My friend Arno came by today with a basket of beautiful habaneros from his garden. I’ll be slicing these in half and drying them in the handy dehydrator I also use for drying wild mushrooms. Then I’ll grind them up in a coffee grinder. Arno brought over a big enough batch to supply our household and his with all the super-hot goodness we’ll need for the winter.  I’m interested to see if habaneros grown here have the same level of heat as the ones grown in the tropics. Not long ago I dried a batch of scotch bonnets from the grocery store that were very hot indeed.

I think Arno likes hot food more than anyone else I know. We periodically meet up someplace or another for lunch, and Arno has been known to pull a jar of ground habaneros from his pocket to spice things up a little!