Happy Mother's Day!

I can’t think of cayenne without thinking of my Mom, so it’s fitting that my Mother’s Day entry would be about cayenne pepper. And of course, about Mum.

A brief bit about Mum; she was holistic before holistic was cool. She raised myself and my siblings to be aware of the nutritional value of what went in our mouths. She’s been gone almost 20 years, but I still hear her when I’m at the store; when I’m cooking dinner; when I hear about ‘alternative’ treatments. She’s with me still, and for that I’m grateful.

The active ingredient in cayenne is capsaican. It’s the same ingredient used in topical muscle rubs. The burn capsaican creates stimulates a warming, therapeutic effect at the location of the affected area, after which the pain subsides. To me, it just burns, but if it helps you, then go for the burn!

Cayenne was considered a supplement in my mother’s kitchen. I can still remember my stepfather’s reaction when my mother stirred cayenne into a glass of water for his ulcer. It hit his stomach with a burning fire and he bellowed in pain. But putting his trust in his wife, he continued with the daily drink and lo and behold, his ulcers cleared up. This was before it was discovered that ulcers are often caused by bacteria that can be eradicated with a treatement of antibiotics. (Did cayenne pepper kill the bacteria? It’s a valid question.)

Cayenne was something my siblings and I took daily and it was up to my younger sister and myself to assemble the little capsules of fire.

We’d sit at the kitchen table with a mound of the red pepper in front of us and a bowlful of gel capsules at the ready. Pulling them apart, we’d stick each end into the pepper then fit them back together, toss them into a bowl, then move on to the next. We’d sit for an hour or more at a time until all the capsules were filled. I remember how the powder would cause our eyes to water and our sinuses to itch, and I especially remember the horror we experienced the first time my sister touched her eye. She cried out in pain; I grabbed her hands to keep her from touching again. We washed the pepper out, but It was painful. And you can believe we never touched anything after that. We’d finish that pile of capsules as fast as our little hands could work, then run to the sink and wash up. It would probably be considered abusive now, but we didn’t look at it that way. It was just part of what we needed to do to stay healthy.

Recently, My father-in-law showed me a nifty little machine where you put in half a gel capsule, dump the cayenne over the open capsules, then fit the top on each one to close.

Hmm. Been there, done that. No thanks.

But I don’t go without. These days I buy the capsules pre-done. And I will say I don’t have any heartburn, unless you count taking one of the pills on an empty stomach!