Chile Leadership

We know we lead in things chile. Some outside recognition came over the weekend with a Wall Street Journal article that called New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute "widely regarded as the final arbiter of all chile questions." The institute was mentioned in an article about the Bhut Jokolia pepper, grown in state of Assam in northeast India. It had done tests confirming that the Bhut Jokolia is the world's hottest known chile with a reading of 1,041,427 Scoville Heats Units, double the rating of the previous leader, the California Red Savina Habanero.

The institute's Web site is www.chilepepperinstitute.org. Site visitors will find a 12-page seed catalog under the Chile Pepper Institute Chile Shop. The institute's annual chile conference is Tuesday, February 5, at the Hotel Encanto in Las Cruces with an opening reception Monday evening. Conference topics range from wilt and virus to world chile economics.

The article also gave suitable recognition to Dave DeWitt who 30 years ago found his life's world in publicizing and promoting chile. Visits to DeWitt's Web site, www.fiery-foods.com, have doubled to 2.5 million in the last five years. DeWitt's National Fiery Foods and Barbeque Show is February 29 to March 2 at the Sandia Resort and Casino just north of Albuquerque.