TASTE News Service May 12, 2016 - Slicing open a ripe green jalapeño he had just snapped off a plant in the field, Aziz Baameur pointed the blade of his pocket knife at the yellow line. "This is where capsaicin is located. It's what gives the pepper its pungency and it's what we're trying to increase," said the University of California Cooperative Extension advisor.

"Some people think the seeds make it hot, but capsaicin is what makes chile peppers hot," said Baameur, who works with vegetable growers in Santa Clara and San Benito Counties.

by Joel L.A. Peterson

April 17, 2016 - My mother – the wonderful woman who adopted me despite already having four biological children of her own – was a bright, educated, and deeply thoughtful person. So she had been planning for my arrival from the orphanage in many ways. When I arrived from Korea as her new son, I was nearly seven years old, and my mother knew that Koreans did not eat the same breakfast that Americans typically ate.

She reasoned that I was used to eating rice, not cold cereal with milk. But she didn’t want to serve me rice, which she thought could reinforce a sense of not belonging; being treated as a foreigner, given non-typical America food. So she had a plan. She would ease me through the transition from steamed rice.

The very first day, I was seated at the breakfast table surrounded by my new parents, brother, and three sisters. Mother put her plan into action as all the pairs of blue eyes and faces framed by blonde hair looked on.