A jalapeño at 5000 SHU isn’t anything compared to a pepper who’s Scoville heat rating is in the the millions. These peppers can really be dangerous if not handled with care, but they are the secret ingredient to many hot sauces and other beloved dishes from around the world.

These peppers tend to be smaller in size with a much higher heat content that is to be approached with caution. With an average Scoville Heat rating of 5,000, Jalapeños are pretty mild as far as spicy peppers go, explore the full Pepper Index for twelve common spicy peppers enjoyed around the world, ranging up to 75,000 SHU.

These peppers are all known to have a super rich, savory flavor with a mild to warm heat. Harvested and eaten both green while the peppers are still pretty mild in addition to when ripened to their full red or brown color and spice level. Explore the full Pepper Index to learn more about six common warm peppers.

Although there are a very many tiny pepper in this world that will set your tongue on fire, the “Mini Peppers” in this group are sweet to mild and are meant to be eaten whole with ease. While shishitos and padrons tend to be more common at the farmers market, the range of super sweet, tropical, heatless habaneros are hot on the scene! Just toss these peppers into a frying pan with oil and serve with a sprinkle of salt, serve on a gorgeous multicolored platter, or eat them all to yourself alongside eggs for breakfast.

There’s nothing like a crisp sweet pepper in the middle of summer, from bells to Italian peppers to pimentos and Jimmy Nardellos. Whether you enjoy them raw like an apple, chopped up fresh into a salad or slaw, cooked into a stir-fry or roasted and blended into a sauce, sweet peppers are where it’s at. Click to explore the full Pepper Index including six common sweet peppers.

Photo-Baker Creek Seeds

Photo-Baker Creek

Photo—Baker Creek

Photo-Baker Creek

Photo—Baker Creek

Photo—Baker Creek

An incredibly medicinal plant generally grown for its roots and leaves. Although it is known to have benefit for a great many bodily functions, it is particularly well known for being an adpatagen, helping us to respond better to stress, and for giving a well-rounded strength and energy and decreasing inflammation.

A common plant you’ll find growing as “a weed” throughout the Americas, this green when eaten young (before it flowers) is incredibly nutrient rich and flavorful much like spinach, and is eaten regularly in soups and stir-fries in many Indigenous and Latinx communities as a common quelite. The fruits are small blueberry-sized berries that are poisonous when green, but tasty and harmless when ripened to fully black.

With large, thick, sticky leaves, tobacco is one of many indigenous, medicinal plants that has become villainized, but also weaponized into the commercial toxic products we find ourselves addicted to at alarming rates. Essential to many indigenous cultures as a beloved herb, tobacco has been very misunderstood in our capitalistic post-colonial world. (Photo-Tobacco was part of Native American culture long before Europeans)