Gone Red!

I bought some herb seeds on eBay earlier in the year, and a fourth packet was effectively free. I chose some Jalapeño Pepper seeds as a joke. These peppers are cultivar of the species Capsicum annuum, and come originally from Mexico.

In fact, they germinated quite well, and we had several pots, each with a few plants in. Even in our miserable summer of 2012, flowers appeared on the plants, and some became recognisable peppers.

Most of the fruits were green, but this one matured to the beautiful crimson red that you see. Wikipedia says that some peppers may turn red at the end of the growing season.

I wonder how hot it is... The same Wikipedia entry states that "Jalapeños have 2,500 - 8,000 Scoville heat units". By chance, we were already going to eat Mexican food this evening, so we shall find out how much fire our little Jalapeño brings in a very few minutes. Perhaps we had better have some tequila on hand as an extinguisher!