Tomatoes = Manna?

The Great Lambini game to visit this weekend! She kindly brought me some fresh Bakersfield grown tomatoes, peppers, and a few other garden items. From the moment the box of veggies entered my grasp, I had visions of heaven's vegetabliest fruit - the tomato - dancing in my head.

Last night I raced home from work and whipped up a nice batch of salsa. Not knowing the heat of the Bakersfield pepper variety that I was given, I cut the tips off of several peppers and had a little taste test. After the first tester, my mouth was on FIRE so much so that I have no idea how hot any other pepper was after that. I carefully removed most of the placenta and seeds and added it to the vat. (It ended up quite delightful.)

Now, it is common knowledge that one should use gloves when working with hot peppers as the peppers contain capsaicinoids, that produce the burning sensation in the mouth (FIRE!), wrecking havoc on your exocrine glands, causing you to leak - tears, runny nose, and sweat. Every few weeks I stick my pepper ridden hands in my eyes to take out my contacts resulting in a nice burning sensation, not only then, but in the morning when I put the contacts back in. I still don't use gloves, but I was told to use Aloe Vera to sooth the pain. I am here to report that Aloe on a cotton ball rubbed on my eyelids did cause relief!

Incredible that you can fight one plant with another one, eh?