Don LeBedz asked:




Pepper Paintballs, Pepperballs, or Mace Paintballs. What ever you may call them, they are real and they do work. In fact Police and other agencies use them for crowd control, or to help subdue suspects without resorting to deadly force. Stun guns are under fire these days, due to injury and even fatalities. So the Pepper Paintball was born to be used like Mace, but with greater range and accuracy.

They are also quickly gaining ground for personal protection. Many people want an alternative to hand guns for personal protection, but pepper spray requires an assailant to be close. Often people are afraid children could gain access to a firearm in the home or in a purse. Firearms can also be turned against the victim with deadly consequences. Today you can buy a Pepperball launcher, much like a real pistol only using Co2 to launch pepperballs. These new self defense launchers are much safer than guns or even stun guns.

One of these launchers is the Self Defense T68 gun, a small, pistol that shoots up to 10 specially designed Capsaicin powder filled projectiles at attackers up to 60 feet away. The suspect will be overwhelmed by a cloud of irritation powder, even without directly hitting them. It’s non-lethal, easy to use, and highly effective at disabling attackers before they get close enough to harm you. It protects from greater distances than pepper sprays or Mace. The projectiles break upon impact, they do not penetrate skin or pose ricochet hazards.

Of course you can opt for the Law Enforcement version that looks and feels like a M4 rifle with a range of 150 feet and 18 round magazines. These rifles look and feel so real, they have a red hand grip to tell them apart. These are ideal for any Agency needing non-lethal riot control or suspect apprehension.

peppers

Jack M Patterson asked:




People have used cayenne pepper for centuries as a seasoning for food, as well as a medicinal herb. Cayenne is a red-hot chili pepper that rates from 30,000 to 50,000 on the Scoville Scale. Many people who cook add cayenne to their foods, whether they are cooking ethnic foods or American foods. Regardless of the type of cuisine that a chef prepares, people who eat cayenne enjoy the burning sensation that it can cause in their mouths.

Many alternative health care givers often recommend that people take cayenne pepper capsules as a cure for many ailments. The earliest cayenne users prescribed it as an aid in the gastrointestinal tract. Other uses include a countermeasure for rheumatic and arthritic pain, a circulatory tonic, a sore throat remedy, a styptic, and as a thermogenics aid in weight loss. Modern scientific evidence shows that the main chemical ingredient that gives a pepper its “hotness”-capsaicin-is effective as a painkiller if taken internally. Capsaicin is also the main active ingredient in pepper spray and mace, which causes a great deal of pain when applied externally.

Cayenne pepper plants are not difficult to grow, but they do require a certain type of soil in order to grow well. If you would prefer to purchase the powder form of cayenne pepper rather than trying to grow it yourself, you can purchase it in small quantities at any local grocery store or spice retailer.

You can purchase large quantities and receive price discounts if you order your spices over the Internet. When you purchase cayenne pepper, you should realize that it comes in different degrees of heat; the higher the number, the greater the heat or “burning” sensation. You can purchase all kinds of cayenne online at A1SpiceWorld.com.

Container Gardening

Hillary Marshak asked:




Where did peppers come from?

One of the most common geniuses of peppers, known as the capsicum, is thought to have been in existence millions of years ago in present-day Bolivia, according to the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Information and Resources. But, the first known cultivation of peppers happened in Mexico and Central, as well as South America 10,000 years ago. The probable spread of these crops from Bolivia to these areas is attributed to birds. The capsicums existed mainly in the Americas until about 1600. Christopher Columbus’ voyages were helpful in spreading capsicum peppers throughout the world.

The original peppers were tiny and round, unlike most of today’s peppers which are long and larger.

What can I do with peppers?

Most commonly, peppers have been used to spice up generally boring foods like rice or corn. Through the years though, people have come up with a whole slew of uses for peppers from making pepper jelly, to using ornamental peppers for garlands. Here’s a list of the most interesting as well as some of the more common uses for peppers:

Pickled Peppers

Pepper Jelly – Dried Apricot Jalapeno Jelly

Roasted Peppers

Adding Peppers to pasta dishes

Hot Sauce

Pepper Garlands/Decorations

Using peppers in stirfry

Pepper vinegar

Pepper spray (animal deterrent for plants)

What different types of peppers are there?

There all sorts of classifications for peppers. There is the scientific classification method that uses the genus and species name: The most commonly known and cultivated genus of peppers is the capsicum, whereas the five most common species of peppers (all within the capsicum category) include: chinense, frutescens, pubescens, annum, and baccatum. All of these types of peppers are also labelled chillies.

There is the usage method which categories various peppers into hot, sweet, or ornamental. And then, there is the location-classified method that is what gives some peppers its actual name.

Here’s a basic list of some of the varieties of the mentioned species of peppers you might see in your local grocery stores:

Bell pepper

Anaheim pepper

Fresno

Poblano

Habanero

Cubanelle

Chipotle

Jalapeno

Serrano

Mariachi

Aside from the different colored bell peppers used in stirfry, many of these other peppers are considered hot peppers.

How can you tell how hot a pepper is?

The range of spiciness for peppers is measured in scoville units. Wilbur Scoville developed a scale to help determine this very issue and measure pepper pungency in 1912. The higher the number of scoville units, the hotter the pepper. Here’s a basic Scoville Scale. that shows habaneros trumping chipotles and jalapenos as the most commonly known hottest pepper.

Health Effects

Regular pepper consumption is thought to have both good and bad effects on one’s health. One of the most clear effects of eating peppers is what it does for congestion. Eating peppers, especially those hot ones, will help clear up your nasal passages in no times (as will most spicy foods!)

According to a University study, consuming peppers regularly can help the body control its amount of insulin, which would be very beneficial for diabetics. Other studies show though that pepper digestion can increase the risks of stomach cancer, but the definite answer remains unclear. Research has also been linking peppers to helping stop the spread of prostrate cancer in some men.

Pepper Recipes (see Recipe4Living.com for the following:)

Pepper Sauce

Basic Salsa

Salsa Cruda

Crowd Pleasing Chili

Roast Beef and Red Pepper Sandwiches

Impossibly Easy Roasted Red Peppers and Feta Cheese Pie

Tangy Lemon Pepper Shrimp

Stuffed Peppers

Pepper Herb Grilling Rub

Sources:

Chicago Botanic Gardens

The Scoville Scale

TheChilliKing.com

Rose Maven