32 min

Hot news: How Arizona ended up supplying most of the nation's chili pepper seeds The Lab at azcentral

    • Life Sciences

Spicy: it's the flavor you see everywhere. Just take a look at your local convenience store. Spicy chips, spicy chicken sandwiches, spicy noodles. There's even a movie now about Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
It's also culture-defining. What would Mexican, Thai or Indian food be without chili kicking up the heat?
But before that spicy seasoning can be sprinkled onto your favorite foods, it starts in the ground as a chili pepper seed. One of the people producing those seeds is Ed Curry, who operates the Curry Seed and Chile Co. in Pearce, Arizona.
Curry has been working on the genetics of peppers for almost his whole life. In the farming industry, most of the peppers grown commercially in the United States can be traced back to his farm.
But how did chili peppers get to Arizona in the first place? And why are Arizona's chilis making such a huge impact nationwide?
In this episode of The Lab, in conjunction with Valley 101, we find out these answers and more.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spicy: it's the flavor you see everywhere. Just take a look at your local convenience store. Spicy chips, spicy chicken sandwiches, spicy noodles. There's even a movie now about Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
It's also culture-defining. What would Mexican, Thai or Indian food be without chili kicking up the heat?
But before that spicy seasoning can be sprinkled onto your favorite foods, it starts in the ground as a chili pepper seed. One of the people producing those seeds is Ed Curry, who operates the Curry Seed and Chile Co. in Pearce, Arizona.
Curry has been working on the genetics of peppers for almost his whole life. In the farming industry, most of the peppers grown commercially in the United States can be traced back to his farm.
But how did chili peppers get to Arizona in the first place? And why are Arizona's chilis making such a huge impact nationwide?
In this episode of The Lab, in conjunction with Valley 101, we find out these answers and more.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

32 min