[boatbums]

We used to have a little, red chili bush in our yard that my Dad said were "bird chilies". I think they were "Bird's Eye chilies" or "Thai" chilies. They looked like this:

They were incredibly hot! My Dad ground up some in a blender and you could hold the container at arm's length and the smell would STILL make your eyes water. Just one or two of them would be enough to put the "heat" in a 2 gallon bean soup pot.

The birds would eat them with no problem and I found out later that the heat doesn't affect them. We used to put out hot pepper suet blocks in our bird feeders to keep the squirrels from eating them. They CAN taste the heat and they don't like it.

[Aliska]

Those are cute! Interesting about the birds and squirrels.

My daughter found me a beautiful green, red and yellow bell pepper today. Big and shiny. Gonna roast part of them.

I'd have to get out of the kitchen if anybody put those bird chilies in my soup pot. I got some of that stuff made in CA with the chicken on it, sriracha, only it's chili garlic sauce. It is so hot I can only get a tiny bit on a chip, bean chips I think it was my daughter found. It still burns my mouth. And throat. I think you could torture somebody to death with that stuff, think I heard of somebody accidentally eating too much not knowing and dying.

[Yaelle]

Thanks for the bird feeder tip re chile to keep squirrels out!