Family and Consumer Sciences at Home
Mary Morris, Family and Consumer Sciences Agent 

Make Your Own Hot Sauce 

This time of year at the end of the garden harvest, you may find an abundance of peppers. Big green peppers, jalapeños, chili peppers, and cayennes grow really well in this area. So after you pick those beautiful Christmas red and green peppers you may not know what to do with all of these peppers? Of course, adding them to salsa and cooking are great options but if you have cayenne peppers try making your own hot sauce.

Cayenne pepper sauce is by far one of the most popular hot sauce varieties in the U.S. You’ll see it packed into specialty hot sauce bottles all over the place, and there are some pretty famous cayenne pepper sauce products out there.

Other names for cayenne peppers are Capsaicin, capsacum, African chili, chili, hot pepper, Louisiana long pepper or sport pepper, paprika, red chili, spur pepper, tabasco pepper

About the Cayenne Peppers

You may have heard of cayenne chili peppers, but there are also a number of cayenne types out there, so you don’t have to limit yourself to what you find in the stores.

Cayenne is a hot chili pepper extract. It’s commonly used in cooking. Bell pepper and paprika are the mild forms of this pepper.

When you apply it to your skin (topically), cayenne works to relieve pain. It contains capsaicin. This is used in ointment form for pain relief. Ointments made from cayenne stop muscle and joint pain by “confusing” pain transmitters. They also block pain messages from the skin.

When taken by mouth, cayenne may also aid in digestion and improve circulation. It may also reduce cholesterol and blood fat levels and decrease obesity.

Safety Advice

When working with very hot chili peppers, including super-hot chili peppers, it is important to wear gloves when handling the peppers both in raw and dried forms. The oils can get on your skin and cause burning sensations.

Homemade Cayenne Pepper Sauce – A recipe to make your own homemade cayenne pepper sauce in your own kitchen, with store-bought or garden-grown cayenne peppers, garlic, vinegar, and salt. It’s super easy and super flavorful

Author: Mike Hultquist

Ingredients

• 10 ounces cayenne chili peppers
• 5-6 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt + more to taste

Directions

1. Chop up the cayenne peppers along with garlic cloves and add them to a pot with the vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt.
2. Bring the mix to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer everything for 20 minutes.
3. Cool the mixture slightly, then transfer it to a food processor or blender. Process it until the sauce is nice and smooth. Adjust to taste with more salt if desired.
4. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve if you’d like a smoother sauce, or pour it into bottles as-is for a thicker sauce.

4-H at Home
Submitted By: Camaryn Byrum, 4-H Agent 
Article taken from: National 4-H Activity Guide

America has many beautiful open spaces that many people love to visit. Outdoor recreation is a favorite national pastime. However, it can be harmful to our environment. Leave No Trace is an organization dedicated to teaching people how best to use the land and how best to minimize our impact. Here is more information about the seven Leave No Trace principles or guidelines which all users should follow:

• Plan ahead and prepare by knowing the regulations and special concerns of the area; being aware of the possibility of extreme conditions and packaging food to minimize waste.
• Travel and camp on durable surfaces like established trails, picnic sites, and campgrounds. Walk single file in the middle of a trail to minimize trail erosion.
• Dispose of waste properly by using designated containers or by packing in and packing out all trash, leftover food, and litter.
• Protect what you find and preserve the past by leaving cultural or historic structures and artifacts, as well as rocks, plants, and other natural features as you found them.
• Minimize the need for campfires and lessen the impact by using only camp stoves or established campfire rings; burn only sticks found on the ground; put out fires completely and scatter the cold ashes.
• Respect wildlife by observing from a distance; never feed animals, store food, and trash securely and control pets or leave them at home.
• Be considerate of other visitors by being courteous, yielding to others on the trail, taking breaks away from trails and other visitors. Speak in a quiet voice and try not to make loud noises.

As more people enjoy our outdoor world, fewer untouched environments are left. Learning and practicing the 7 Leave No Trace principles will help reduce your impact on our environment, keeping these places available for future generations to enjoy. In this activity, you will learn how to plan ahead and determine how you can “walk softly” in the natural world.

Get in Gear Activity: Take a trip to a park or wilderness area for lunch or dinner. While there, walk around and write down what you see others doing. Discuss with your group or family what you saw and whether what you saw was good or bad. Record in the space below at least one example of each of the seven Leave No Trace principles.