See the segment on NBC’s site, Butch talks about the pepper with NBC4 reporter Jennifer Bjorklund.

Butch on NBC4 talking about Ghost Peppers

Guinness World Records certified the Bhut Jolokia as the world’s hottest, and chileheads and gardeners scrambled to obtain seeds, plants and pods, which originally were scarce here. Last year, Butch and Burma Baselice, who run a spicy foods business called Red Hot Foods in Santa Paula, started 12,000 Bhut Jolokia plants to grow at five locations in Ventura County. They had some plants left over last spring, and it was getting late in the season for planting, so they gave them to Phil McGrath of Camarillo-based McGrath Family Farm, with the agreement that they would share the harvest.

Read the entire article here.

Or download a pdf here.

We are currently still harvesting peppers, as the heat of our Indian Summer this season gave us additional growth. At the same time we are making Ghost Pepper Mash, available in 40lb pails, 1gal jugs, as well as quart and pint jars. For a limited time we also offer for sale fresh Bhut Jolokia Peppers.

Here are some pictures we would like to share, showing our peppers this season.

Jolokia Season 2010	Ripe Jolokia Peppers	Lots of Ghost Peppers	More Peppers!
Some of the Harvest	Jolokia Harvest 2010	Bhut Jolokia Ghost Peppers	In the Kettle
Time to make the Mash	Even some Chocolate Jolokias	Pails of Mash	Jolokia Mash is now available

Harvesting Jolokia Seeds	Drying Bhut Jolokia Pods	Harvesting Jolokia Seeds	Collecting Ghost Seeds
1st 5000 Jolokia Plants	The pepper nursery	Lots of seeds starting	In the greenhouse
Jolokia Seedlings	More Ghost Pepper Seedlings	Bhut Jolokia Seedlings	Got Jolokia?
We've Got Jolokia	Trays of Ghost Pepper	Bhut Jolokia Seedlings	Ghost Pepper Babies
Trays of Seedlings
2nd Batch of Jolokia
Germinating More Seeds	5000 More Seeds	2nd Batch	World's Hottest Peppers
Getting ready to plant
Ghost Peppers 21 days	Batch #1 45 days	Batch #1 45 days	Batch #2 45 days
Planting Jolokia Peppers	Batch #1 mid-May	Started March 1	1st 5000 plants
Picking up	Ready to go	75 days	Ready to plant
Ready to plant 2	Van load of peppers	Planting location 1	Location 1 rows
Lots of work	Planting Jolokias	Farmer Chris	Location 1
Location 1	Jake	4000 planted	Testing drip
Tim	Prepping Loc2	Loc 2 Ready	Location 2
Ghost Peppers	Location 2 planted	Jolokia Peppers planted
August Updates	Growing Nicely	Ghost Pepper Plants	Peppers coming out
Jolokia Flowers	Location 2	Location 2 Rows	Location 2 More
Location 3	Ghost Plants Growing	Jolokia Peppers Grow	Jolokia Peppers
Location 4: Peppers	More Ghost Peppers	Bhut Jolokia Peppers	Plants are filling in
Checking plants	Jolokia Plants	Location 5	More Jolokia Plants
Plant Inspector	Ghost Plants Forever	Jolokia Peppers Ripen	In the Greenhouse
More in the Greenhouse	Tim maintaining	Butch Spraying	Butch
September Update	Sent in from Valencia, CA

Update: The harvesting of our Bhut Jolokia Ghost Peppers have begun! Check out how our season went (click here).
 
  ]]> http://redhotfoods.com/news/watch-our-bhut-jolokia-ghost-peppers-grow/feed/ 0 http://redhotfoods.com/news/bhut-jolokia-pepper-grown-in-california/ http://redhotfoods.com/news/bhut-jolokia-pepper-grown-in-california/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:49:07 +0000 redhotsite http://redhotfoods.com/?p=857 For Immediate Release

Bhut Jolokia Pepper

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
[UPDATE 4/6/2010]
HOT NEWS!!!! We are growing our own crop of Bhut Jolokia Ghost Peppers, here in Southern California, in Ventura County. We are documenting the growing process in photos, so Watch Our Bhut Jolokia Peppers Grow (click here).

We are growing Bhut Jolokia Ghost Peppers!

In an article in the Ventura County Star about the John Nichols Gallery in Santa Paula, California,
Red Hot Foods is mentioned for making a custom salsa for the Gallery.

[link to article]

[link to pdf]

1. Talk to others who have done it – The best information you can get will be from others who have done what you are looking to do and most small business food purveyors are more than willing to give you advice. Learn all you can.
2. Find out about your local food regs – Check into your local county and state health departments to find out what the requirements are to be able to sell food products.
3. Find a Co-Packer – Co-Packers are food processing facilities which will take your recipe and make it in quantities, bottling, and packing it. Your Co-Packer will have a commerically approved kitchen facility and will be able to help you with your FDA requirements.
4. Fine tune your recipe – Usually you can fine tune and commericalize your recipes (convert the recipe for large quantity production) with the help of your Co-Packer.
5. Design a good label – The label for your product is just as important as the recipe. Find a good graphic designer, one who has experience with working on food products, as they should be familiar with the USDA requirements for the label.

This is just scraping the surface, but should give you a good start. The more information and education that you can get the better. And there is a lot of information easily available with some quick searches on the internet.