 |
| Cayanne Hot Peppers |
I remember it vividly... several hours after cutting up hot peppers I took out my contact lenses and all of the sudden my eyes were on fire!
I could barely open them and I sat on the couch for hours in pain.
I couldn't put my contacts in for days after because they continued to burn my eyes. This was before I had disposable lenses and I finally had to call the eye doctor to see what to do. It took another week of soaking and cleaning my contact lenses every day before I could put them in my eyes again.
Since then, I have been burned by peppers dozens of times (although never nearly as severe). You think I would learn!? Well, I finally got smart and started wearing rubber gloves when I cut up hot peppers and that has resolved the issue.
Recently my husband decided to cut up a whole bunch of hot peppers without wearing gloves and he said his hands burned for days after. He's learned his lesson and will wear rubber gloves from now on.
I've also learned to take the same precautions when harvesting hot peppers, and when handling hot pepper seeds (even the commercial ones!). Moral of the story... if you touch any part of a hot pepper, be careful not to touch your eyes, nose, open cuts or any other body orifice.
If you haven't suffered from this problem you may think I'm overexaggerating. But keep in mind that one of the popular ingredients in the types of sprays used for self defense and by police for riot control is made from hot peppers!!
Please learn from my mistakes and wear rubber gloves any time you handle hot peppers or hot pepper seeds.
Has this ever happened to you? Feel free to share your hot pepper horror story here. I'd love to hear your story so I know I'm not the only one! :-)
--------------------------------------------------------------
If you have any questions about gardening, or ideas for a topic you'd like me to write a blog post about; please feel free to add a comment on any of my posts. You can also post something on my Facebook page.
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------
If you have any questions about gardening, or ideas for a topic you'd like me to write a blog post about; please feel free to add a comment on any of my posts. You can also post something on my Facebook page.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Amy, many years ago a girlfriend had her first garden and was cutting up peppers and decieded to taste one. Well she won't do that again! Her Lips and toung became swollen and she also rubbed her eye and that became swollen and very painful! She suffered for a few days!
ReplyDeletePam
Hi Pam,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this evil pepper story! It's fun to read about other people doing this, although I feel really bad for the agony your friend had to go through!!
Amy
Caribbean hot pepper. When the pepper was ready, my husband and I took a nibble. Nothing. Another nibble. Felt a little something. Another nibble, OH MY GOD HOT PAIN!!! I rushed to the kitchen sink and stuck my tongue under the cold running water. When I felt brave enough, I opened the refrigerator door and took out a giant jar of pickles, then went back under the faucet. When I felt brave enough again, I took a cup and dunked it into the pickle juice, took a sip, and gargled the juice. Salt or cold liquids take away the pain, so that's why I did what I did. I think my husband touched his eyes and rubbed his nose because he said that's where he felt the pain. We had a couple more incidents when we finally realized that hand soap will not get rid of all hot residue. From then on I used some sort of plastic barrier when handling those peppers. I used them in our couscous meals for quite some time since we had so many peppers and I could only use a quarter of a pepper each time. Then, one day I didn't put any pepper in the couscous and we both thought, "Boy, this tastes so bland." :)
ReplyDeleteLOL! You had me rolling on this one Donna!! Isn't it awful what they can do to you. We have gotten used to cooking with hot peppers too, and now food we used to cook without seems bland. Funny!
DeleteAmy