Why We Ferment Our Pepper Mash

The answer is really quite simple:

Fermentation creates a LOW PH naturally. Others may use vinegar to lower pH and nothing is wrong with that method except it adds the vinegar flavor. We want our Mashes to have only pure natural flavor. So whether your making you own Hot Sauce or Salsas or just wanna add some kick to your favorite recipes. Pure pepper flavor is what you get. 

 Takes a lot longer but the benefits are MORE than worth the extra effort.

1.  Makes food more digestible.

Because the bacteria predigests the food, the resulting product is easier to digest.  If you have trouble digesting raw fruits and vegetables, fermentation may be helpful for you!

2.  Fermented foods have more nutrients.

The bacteria in fermented foods produce more vitamins and nutrients as they digest the starches and sugars.  They particularly produce B vitamins and vitamin K2.

3. Chock full of good bacteria (probiotics).

Some experts say that each small 1/2 cup serving of fermented foods can contain up to 10 trillion probiotic organisms.  Dr. Mercola states the following in an article on his website…

4.  Helps keep your immune system healthy.

80% of your immune system resides in your gut.  A healthy gut = a healthy immune system.

Adding fermented foods to your diet will help ensure a healthy gut!

5.  Helps curb sugar cravings.

By adding fermented foods to your diet, you can limit, if not completely stop, your sugar cravings!

6.  Lactic acid promotes growth of healthy bacteria in the gut.

The lactic acid produced during fermentation helps healthy bacteria already present in your gut to proliferate.  This leads to better gut health!

7.  Increases flavor of foods.

Fermentation adds a new depth of flavor to fermented foods.  They are delicious!

2018 Growing Season

Our 2018 Growing season is well underway. This years crops have sprouted and are full into ready mode for the soil.

This years crops include:

• Red Scorpion
• Red Ghost (Bhut Jolokia)
• Dragon Cayenne
• Serrano
• Aloha Bell

We grow a small selection to be able to keep them isolated and of the best possible quality. We will have Fresh Peppers, Pepper Mash for making your own sauces, and of course seeds for growing your own peppers. More peppers are also being grown not listed here.

Onion and Garlic Ferment

5% Brine (roughly)

2Tbs Sea Salt

2 Cups purified water.

We keep brine solution premade in its own jar. Handy to have a jar around and ensures equal quality.

We ferment just about everything we make.
Lets take an example of our cayennes.
(small batch)
Cayenne Peppers
Onions
We take about 3/1 Cayenne to Onion Ratio in a pint jar.
Chop Onions to fill about 1/3 of jar, Cut or just slice a groove in the peppers and and fill rest of jar. Leave about 1 inch head space at top of jar.
Pour Brine mix to completely cover the peppers and onions. Use some kind or weight something to hold the peppers and onions UNDER the brine. This is key to make an oxygen free environment. For a pint jar, you can cut the bottom out of a water bottle and keep sizing it till you get it right to have the lid of the jar press it down to keep everything covered.
That’s it, let the natural bacteria do its work. Place jar somewhere warm and out of direct sunlight. After about 3 days, bubbles will start to form. This is the bacteria doing its job, CO2 gas in created. You can use an airlock type jar but easy to do it just remember to (BURP) the jar once a day to let the excess CO2 out and release the pressure.
Let ferment for at least a week but longer to really develop the flavor and vitamins. We like to wait at least a month. Some sauce companies wait years.
That’s it, at the end of the ferment you will have preserved tangy peppers and onions you can just eat as is or make your own sauce out of.

Cayenne Heath Benefits

Cayenne Pepper

"If you master only one herb in your life, master cayenne pepper; it is more powerful than any other. Herbs can cure serious, scary diseases, but not by taking a capsule here and there. You need to know dosages, what forms of the herb, how to apply them, in what combinations, and when. If you want to become a powerful healer for yourself and your family, master one herb...cayenne pepper. Knowing cayenne deeply will give you and your family more cures than dabbling in twenty herbs. Learn cayenne deeply before you go on to anything else. At the top of the list [ten most important herbs] is cayenne pepper, because it will make the other nine work better. There's no other herb that increases your blood flow faster than cayenne. There are none that work faster; none that work better. There is no other herb stronger or more effective than cayenne to make immediate physiological and metabolic changes in the body."
- Dr. Richard SCHULZE, Medical Herbalist

People consider cayenne to be one of the most powerful herbs on the planet because it "moves blood". It can make your ears pop, give you a feeling of blood rushing to your head, and make your feet and toes tingle. Much of cayenne's healing action occurs right in the mouth immediately as it touches your tongue absorbing in seconds where nerve endings send signals throughout the body instantly. Waves of fresh blood are claimed sent wherever you are sick and new healing begins in seconds as cayenne blasts through the blockages in sick areas of the body. It turns your circulation on in seconds and when combined with other herbs changes a so so herb into a mighty one, thus experts propose it be used in every herbal formula. Cayenne contains flavonoids that will heal heart cells as well as protect the heart. Cayenne contains vitamins that will destroy bacteria and increase one's immune system.

The recommended way to take Cayenne is in tincture and powder form. Tincture is super fast acting, while powder (can be mixed with hot water) is needed in the worst cases. People may be sensitive to it at first but these same people can be taking "two dropperfulls" of the most potent tonic in three or four months. You just need to work your way up and a good initial dose is 1/16th of a teaspoonful in some juice. Like most herbs cayenne is very dosage related. The dose one would take for sore throats, intestinal bleeding, heart attack or a brain hemorrhage are very different from one another.

You may be wasting your time if you take cayenne pepper in capsules. Schulze strongly states "there is only one way to take cayenne, and that is right in the mouth." Apparently surges of fresh blood do not occur when you bypass the mouth with capsules and even those who have been taking Cayenne for years in capsule form get a new meaning when properly using the herb. Cayenne in capsules is claimed to be low quality in spite of fancy labeling. If someone is ill with gallstones or has stomach ulcers, Schulze tells us capsules are definitely the wrong way to use cayenne.

High quality Cayenne produces high quality healing. Cayenne pepper is normally rated in 40,000, 60,000 or 70,000 heat units. Lower heat cayenne is less efficient than higher heat cayenne and is the most highly contaminated. Many companies claim a high heat cayenne but when you taste them its not as hot as labeled. A lot of cayenne has a smoky smell and a dark color meaning it has been heated very high during the powdering process losing nutrients and enzymes cooking the healing ability right out of it. It is recommended to buy high quality freshly grown herbs.

Our particular interest in Cayenne Pepper is it's ability increase blood flow to sick areas of the body. As you evaluate Cayenne Pepper consider it a vehicle to get other things where you want them to go by strategically timing when you take it. For example you might take it an hour after you take vitamin and mineral supplements or drink colloidal silver. Dr. Schulze says that one might even time Cayenne by taking it every other hour. Whatever you choose to do, cayenne is sure to get your interest and attention with the statement that blasts through blockages in the body opening them up to new healing. Like many things, you start on a low gradient and build up.

This information has been compiled from Dr. Schulze's CureZone.com. For information on curing depression, stroke patients, memory loss and Alzheimer's Disease with Cayenne visit his web site to find his "Brain Tonic."

Original Link

The Amazing Cayenne

Often asked why we love the Cayenne Pepper, more specifically the Dragon Cayenne. The answers are simple. Versatility and flavor.

This pepper is in our opinion a must have in every kitchen and garden. We use it in ALOT of the things we make and eat.

Health Benefits:

Cayenne pepper benefits are numerous and effective; it’s used to help digestion, including heal upset stomach, slow intestinal gas, stop stomach pain, stop diarrhea and as a natural remedy for cramps. It’s also used for conditions of the heart and blood vessels – including to improve poor circulation, reverse excessive blood clotting, lower high cholesterol and prevent heart disease.
When consumed, cayenne pepper has the power to relieve a toothache, seasickness, alcoholism, malaria and fever; it’s also used to help people who have difficulty swallowing.

When applied topically, cayenne pepper benefits the skin, too. It alleviates pain caused by shingles, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and even as part of a natural remedy for fibromyalgia.

The fruit of the capsicum plant contains a chemical called capsaicin. Capsaicin is being studied to test its ability to reduce pain sensations when applied to the skin, and research indicates that it would be effective as a remedy for headaches (including migraines), potential cure for osteoarthritis and other painful conditions.

Original Link


Nutritional Benefits:

Here are the cayenne pepper nutrition facts, listed in recommended daily values; 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper contains:
17 calories
1 gram of fat
2 milligrams sodium
3 grams carbohydrate
1 gram dietary fiber
1 gram sugar
1 gram protein
44 percent vitamin A
8 percent vitamin E
7 percent vitamin C
6 percent vitamin B6
5 percent vitamin K
5 percent manganese
3 percent potassium
No cholesterol

History:
Cayenne pepper takes its name from its supposed center of origin – the Cayenne region of French Guiana, Cayenne deriving from a Tupi Indian name. It is now grown largely in India, East Africa, Mexico and the United States, in fact most tropical and sub-tropical regions. Chiles originated in South America, where they have been under cultivation since prehistoric times. The seed’s long viability facilitated the rapid spread of the plant throughout the tropics and sub-tropics by the Spanish and Portuguese, the spice becoming as popular there as vine pepper. Chiles were long known as ‘Indian’ pepper – meaning ‘of the New World’ rather than ‘of India’. Despite its specific name, and the supposed use of special chilies for it, there is little to distinguish cayenne from ordinary pure chili powder, except that commercial ‘chili powder’ usually contains other spices such as garlic or cumin, and is rougher in texture.
It was first introduced to Europe by Christopher Columbus as Guinea Pepper and was originally used by Native Americans that were located south of the Mexican boarder as early as 700 B.C. The mixture of chocolate and red chilies was a taste treat that was reserved exclusively for Aztec royalty. Although the exact origin of the word Capsicum is somewhat a mystery, it is assumed to be derived from the Greek word kapto, which means to bite. Capsicum is a fruit found on a shrub-like tropical plant that is technically considered a berry. The designation of it as a pepper can be traced back to Columbus, who compared its hot taste sensation with that, a black pepper.

Gerard referred to Capsicum as extremely hot and dry in 1597 and prescribed it to those with skin and throat infections. The health practitioners of the 1800s used Capsicum to counteract rheumatism, arthritis, depression, and chills. Capsicum was used in the early 1800s as a potent and safe natural stimulant and was believed to be able to treat a large array of diseases. It was first used orally to treat tumors, toothaches, fevers, and respiratory conditions.

This cayenne red pepper was introduced to England by Dr. John Stevens in 1804 when it became the catalyst component in many herbal blends. Additionally, herbal and medical practitioners used Capsicum in order to fight infection and sustain the natural heat that the body produces. After, it became very well known in American dispensatories and pharmacopeia. In 1943, The Dispensary of the United States recorded Capsicum to be a powerful local stimulant that produces a sense of heat in the stomach and a general glow over the whole body when it is swallowed. It does all of this without having a narcotic effect.

In the world today, this cayenne pepper is no more appreciated and more widely used than in Mexico and a few other Latin American countries, which together are the original home of all the peppers. Practically every dish the Indians eat both in the morning and evening include Capsicum, just as it was 2,000 years ago. These peppers are a wonderful source of essential vitamins in a diet that is otherwise lacking of them.


This is the Dragon Cayenne IS our most favorite in terms of flavor, heat and uses.

Packaging up seeds

Getting Seed Packs ready to go.

Starting New Pepper Seeds

To start your seeds and aid in germination. You can use starter trays, peat pods, small containers, just about anything. We recommend our growing kit. A lot of people even use SOLO cups.

Use a quality soil or seed starter mix. Plant 2 to 3 seeds per container 1/8 to 1/2 inch deep and water.
Keep soil moist and warm. Super Hots like a temp from 75 to 80 degrees for fastest germination. Germination can take from 2 weeks to 1 month.

Grow lights and heat mats can be used in this process.

Just be patient and let mother nature do her work and you will enjoy your new plants.

A&M Farms