the same time. Paul Bosland, co-founder and director of the CPI, was responsible for finding the world's hottest chile pepper, the Bhut Jolokia. In the fall of 2006, the Guinness Book of Records confirmed Bosland's discovery. Discoveries like these are not rare for the Chile Pepper Institute. The record-holder for the world's largest chile pepper is a specimen of the 'NuMex Big Jim' variety that was developed in at NMSU in 1976. And recently, the release of NuMex Heritage 6-4, provides a chile pepper with 5X the flavor of the standard green chile."

The reason I stopped growing the very productive banana peppers was the fact that they were tasteless. You could get a hot variety, but they were stll tasteless and bland. I think the NUMEX Heritage Big Jim is the way to go. Now all I need to do is wait for the seed companies to catch up and then do a google search for the Heritage seed.

I noticed in my small town grocery store this weekend, they have a display of the "Hatch" chile peppers. They are simply the original NUMEX Big Jim peppers grown at Hatch New Mexico. They are large.

Ted

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Sometimes, when the wife and I are passing through Northern New Mexico or Southern Colorado this time of year, the Anaheim (Big Jim) harvest is peaking. The roadside stands selling honey, nuts, and all the locally harvested products are in full swing. They all have large roasting bins which rotate over a propane burner. The bins are large enough to hold two or possibly three bushels of peppers and still leave room for the peppers to move as they rotate. They literally burn the peppers until the skin is black and falling off. The flesh of the peppers has become very soft at that point.

When the peppers have finished roasting, a line of customers has usually formed and the peppers are placed in large, clear, plastic bags. They are still hot and steaming in the bags. A bag of peppers costs about $5.00. When you get them home, you can remove all the blackened skin or leave it on (the blackened skin gives the peppers a smoky flavor that I like). I like to make pepper sandwiches. You need nothing but the peppers. I cook with them. I make salsa (you can buy all the ingredients at the same stand you purchased the peppers from). I don't use a recipe. I just keep adding stuff until it looks right and tastes right. I love it, because the peppers seem to have the flavor of the mountains and the clean air that I love.

Ted

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You are making me hungry, Ted. And I'm not even a big fan of NM green chili's. I think I need to try some this year.
tedln wrote:Sometimes, when the wife and I are passing through Northern New Mexico or Southern Colorado this time of year, the Anaheim (Big Jim) harvest is peaking. The roadside stands selling honey, nuts, and all the locally harvested products are in full swing. They all have large roasting bins which rotate over a propane burner. The bins are large enough to hold two or possibly three bushels of peppers and still leave room for the peppers to move as they rotate. They literally burn the peppers until the skin is black and falling off. The flesh of the peppers has become very soft at that point.

When the peppers have finished roasting, a line of customers has usually formed and the peppers are placed in large, clear, plastic bags. They are still hot and steaming in the bags. A bag of peppers costs about $5.00. When you get them home, you can remove all the blackened skin or leave it on (the blackened skin gives the peppers a smoky flavor that I like). I like to make pepper sandwiches. You need nothing but the peppers. I cook with them. I make salsa (you can buy all the ingredients at the same stand you purchased the peppers from). I don't use a recipe. I just keep adding stuff until it looks right and tastes right. I love it, because the peppers seem to have the flavor of the mountains and the clean air that I love.

Ted

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jmoore wrote:You are making me hungry, Ted. And I'm not even a big fan of NM green chili's. I think I need to try some this year.
Ditto to that, Jmoore! Ted's description reminded me of the last time I was in Tijuana, not the border part most people see, but real Tijuana, where (at the time) vendors lined the streets with their little carts, and you could buy roasted peppers, gen-u-ine tamales in the corn husk, and tortillas so fresh the flour came off on your clothes. You knew you'd hit the right part of town when the scent made your mouth water. This was back in the early 70's, so I don't know if it's still there. Man, that was one good-smelling town!

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mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


now I want SALSA! and jalepenos! but I can not. I had my wisdom teeth out the other day and it is only boring mushy food for me :( all this salsa talk etc is making me :evil:

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sheeshshe wrote:mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


now I want SALSA! and jalepenos! but I can not. I had my wisdom teeth out the other day and it is only boring mushy food for me :( all this salsa talk etc is making me :evil:
Lucky for you your jalapenos took a break, huh? :lol:

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jmoore,

They also roast well in the oven or on the grill. They are not quite as good as when you can eat them while looking at snow covered mountains, but they are good.

Ted

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Stella,

I've seen, smelled, and heard the culture in Tijuana, Juarez, and Matamoros. I love the colors, the sounds, and the flavors. The only reason I stay away now is the sound of gunfire disturbs me unless I am pulling the trigger. If you hear the shot, it is to late to duck.

Ted
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I didn't read to far into all of these threads, so bear with me if I'm repeating anything. : )

I grew up on a turkey farm and we used turkey manure in our garden every year. But turkey poo, like chiken poo or any poultry poo, is extremely high in nitrogen. For the garden I have now, which is maybe 15 x 60 I fill up a 3 gallon bucket only half way with the turkey goods, sprinkle it around, till it in on the first till, and let it sit a week or two until the second till. You can actually burn a plant by exposing it to too much turkey poo, not sure if the same is true for chicken poo, but I do know a little of either goes a long ways!

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Mansgirl,

I think you are right. But you can carry the thought a little farther to any kind of fresh "poo". Cow poo, horse poo, pig poo will probably do the same thing if it isn't composted first. Have you ever used your turkey poo to grow peppers? If so, how well did it perform with peppers. This thread started discussing the reason shesasshee's jalapenos are not producing well. It has moved all over the map as we discussed different things so your comment fits perfectly. It would really be interesting to know how well turkey poo and jalapenos work together.

Ted

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I use turkey poo on my entire garden. I can post pictures tomorrow. Everything seems to love it, but its not turkey poo fresh out of the barn. Its sits on a "poop pad" (an asphalt surface) in a huge pile all winter long waiting for spring sale. We keep piling poo on top, but if you grab from the bottom of the pile its pretty well composted. I sprinkle that lightly over my entire garden, till it in, let it sit for a week or two, till again and plant.

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It sounds good, but is asphalt the best surface for breaking down the turkey poo? :?:

How many do you have? My favorite herb lady has a turkey strutting around her herb stand along with chickens and geese. They're BIG! :shock:

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OK, the Big Jim ARE chili peppers....got it.

I had to back through and re-read some pages to see that the conversation shifted at some point from giant jalapenos to chilis :oop:.

That's what I get for skimming :lol:.

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garden5 wrote:OK, the Big Jim ARE chili peppers....got it.

I had to back through and re-read some pages to see that the conversation shifted at some point from giant jalapenos to chilis :oop:.

That's what I get for skimming :lol:.
:D You didn't miss anything. The subject is kinda slippery. Just at the moment I think I have a good grasp on it, it changes. I certainly don't believe I've caused any of the misdirection. :shock:

When the conversation went to "Big Jim", I thought we were still talking about Jalapenos also. I did a lot of searching for those "Big Jim" jalapenos and could only come up with the Anaheim type chiles. I did find one web site that described the "Big Jim" and had a photo of normal jalapenos next to the description. When you went further on the page it had photos of the Anaheim type pepper named "Numex Big Jim". I added to the confusion.

I guess at this point, we can discuss, Big Jim, Jalapenos, or turkey poo.

We still haven't solved shesashee's problem but since she just had her wisdom teeth pulled, she shouldn't be eating hot salsa anyhow.

Ted

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mansgirl wrote:I use turkey poo on my entire garden. I can post pictures tomorrow. Everything seems to love it, but its not turkey poo fresh out of the barn. Its sits on a "poop pad" (an asphalt surface) in a huge pile all winter long waiting for spring sale. We keep piling poo on top, but if you grab from the bottom of the pile its pretty well composted. I sprinkle that lightly over my entire garden, till it in, let it sit for a week or two, till again and plant.
Let me know when your gonna have that spring sale for turkey poo. I will surely be there.

I also don't grab turkey poo. I use a shovel. On a serious note though, is the turkey poo a mixture of maybe sawdust and poo or is it the straight poo? (what was that question to determine if someone is telling the whole truth? "Are you giving me the straight poop?")

:D :D :D

Ted

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OMGosh, Ted... cracking me up here LOL!


I'll tell you what I do here.... I use chicken poo and it is mixed with the pine shavings so it isn't straight poo. and I use a shovel :lol: I do deep litter method where I only clean out the coop once per year so it is pretty well composted already. most of it anyways. then I dumped it into a pile to sit for a couple more months. that is when I top dressed it onto my plants. THe jalepeno's weren't really doing anything so I thought maybe they needed some manure. I mean some were a lot bigger than the others so I know that I put the poo on the smnaller ones I just can't recall if I put it on the larger ones. 2 large 4 small. just the larger ones made the 2 peppers :roll: `1`

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OMGosh, Ted... cracking me up here LOL!


I'll tell you what I do here.... I use chicken poo and it is mixed with the pine shavings so it isn't straight poo. and I use a shovel :lol: I do deep litter method where I only clean out the coop once per year so it is pretty well composted already. most of it anyways. then I dumped it into a pile to sit for a couple more months. that is when I top dressed it onto my plants. THe jalepeno's weren't really doing anything so I thought maybe they needed some manure. I mean some were a lot bigger than the others so I know that I put the poo on the smnaller ones I just can't recall if I put it on the larger ones. 2 large 4 small. just the larger ones made the 2 peppers :roll: `1`

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tedln wrote: We still haven't solved shesashee's problem but since she just had her wisdom teeth pulled, she shouldn't be eating hot salsa anyhow.

Ted
I love your sense of humor. This one wiped me out.

Hey, guys, anyone want to talk about the Great Gurney's Hybrid Big Chile II Debacle? I've been wanting to start a thread about this, to ask if anyone knew what happened to this 9" hot pepper similar to the Big Jim's, but I knew the thread would fall like a lead balloon if no one knew anything about this pepper. However, in this happening thread, even I can't kill the conversation 8)

What do you say, Sheeshshe? Can I digress? The Big Chile II is kind of like a Jalapeno, well, a green silly-putty Jalapeno that got stuck in a car door :lol:

(A resounding NO or an eye roll will suffice for a negative response.)

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Stella that comment cracked me up too :) Oh I can eat the salsa, I just can't eat the chips and that is what I want. not sure how long till I have to stop this boring food anyways. I wish to eat chips and salsa!

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sheeshshe wrote:OMGosh, Ted... cracking me up here LOL!


I'll tell you what I do here.... I use chicken poo and it is mixed with the pine shavings so it isn't straight poo. and I use a shovel :lol: I do deep litter method where I only clean out the coop once per year so it is pretty well composted already. most of it anyways. then I dumped it into a pile to sit for a couple more months. that is when I top dressed it onto my plants. THe jalepeno's weren't really doing anything so I thought maybe they needed some manure. I mean some were a lot bigger than the others so I know that I put the poo on the smnaller ones I just can't recall if I put it on the larger ones. 2 large 4 small. just the larger ones made the 2 peppers :roll: `1`
AHA! Perhaps after all these pages we've finally figured out just what's wrong with She's peppers :lol:.

Pine shavings! Maybe all the pine shaving caused some N-lockup in the soil, thus affecting the plants :idea:. Or, maybe I'm just making a desperate attempt at pulling this thread back on topic :lol:.

Any thoughts on my theory?

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yeah, but with horses they use the pine shavings too and people use that in the garden right?

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I bought a six cubic yard dump truck load of the horse poo/sawdust compost last fall. It had supposedly composted for a year. I was expecting great things from it. I put it in every bed. When I realized last fall, my fall/winter plantings were starving for nitrogen, I had to start adding other stuff to the beds to save my plants. I probably should have dug the stuff out of every bed but didn't. I just kept adding other composts. It affected my garden this summer because I had such a hard time getting nitrogen to my plants without the sawdust depleting it. I have been adding a lot of topsoil to the beds to simply dilute the sawdust and they seem to be recovering and the sawdust seems to be decaying away slowly. I still have a couple of yards of the sawdust/manure compost left in a pile. It has now composted for two years. I test it occasionally by germinating some seed in it and it seems to be slowly converting to real compost. The primary problem with it is the fact that when it is piled, it is almost impossible for moisture to penetrate the pile and really start the composting process in the center. It repels moisture like someone sprayed the whole pile with Scotchguard. The very center of the smaller pile is still as dry as the day it was delivered.

Ted
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Stella,

Educate me a little. What is the Guerneys debacle?

Okay, I looked at the Guerneys web page about the original and new Big Chile and Big Chile II peppers. Is it possible the Guerney seed is bulk purchased Numex Big Jim and Numex Heritage Big Jim seed?

Ted
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I can throw it around as well, has anyone grown or been wanting to grow the Chilli Willy Pepper?

Anyways, I have noticed my jalapeno seems to have stopped growing, the peppers are maybe 2 to 2.5" long, maybe 3/4" wide and they have been like this for a while, one looks like its is actually changing colour to a lighter green :? The plant is quite small itself, maybe a 14 to 18" tall, about 25 peppers on it, but all very very small. Maybe I am just used to seeing the bigger supermarket varieties.

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intersting!!! mine doens't repel water when I dump water on it. I tried to keep it wet to compost faster :) it doesn't look like pine shavings so who knows!

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I kept wondering why I felt so uncomfortable talking about turkey "poo" and horse "poo". I finally decided it must be because it reminded me of little kids saying "mommy, I need to go poo poo". It simply makes me feel so juvenile.

I guess I will settle in between feeling juvenile and uttering obscenities and simply call it manure or maybe natures gold.

Ted

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tedln wrote:Stella,

Educate me a little. What is the Guerneys debacle?

Okay, I looked at the Guerneys web page about the original and new Big Chile and Big Chile II peppers. Is it possible the Guerney seed is bulk purchased Numex Big Jim and Numex Heritage Big Jim seed?

Ted
I seriously hoped someone would jump in, writing, "Oh, my. I remember that. What a silly mistake that was!" No one has, so all I have is a slew of facts that deduce a silly mistake. I am fascinated by this pepper, and I haven't even tasted it yet!

First, you're probably aware that Gurney's almost shut its doors about 10 years ago and that a bunch of past customers stepped in and purchased it as a cooperative (I think) concern. I had bought my seeds all my life from Gurney's, living 50 miles from Yankton, SD. I took a five-year break from gardening. When I came back, now living in Wyoming, about 10 years ago, I naturally bought my first seeds from Gurney's.

I bought too many packets, as is usually the case. One of those packets was the Gurney's Hybrid Big Chile II. I suspect this pepper, sold in 1999 by only Gurney's and Johnny's Select Seeds, was supposed to be the answer to CPI's Nu-Mex Big Jim. It was (is) a 9" long hot pepper with supposedly terrific flavor.

This spring, I started 48 pepper seedlings, including my Nu-Mex Big Jim's. The dogs wrecked 'em, killing over half of them and, in the process, mixing up their organization so I didn't know what I had left. I had only five Nu-Mex seeds left, and I couldn't take a chance on using them all up. I dug through my seeds for a likely substitute and found my Hybrid Big Chile II seeds.

A month late, I started five of them. That's when the oddness began. Two of them grew a weed. It was a long, skinny twig of a plant with an occasional leaf stuck on in no particular order. Okay, I thought. They're old seeds.

I set out the remaining three on June 16. It wasn't long before they surpassed the Nu-Mex's, set out June 1, in height and mass. They were slow to produce, but they are now in full production, and the biggest peppers are longer than the Nu-Mex's. The plant itself is spectacular. I haven't seen a pepper plant like these since I grew Poblanos. They're now three feet tall, after only ten weeks outside.

I liked what I was seeing. I decided to buy some new seeds, thanks to the weird germination problems I'd had in mine, as in a weed growing instead of a pepper. That's when things started getting weird. You can't find these seeds. Gurney's has replaced these with another pepper. They make an apologia of sorts in the blurb describing the new pepper, something about the new one being more productive and more resistant to the sun.

Even more interesting, I've found a comment on the replacement that decried the loss of the Hybrid Big Chile II. Gardeners liked them, saying they had the best flavor of any pepper they'd ever grown.

So, here's what I think, based on the foregoing: Gurney's new owners, anxious to restore it to its past glory, pushed a pepper onto the market before it was ready, a pepper that was supposed to take the shine out of the Nu-Mex Big Jim, but instead proved an embarrassment. When complaints came in, they were quick to pull the pepper and replace it with another pepper, one that had no such aspirations to greatness.

And that, unless someone wants to clear up the mystery, is the Great Gurney's Hybrid Big Chile II Debacle, a tale of desperation, ambition, and what may have been a truly extraordinary pepper, given different circumstances :(



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