Natural Home Remedies, Cayenne

All peppers are sun loving warm weather loving plants that must be planted in full sun in rich well drained soil. If you plant your cayenne pepper in a bed like I described in the full sun you'll have plenty of delicious cayenne pepper.

You can if you wish start your cayenne pepper in peat pots or cups indoors or in a green house. When the plants are 3-6 inches tall and the danger of frost has passed you can put your cayenne pepper plants out in your prepared bed. Once you plant them you'll want to be sure to water them well as soon as possible so the plants will get started well.

You want to set your plants out with 24 inches between them on all sides. This will give them plenty of room to grow on all sides. When grown your cayenne pepper plants will be three foot or taller. I think the plants are so pretty when they are grown and covered with red and green pepper pods.

After you start seeing finger long pepper pods on your cayenne pepper plants apply a side dressing of 5-10-5 fertilizer to your pepper plants. Don't touch your pepper plants or the leafs of the plants with the fertilizer.

Most people harvest their cayenne pepper when it turn's bright red. You can however pick and use the green pepper pods if you wish. I pickle green peppers and green tomatoes to be used in the winter. I also use the green pepper pods in pickled eggs and in chow chow.

I often freeze what evergreen pepper pods that are left if there is a danger of frost in the late fall. You can cut the stems off the green pepper pods and puree the green pepper pods in your food processor and add a tablespoon of the pureed green pepper pods to beans, stews, or soups when you are cooking them. The pureed pepper pods adds a wonderful flavor to beans. I quite often add a tablespoon of the pureed pepper to my beans and it kicks them up a notch or two.

Cayenne Pepper usually doesn't have any garden pests that bother it and you most likely won't have to worry about garden pests going after your pepper. I no longer use pesticides in my garden and I suggest that everyone stop using them as I think they make people sick and they are slowly but surely killing all the butterflies and honey bees.

You can put fresh cayenne pepper in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator and it will keep and stay fresh for a month or longer. Put it in the warmest part of the refrigerator as near to 55 degrees as possible.

Capsaicin

Capsaicin is a major ingredient found in cayenne peppers. It stops molecules from attaching to DNA. An anti-imflammatory substance that prevents carcinogens from attaching to DNA and discourages the growth and replication of cancer cells. Other potential uses are in killing bacteria tha may cause stomach ulcers and as a treatment for bronchitis and colds.

If the average person knew the health benefits of cayenne peppers they would plow up their yards and plant cayenne peppers. Because believe it or not but cayenne peppers are truly one of the most perfect foods you can eat. Watch the two videos to learn how to plant cayenne pepper and to learn of the medicinal properties of cayenne pepper. It is being said that the Capsaicin in Caynne Peppers may help to prevent cancer or slow its growth.

Cayenne Pepper Plants Must Be Planted In Full Sun In Rich Well Drained Soil.

You need to be sure to plant this heat and sun loving pepper in full sun and never in shade or partial sun. Cayenne Pepper will grow best in a raised bed in soil that you have added either very well rotted manure or compost to and either must be very well rotted. Don't use anything that you don't know is very well rotted because if it's still working and green it will burn up your cayenne pepper plants.

I made my bed by putting down a sheet of black plastic on the ground and my piece of thick black plastic was 16 foot wide and 32 foot long. I lined this piece of plastic with railroad cross ties all the way around and then I put 3-4 inches of gravel in the bottom. On top of the gravel I put a soil that I had mixed myself. I mixed it with 80 percent topsoil and 20 percent black cow manure in bags from the feed and seed store. I packed the soil and manure mixture into the bed tightly and leveled it off.

I buy my cayenne pepper plants at a local flea market already started and I set them out 24 inches apart in rows across my raised plant bed. Once I get them all tucked in the bed I wait until after the sun goes down and I set up my sprinkler and soak them down very well. I keep a rain gauge at the corner of my cayenne pepper bed and anytime that it doesn't show at least one inch of rainfall in a week I soak my cayenne pepper plants with the sprinkler.

Never Water Your Cayenne Pepper Plants When The Sun Is On Them.

By that I mean you should wait until the sun has gone down or before the sun has come up. never water your peppers when the sun is on them. If you do you will damage your pepper plants and if you do it several times you will kill your cayenne pepper plants.

Okay When Will I Have Cayenne Pepper

In a bed prepared as I described above you will have all the cayenne pepper's you could ever want in about 72 days. You can pick and eat the finger long cayenne pepper when its green or you can allow it to turn red and then harvest it. Once it turns red pick it off if you want more cayenne pepper to grow on your pepper plants.

Okay What Do I Do With It Now That I've Grown It.

In the American old south the children were put to work stringing the red pepper pods onto threads with a needle. Usually three foot long threads of the red pepper pods were hung up in cool dark places and allowed to dry. The cayenne pepper could then be used throughout the late fall and winter until the next year when more pepper could be used.I still see strings of cayenne pepper like this being sold at flea markets in the late fall and winter.

What I Do With My Cayenne Pepper

I lay my red pepper pods out on sheets in the full sun and allow them to dry until they are very dry and I process my own pepper pods into red pepper flakes in my food processor and make many gallons of it each year. I also further process some into ground cayenne pepper that I can shake out of the holes in the top of a pepper shaker. I wear a mask and wear disposable plastic gloves when I work with the pepper pods. Don't touch your face when your working with cayenne pepper.

Cayenne Pepper Is So Very Good For You.

Cayenne Pepper has many nutritional and health benefits. The red peppers have two very important antioxidants which are vitamin A and vitamin C. You should know that antioxidants are nutrients that neutralize free radicals in the body and keep you from getting sick.

Cayenne Peppers Especially Red Ones Contain Great Anti Oxidants.

Your body naturally produces free radicals when you use oxygen. If you don't do something to get rid of the free radicals in your body they can cause cell damage which can lead to heart problems, arthritis, and cancer. If you can't stand or don't like hot peppers grind your red cayenne peppers up and pack the ground up red cayenne peppers into capsules that you can take to get the benefit of the cayenne pepper and the free radicals it contains.

12 Great Medicinal Uses For Cayenne Pepper.

1. Cayenne Peppers are excellent to treat toothaches or gum diseases. You can carefully remove the seeds from red pods of cayenne while wearing gloves and then puree the red pepper pods up smooth. Some of the fire of the pepper will be gone and you can put a small amount of the pureed red pepper pod on the tooth that is hurting.

2. Cayenne Pepper is very good to improve the health of your heart. It also keeps blood pressure levels level and it removes the bad cholesterol from your body.

3. If you take a capsule or two of cayenne pepper in the morning you will have a reduced appetite through out the rest of the day and you will be able to stick to a diet and lose weight. Cayenne Pepper gives your bodies metabolism a boost and it aids the body in burning excess amounts of body fat.

4. Recent studies support the theory that cayenne pepper can help to keep smokers from getting lung cancer. It is believed that capsaicin which is found in the cayenne pepper is what prevents tumors from forming in the lungs and other organs. Other studies say that capsaicin also helps the human liver healthy and it may even prevent liver cancer.

5. The capsaicin and the cayenne peppers are great for bringing relief for joint pain. Chinese Herbal Practitioners have for hundreds of years made a salve out of ground cayenne pepper, garlic, and vegetable oil and they worked this homemade salve into the bodies joints and it is said to work very well.

6. Cayenne Peppers are great for helping the body to detox. Cayenne Peppers are also known as a circulatory stimulant. Cayenne Peppers will cause you to sweat and this is great for detoxification of the human body. You can make a tea to be drunk early in the morning from fine ground cayenne peppers, honey, and lemon. If you drink a eight ounce glass of this tea every morning it will detox your body of many of the toxins in it.

7. Cayenne Pepper taken internally as a powder in capsules will prevent and break up blood clots in your body. This helps to prevent a stroke or heart attack.

8. Cayenne Pepper has great anti inflammatory properties and this is great for people with diabetes, nerve damage, and psoriasis. If you have swollen or sore feet soak your feet in a tub of hot water that you have added powdered cayenne pepper to.

9. Cayenne Pepper is a great digestive aid increasing the flow of digestive juices and it works to metabolize the foods and toxins that we take into our body. Cayenne pepper is also great for relieving intestinal gas build up in the stomach.

10. Cayenne Pepper is one of the best things you can take if you think you are catching a cold or the flu. Make a tea out of cayenne pepper, honey, and lemon and drink 3-5 glasses a day to relieve the symptoms of cold and flu and to flush the toxins out of your body.

11. Cayenne Pepper relieves sore throats, irritating coughs and indigestion. If you have bad indigestion make yourself a tea using fine ground cayenne pepper, honey, and lemon. It works very well for this condition.

12. Cayenne Pepper has great anti-fungal properties and if you have toenail fungus soak your feet including your toes of course in a gallon of hot water to which you have added a couple tablespoons of powdered cayenne pepper.

We have provided this information about cayenne pepper for information purposes only. If you plan to use cayenne pepper for medicinal purposes you should discuss your plans with your doctor. I have tried many of the methods above and they worked great for me. But what works for one person may not work for other people. If your doctor won't work with you and herbs like cayenne pepper find a doctor that will or think about becoming a Herbal Practitioner yourself.

This Hub Page is offered for information purposes only and is in no way medical advice. Herbal medicine works and works great but you need to work with your doctor with herbal medicine. If your doctor doesn't want to work with you with herbs and herbal medicine find a doctor or herbal practitioner who will. Or consider becoming a herbal practitioner yourself.

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