Gary Paul Nabhan - Chasing Chiles: Hot Spots along the Pepper Trail

Advance Praise for Chasing Chiles

The noble chileand its equally noble growersillustrates the key principle we need for a world stressed by an ever-more-fickle climate: resilience. This book will make you understand the situation far better than most dry tomes on the subject.

Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth , founder of 350.org

This book will fascinate not only chile aficionados, but also those students of biodiversity who are alarmed at the disastrous effect that climate change is wreaking on our food crops in general. With this book in hand, I happily climbed aboard the authors Spice Ship to embark on their personal odyssey, and saw up close the devastating effects of climate change on the environment, farmers, and their crops whose very existence is at stake.

Diana Kennedy, author of The Essential Cuisines of Mexico and The Art of Mexican Cooking

A treasure trove of chile lore and a wake-up call to everyone who cares about real food, Chasing Chiles will amuse and alarm you. These three gastronauts carry a wealth of culinary and botanical knowledge, and their journeys in their Spice Ship uncover an incredibly diverse world of chiles that is changing with breathtaking speed. Stop worrying about the impact of climate change on future harvests; cross your fingers for this years instead.

Rowan Jacobson, author of American Terroir and Fruitless Fall

Chasing Chiles is truly one of the most inspiring and unique treatments of climate change in current literature.... And the proposed solution to this complex problem is both plain and prudent: Eat and farm as if the earth matters, as we should have been doing all along.

Frederick Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, and president of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture

This book is an agri-culinary-eco-botanical odyssey that brings some of the most important issues about food, eating, and the impact of climate change to the fore in a way that is both engaging and compelling. A truly pleasurable read for anyone who appreciates authentic flavors and the pleasures of the tableand, of course, the wisdom of our farmers.

Tracey Ryder, CEO, Edible Communities

How can our hemispheres spice of life be ignored after reading Chasing Chiles ? I mean, what will there be to live for?

Wes Jackson, president, The Land Institute

An instant classic of chile pepper lore, Chasing Chiles is the best social history of chiles since Amal Najs Peppers from 1992. In fact, I think its betterbecause its not just journalism; it has fascinating science and entertaining humor as well. Highly recommended!

Dave DeWitt, The Pope of Peppers and coauthor of The Complete Chile Pepper Book

Chasing Chiles is nothing short of a brilliant ethno-bio-culinary convergence. It accomplishes what so very few books domarrying place to flavor and scienceand the result is a visceral understanding of the profound impact climate change has on the global community and the foods that we always seem to take for granted. Kurt Friese, Kraig Kraft, and Gary Nabhan have produced a must-read classic for all time.

Elissa Altman, author of Poor Mans Feast

Chasing Chiles

Hot Spots Along the Pepper Trail

Kurt Michael Friese, Kraig Kraft, and Gary Paul Nabhan

Chelsea Green Publishing

White River Junction, Vermont

Copyright 2011 by Kurt Michael Friese, Kraig Kraft, and Gary Paul Nabhan

All rights reserved.

Author sequence is alphabetical; all three authors played essential but different roles in the making of this book.

No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Patricia Stone

Editorial Contact: Makenna Goodman

Developmental Editor: Benjamin Watson

Copy Editor: Laura Jorstad

Proofreader: Nancy Ringer

Indexer: Lee Lawton

Designer: Peter Holm, Sterling Hill Productions

Photographs by the authors, as credited

Chile pepper illustration by Jean Andrews, from The Pepper Trail , published by the University of North Texas Press. We gratefully acknowledge the artistry of the late Dr. Jean Andrews for the title page and chapter art; she was one of the most passionate chile pepper scholars who ever lived.

Printed in the United States of America

First printing February, 2011

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 11 12 13 14 15

Our Commitment to Green Publishing

Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because we use recycled paper, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. Chelsea Green is a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the worlds endangered forests and conserve natural resources. Chasing Chiles was printed on Natures Natural, a 30-percent postconsumer recycled paper supplied by Thomson-Shore.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Friese, Kurt Michael.

Chasing chiles : hot spots along the pepper trail / Kurt Michael

Friese, Kraig Kraft, and Gary Paul Nabhan.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-60358-250-6

1. Hot peppers. 2. Hot peppers--Climatic factors. 3. Endangered

plants--United States. 4. Endangered plants--Mexico. I. Kraft, Kraig.

II. Nabhan, Gary Paul. III. Title.

SB307.P4F75 2011

641.3'384--dc22

2010049066

eISBN: 9781603583756

Chelsea Green Publishing Company

Post Office Box 428

White River Junction, VT 05001

(802) 295-6300

www.chelseagreen.com

To our wives, Kim McWane Friese, Heather Zornetzer, and Laurie Smith Monti

Contents

First and foremost , we are grateful to our wives, Kim McWane Friese, Laurie Smith Monti, and Heather Zornetzer, for their companionship, encouragement, and patience while we were on phases of this spice odyssey. We are also indebted to our good friend and editor Ben Watson for constant insights and support. Margo Baldwin, Joni Praded, and others at Chelsea Green have been more than business partners as well; they have been allies for the same causes. Regina Fitzsimmons and Deja Walker, both of them interns with the Renewing Americas Food Traditions alliance, have been part of our field team, as has Pat Friese, lexicographer and food historian. We have benefited from the work of many farmers, gardeners, chefs, food historians, and scientists along the way. Elders in the world of chilesfrom the late Jean Andrews and late Charles Heiser, both of whom departed during the course of this project, to Dave DeWitt, Hardy Eshbaugh, Diana Kennedy, Paul Bosland, Clifford Wright, and Nancy and Jeff Gerlachhave offered us much inspiration over the years. Younger chile researchers, from Kimberlee Chambers, Susan Wesland, Jorge Carlos Berny Mier y Teran, Josh Tewksbury, Isaura Andaluz, and Charles Martin to Eric Votava and John Tuxill, have also been generous in sharing their knowledge with us.

We are also indebted to many others, listed here chapters by chapter:

Sonora and Arizona: Jess and Casimiro Sanchez, Maria del Carmen Sanchez, Chata Gallego, Jeanie Neubauer, Alberto Brquez, Angela Martinez, Anabela Carln Flores, Angel Cota, Sergio Arajo, Oscar Gonzlez, Chano, Fernando Nio Estudillo, Hugo Sesta, Kimberlee Chambers, Luis Crdoba, and Manuel Lpez.