I was looking for some ground pepper in the out of reach cabinet where I store the spices. People like me who don't like to cook like to put spices in out of reach places so we have even more excuses to not cook. Anyway, while I was up there I came across dried out chili peppers from last summer's harvest. Bryan had saved them but forgot about them because they were in the out of reach cabinet. I had what I thought was a mild stroke of genius. Inspired by a gardening post on Kimberlee's blog, Pondered in My Heart, I decided to break open one of the peppers and harvest the seeds for planting. After Mass on Saturday, I started the seeds for our vegetable garden. I have three varieties of tomatoes, broccoli, basil, and two varieties of peppers germinating in my little heated greenhouse contraption. I decided it would be a great idea to try growing chili peppers from last year's plant. In theory, this all sounds pretty smart and frugal.
Sadly, I had a moment of idiocy at the same time as that stroke of genius. I forgot that peppers have oils. Hot oils that can cause burning sensations. I spent over two hours not sure why my lips and hands were burning. Then I had an itch which I scratched that also started to burn. I began to wonder what was going on. It wasn't until my tongue came in contact with my fingers that I realized that I had pepper oils on them. How my hands have this oil on them after being washed at least 6 times since I planted the seeds I'll never know.
Going forward, I will not harvest chili pepper seeds without wearing vinyl gloves. Peppers have now been reduced to the ick factor of raw chicken.
Ouch! I wouldn't have touched those peppers with a 10 foot pole, but that's because I know I have a bad reaction to chili peppers. You might try finding some of the stuff people use to get Poison Ivy and Poison Oak oils off, it should get the pepper oil off if it's still there.
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