Well, I returned from Open Fields 2010 with a horrible case of sunburn, a small bag of fresh peppers, and a sense of enjoyment from having a good time from camping out/socializing with some of my chilehead brethren for the last time in this particular venue. As many of you hopefully know, this was the last year for Open Fields due to Jim Campbell’s self-imposed retirement from hosting it. Please sit back and enjoy the pictures that follow so you can enjoy the story of my 24 hours amongst the peppers in the wilderness of “somewhere in Indiana.”

I arrived late Friday evening after my day of work, no real camping stuff amongst my gear, with full intention of sleeping in my SUV and enjoying “camping out” being done amongst my comrades. The weather was surprisingly temperate and nice, with an evening chill that caused the lot of us to curl up in our warm sweatshirts.

As you can see from these pics, the pepper fields were really really bad this year. Due to late planting because of greenhouse issues and an unfortunate dearth of rainfall, the peppers had roughly 7 weeks of dry hot weather by which to grow. Many of the chinense plants were without any peppers at all, and nearly all the plants that did have peppers growing contained a high percentage of unripe peppers. If you were so inclined, you could find some ripe peppers on the poblano and pasilla plants, but that’s about it. Of the others, blossom end-rot had ravaged the rest, leaving a majority of these peppers essentially unusable.

Here are some unripe New Mexican peppers…likely Big Jims or something akin to that. The larger the peppers, the more likely there was that the end-rot had affected them.

There were some gorgeous ornamental plants like these. If you wanted some of these to use, or for seeds, they were readily available.

Plants like these really suffered from the short growing time in the fields. As I was repeating all day, had these pepper plants had about 3 more inches of rain and 3 more weeks to grow, the whole field would have looked a lot better.

The chinense peppers, like these habaneros, suffered the most by a short growing time. There were a ton of bhut jolokia, Trinidad Scorpion, and habanero plants that were either without any peppers, with just a few unripe peppers, or just barely starting to flower as we went looking for them throughout the rows.

This is one view of the main drag of the chilehead “shantytown” that was “main street” for the campers set up for the weekend’s event.

There was no shortage of tents, campers, a variety of cooking supplies, and people proudly sharing their chile-themed culinary delights that ranged from drinks to snacks to grilled meats.

Those attending displayed flags from either the state or country from where they traveled from or where they lived. Several more flags were posted after this picture was taken.

Just like with many chilehead events, there was the contests for the participants to do. You could either enter a product in the “fresh from the fields” category where you made something using peppers picked during the trip or other categories that were fair game to either homemade or professionally made products. The homemade products were resounding winners when the judging was done that evening, including our very own Al “Buddah” and “Flaming Joe” Leicht taking home top prizes for their Buddahmole and Walleye ceviche, respectively.

Numerous products were donated by the attendees, either for auction or for raffle, to raise money for Jim Campbell’s Step Up for Charity foundation.

As hinted before, there was no shortage of “chilehead liquor” by which you could tantalize your tastebuds (and liver.) I was a big fan of the “Cinnamon Girl” Spiced Dark Rum, but the Apple Pie Moonshine that was being shared was widely accepted as the best and most addictive drink to make its appearance over the weekend.

The pièce de résistance of the liquors was this cumari-infused tequila. I had no idea what a cumari pepper was before this weekend, but now I know it’s a small pepper with the heat roughly at cayenne level that is simply amplified as you use more of them. Shots of this tequila let you both breathe a little fire AND feel like you’ve been punched in the gut. Nice.

Shot of liquor poured into jalapenos? Yes, please!

I can’t say enough about the generosity of those who attended. Whether it was food or drink, everyone shared what they had and it was tough to be hungry or thirsty while you were there. Just by taking a walk down the main drag there proved my point. I had been there less than 10 minutes before I had had multiple shots poured for me. Cheers!

Of course, my main group of chilehead brethren had our own little gathering spot across the way from the main strip of people. I’m still not sure what Buddah is showing people in this picture, but I smell a “caption this” contest coming on about this photo.

One of the most distinct pleasures of the trip was meeting the one and only Haggis. An repressable Aussie (far left,) Haggis has his own hot sauce company as well as a hot sauce festival in Australia that he recently retired as well.

For some strange reason, when the alcohol was flowing, we all started lifting our shirts to display our bellybuttons…no doubt to take stock of the lint within. Here Haggis is trying to figure out about all the gadgetry attached to my girth-laden belly. I couldn’t explain the diabetic bionics, but suffice to say it all got a bit silly.

In all, it was a fun time and an event that will be sorely missed. Jim, thanks so much for doing this event for all these years. We will miss it. Take care!