cayenne

Cayenne Pepper History and Folkore

Cayenne peppers were first developed in French Guiana on the Northern coast of South America. It has been grown by indigenous people for over 7000 years. It was brought to Europe by Christopher Columbus where it became a cheaper alternative to black pepper and was dubbed poor man’s pepper.

Cayenne Pepper in the Garden

Cayenne is a chili pepper, a small, bushy annual plant native to South American and southwestern North America. It produces long, thin or ovular berries with many seeds and thick, crisp flesh. These berries start out green and ripen to bright red or yellow. The berries flesh and seeds contain capsaisin which causes irritation of the mucus membranes, giving the fruit its characteristic spicy taste and its use for self-defense, healing and banishing spells.

Cayenne Pepper prefer and

Cayenne Pepper in the Kitchen

Cayenne peppers are often dried whole and ground into cayenne powder or chopped for hot pepper flakes. Both the seeds and the flesh of the fruit are included in these preparations. Cayenne powder is used in chili powder, taco seasoning and meat rubs and is a staple ingredient in South American, Mexican, Creole, Cajun, African, Mediterranean and Indian cooking. Crushed red pepper is a table condiment next to the salt and pepper in many restaurants and households.

Cayenne pairs beautifully with lime, garlic, onions, cumin and I like a dash of it in my hot chocolate.

The heat of cayenne intensifies with cooking and the capsaicin can aerosolize during cooking, filling the kitchen with fabulous pepper fumes to keep out interlopers and those folks that like to stand there staring into the fridge while you’re ting to cook. To avoid painful accidents, I recommend seasoning lightly toward the end of cooking and tasting and seasoning again at the end.

While the taste varies by plant and processing, cayenne pepper is generally has a bit of smoky sweetness behind burning heat. The heat generally between 30,000-50,000 on the Scoville scale, making cayenne a medium hot pepper. (This may be listed on the package as STU or SHU)

C. annuum "Cayenne" for Healing

The capsaicin in cayenne is one of the most important healers in an herbalist’s first aid kit.

First, it can be sprinkled on a wound to stop bleeding.

Cayenne salve can be used topically on unbroken skin (do an allergy patch test first to make sure your skin can tolerate it) to ease the pain of arthritis and neuropathy. When I feel particularly crappy, I instinctively crave spicy food and I do believe it helps my migraines and fibromyalgia.

Cayenne also helps improve digestion. It increases the production of saliva and digestive enzymes and gets things moving along. I know it sounds counter intuitive because spicy food is associated with heart burn. I have had a hiatal hernia since my first child so I know heartburn and I’ve tried all the advice. Cayenne remains my dear friend.

It does trigger hot flashes now that I am a of a certain age. This is no fun in the summer but very useful on cold days.

There is also some evidence that cayenne is good for cardiac health, increasing blood flow and possibly lowering blood pressure and LDL cholesterol.

While it’s usually safe to just use cayenne to flavor your meals, take care if you’re taking capsules. Too much of anything is never good. And capsaicin does interfere with several drugs including blood thinners, stomach acid reducers, ACE inhibiters and aspirin.

Cayenne Pepper Magick

Cayenne can be added to powders for banishing. I like to string them up to dry above my windows and this has the added bonus of creating a protective barrier.

It can also be burned for banishing, but it will release capsaicin into the air and this is not good for humans or anyone else with mucus membranes. I do not recommend

Do add cayenne to any spell jars or sachets for protection, courage or to increase activity, restlessness or movement. You can also add it to sour jars to encourage someone to move out.

The energy of cayenne is of Mars and Fire. It is restless and aggressive. It wants to do something, to make things happen, to fix things, dammit.