I have created a separate page for images from the Sixth Annual Hot Luck and Firey Foods Exhibition at the Thomas Family Winery in Madison Indiana, April 5 - 6, 2002.

I have also created a separate page for images from the Open Fields 2002 in Indiana, September 27 - 29, 2002.

I've given each image a thumbnail representation to help load this page more quickly. Click on a thumbnail to see the image directly.

After returning home from Open Fields 2002 with ten gallons of red habs, I needed a way to preserve them quickly before they spoiled. Since I already have batches of habanero pepper mash going back to 1998, I decided to dry them this time. I had to run several loads like this through the oven; you can guess what the apartment smelled like. At the same time, I was running similar loads through my smoker.

My Christmas decoration for my office cubicle, Christmas, 2001. I wanted a small live pine tree, but found a small live rosemary bush instead. I wondered, what kind of peppers would be most appropriate? Then it hit me - De Arbol, of course, tree peppers. That image on the Windows background is available here. The size is 1342 x 950, so if you intend to use it as a background, you will have to resize it and convert it to .bmp format.

The Wall of Fire at Cozy's restaurant in Thurmont, Maryland. The wall of shelves faces a small bar across a busy service access corridor, so there is frequent kitchen and service traffic passing right by. The sauces are available for sale. The restaurant is close to Camp David, and there are display cases full memorabilia from various US - Soviet diplomatic meetings. Those make me wonder if various Russians have taken home sauces in a diplomatic pouch.

The Open Fields, 2001: the Hobby Farmer-built chile roaster in action. One person holds a large propane burner (there's a name for it - they're used to scorch brush, and some bbq people use them to light fires). A second person turns the crank. The rest of the people stand around and watch in amazement. This rig roasted tubs of green chiles, right there in the fields where they grew.

The inaugural run of a rotating roaster basket I made, primarily for the purpose of roasting chiles. I already wanted to make something like this before I saw the larger roaster shown on this page. I found the basket for sale as a BBQ accessory (made by Paramount) and fabricated the rest from steel bar and rod stock. I can loosen the screws holding it together, and fold it flat for transporting.

An embroidered patch I have on my black shoulder satchel. This was sewn by a vendor at the Grove City chili cook-off (1999?) using a programmable sewing machine. It cost me only $5 to have this done. If you attend shows and festivals where someone is running one of these machines, ask about their available patterns.

I have some more chile images, including some specimen shots that have been sent to me. I will continue to work on this page.