Growing chile peppers is a social phenomena

Yes! Growing chiles is actually very social. Did you know that?

I met Patrik (http://chilepeppar.blogspot.com/) for lunch today, exchanging seeds and a plant. And of course also exchanged lots of thoughts and ideas.

I'm not going to compile a list with all the things chile peppers are good for, but some ideas are. (Not in any way a complete list, and not prioritized.)

• Fun to cook with, and exchanging recipes.
• Mindfulness and stillness. Just leave the noise behind and go looking at the plants, fixing and taking care of them. That's great.
• Social. When you start reaching out, for example via a blog, you make new friends. All over the world. Which is great. You learn a lot. Also, not to forget physical meetings with laughter and fun!
• Chile peppers are fun to take pictures of. The plants are beautiful.
• ... Fill in if you want :-)

When I started growing chiles in the mid 90s, long before  blogs and social media, it was already then a social phenomena. I remember how recipes and tips were exchanged via bulletin board systems, using analog modems (9600 bits per second. 9K, not 10M as today. 1000 times faster today:-) , and that everyone in the chile pepper community was very helpful, sharing seeds and tips. It still is, and it is so much easier to connect to each other today. So I think it is a fantastic community to belong to.

So, thank you Patrik for a great lunch and the plant! It is now together with its new friends in the mini greenhouse. More about that later :-)