After a decent night of rest, I woke up to a slightly cold and very foggy morning. As groggy as I was, I was quite eager to get out there because today was the true start of the event. But first thing’s first…coffee.

A foggy morning in the fields.

I went to my car (aptly named Ol’ Blue) and proceeded to get out and light my Coleman. Right when I placed the pot of water on it to boil, someone walked by me and said, “We’ve got coffee already ready at our tent. Stop on by”. I packed everything back up and went over with my cup.

Not only did they have coffee, but they were prepping breakfast burritos for anyone who wanted one. This would set the precedent for the rest of the weekend. Little did I know, but almost everyone cooks large meals to share with everyone. So, since I had little to share save some spices, I helped them cook breakfast.

The egg is incredible and edible.

Even though the fields were nothing but a mud slick and it was only 9 in the morning, people were already in the fields picking. Being of the mindset that there are over 40,000 plants and each one of those could easily have anywhere from 5 to 100 pods (let’s see….total of 4 million pods maybe), I was in no hurry to pick.

People picking.

More people picking.

Once the coffee started doing it’s magic and the sun broke, it was time to venture out into the fields. The first thing to be hit was the 7 Pods (or 7-Pots) and up next was to locate the Trinidad Scorpions. Since I had already had the pleasure of eating a whole 7-Pod (which I would venture to say they are at least 500,000 SHU hotter than the Jolokia), I was really excited to be able to pick the Scorpion because they are supposed to be even hotter than the 7-Pods. Not having a map of the fields yet, I had to go off my keen chile identifying skills. After wondering aimlessly for a good 15 minutes, I found them.

Careful, those Scorpions sting.

I picked as many ripe pods as I could find, although I left a bunch for others (share and share alike). These things look absolutely mean, lobed and with a beautiful stinger. I can’t wait to try it! As I walked down the field I noticed something that shouldn’t be there, a Jolokia! Jim said he didn’t plant any so he was quite baffled when I told him he had a row of them.

Crouching Plant, Hidden Jolokia.

The really fun part of walking the fields is you get to try stuff before you pick them just to see what it taste like. Amongst the many peppers I found some new favorites; Cheiro Recife, Bulgarian Carrot, and Bishops Hat. The Cheiro Recife really stood out in both the flavor and looks department.

It was around lunch time when I finished my first picking spree. As I returned back to camp, people already had food cooking. Gumbo, crab gumbo, white chicken chile, and pork rinds!!! Everything was so delicious and the beer was flowing freely. We even had a cop stop by out of the blue and he was treated to a feast. We all had a good laugh and I showed him some of the giant pumpkins and watermelon that were growing a few feet away from us. I could tell he didn’t want to leave, but he was on duty and someone was waving a shotgun around in Indianapolis somewhere, so he had to leave.

Gumbo and chili chicken sauce.

A cop taking home pork rinds….insert your own pig joke here…

A nice selection of freshly picked pods.

Up next was the sauce competition. People paid $10 to enter their products (all the money goes to Jim’s Step Up for Charity). Of the categories were Mild, Sweet, Hot, and Fresh From The Fields (in both hot sauce and salsa categories).

Judge Jim Campbell.

I signed up to be a judge for the competition and I must say, I did cheat a little. Since I don’t have a sense of smell, I just marked everything a 3 out of 5 for the aroma category. The judging was set up on a 1-5 range for most everything and a 1-10 range for both Taste and Overall. 3 other judges and I ate our way though 11 unmarked samples. Out of those 11, only 3 were what I would call hot including one that had extract in it. We handed in our score cards and went about our business.

Passow judging the hot category.

A little later, I was over talking with someone when I heard off in the distance, “HEY PASSOW!”. I turned around to see CaJohn standing with a bunch of people. He motioned for me to come over. Haning my head my head, I turned around to the person I was talking with and said, “Sigh….I’m being called over to try something super hot…I’ll be back”.

As I talked with CaJohn’s son, Nate, later in the night, it turns out they were all trying to figure out who would try this super hot product. CaJohn quickly replied with, “Passow will do it. He’ll eat anything hot!”. It’s nice that my reputation proceeds me, heheh.

I was greeted with a spoonful of dried pepper powder when I hit the tent. I instantly knew what it was, smoked Jolokia powder. I said, “A whole spoonful? That’s a bit much”. I tapped an ever so small bit off which was caught by the wind and headed towards two of the people standing there. They dived out of the way as if a grenade had be tossed at them. I knew I couldn’t do that again so I sighed and put the whole thing in my mouth.

People’s eyes widened in amazement. The taste was fantastic, smokey and earth! I thanked them for the sample, with some tears in my eyes, and walked off to sit in someone’s camp and endure the massive pain. For reference, a whole pod, when powdered, can easily fit on a spoon. The endorphin rush was glorious and almost knocked me over. The results, as you can see, are pretty spectacular.

The aftermath of a whole spoonful of Chipotle Jolokia powder.

But wait! There’s more! Tune in for the next, and final installment of Passow’s Trip to Open Fields where you’ll see pepper branding, charity auction, and lots of food!