Woman eats 51 of world's hottest chillies in one sitting!

As a chilli farmer I couldn't help but include this story in my blog. I grow around 17 different varieties including the hottest habaneros - and can vouch that even though I like chillies I would struggle through one mouthful of a little chocolate habanero - so this story from the Daily Mail is truly incredible:

They're likely to leave you gasping for water - and have even been known to kill people who eat too many.
For this woman, however, the world's hottest chilli pepper proved nothing more than a simple snack as she chomped her way through 51 of them to claim a place in the Guinness Book of Records yesterday.
Anandita Dutta Tamuly completed her eye-watering feat in two minutes, to the astonishment of Gordon Ramsay, who was monitoring her record attempt.

And for some inexplicable reason, 26-year-old Mrs Tamuly then went on to smear handfuls of seeds from the fiery bhut jolokia chillies into her eyes as the crowds gasped in horror.
In 2007 Guinness acknowledged the bhut jolokia as the hottest chilli in the world, measuring more than 1million units on the Scoville Heat Rating chart, the method of classifying heat in peppers. A standard New Mexican green chilli has just 1,500 units.
A single seed from a bhut jolokia will cause watering eyes and a runny nose as well as a burning sensation in the mouth that can last up to five hours.

But Mrs Tamuly said coolly: 'I have been eating bhut jolokia since my childhood and never felt the hotness in my mouth.
'When I was five I had a sore tongue and my mother applied a chilli paste to cure the infection. Since then I developed a penchant for chillies.
After that I found eating chillies was a great way to stay healthy. Every time I have a cold or flu I just munch on some chillies and I feel better. To be honest, I barely notice them now.'
She said she was disappointed not to have managed even more, having swallowed 60 chillies in practice runs. Mrs Tamuly's record-breaking munch took place in the Assam region of India where she lives and where the chilli grows in hilly areas.
Ramsay, who was in India filming for a Channel 4 programme, could manage only one before screaming for water, yelling: 'It's too much!'
The previous record was held by a South African woman who ate eight jalapenos in one minute in 2002.
In September last year an aspiring chef died after eating a chilli sauce as part of an endurance competition with a friend.
Andrew Lee, 33, from Edlington, West Yorkshire, challenged his girlfriend's brother to a contest to see who could eat the spiciest sauce that he could create.
Mr Lee prepared a tomato sauce made with red chillies grown on his father's allotment. But after eating it he suffered intense discomfort and itching. The following morning he was found dead, possibly after having a heart attack.

No to live sheep exports but it's okay to hurt the crabs?

Aaah what a strange world we live in...full of hypocrisy.

We don't like the idea of sending lambs on a comfortable ship to Saudi Arabia to be killed when they would be killed here anyway but we don't mind boiling the odd crab or lobster or two for our supper.

Think there's a difference? You might be wrong. Today's UK Daily Mail reports that latest research shows that crabs feel pain when they are boiled - surprise surprise - and would remember that pain if they escaped the pot.

The finding could have important implications for the food industry, where many chefs boil crabs, lobsters and prawns alive in the belief that they are impervious to pain.

Wonder if the Green Party think of that when they order up a crustacean delicacy alongside their barley smoothies?

Shorty and some much needed light relief

This from the UK Daily Mail today:

Get Shorty! The tiny pony who keeps sparking 999 calls ... because people think she's stuck in the mud!

For a tiny pony, Shorty is certainly causing a lot of bother. Her legs are so short that when she's standing on a marshy riverbank passers-by keep thinking she's sinking in mud and then call 999.
This has meant that fire crews have been called out four times now to 'rescue' her and led to Mayflower getting the Shorty moniker from locals.
On the last occasion, animal rescue expert Anton Phillips was dispatched to a salt marsh beside the River Test in Southampton, Hants, with 12 other firefighters, in two fire engines together Mr Phillips, of Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: 'Every time we get there we can see very quickly what we were dealing with - a pony with short legs that looks like a dwarf.
'The pony is oddly shaped but it is fit and healthy and there is no reason to worry about it.
'From 200 yards away it does look like the pony is trapped in the mud, especially when it is stood next to New Forest ponies which are about twice as tall.'
He added: 'Obviously it's not the pony's fault for being so short but it probably needs fencing in to stop us getting called out.
'There is a cost implication to consider and callouts like this are a big expense.'
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service estimates that each time a fire engine goes out it costs at least £251.
Mr Phillips, 50, said the pony must have inherited its unusual proportions from two different breeds.
'It looks like it has a Shetland's little legs and a New Forest pony's long body', he said.
However, owner Sandra Whitcher today insisted Mayflower is a pure-bred 12-year-old Shetland.
She said: 'People are always phoning up and saying Mayflower has got stuck in mud when she's perfectly OK - she's just got short legs.
'We have had animal rescuers, the police and the fire brigade up here. When they get here Mayflower sees them and just runs off so they realise she's not stuck at all.
'We might have to put up a sign so passing motorists know the horse is not stuck.'
But she added: 'The only problem is that one day she might actually get stuck and then the fire brigade won't turn up.'
Shetland ponies, known for their short legs, typically grow to between 2ft 4in and 3ft 6in tall.
New Forest ponies are larger, tending to be between 4ft and 4ft 10in, and more normally proportioned.with a specialist lifting vehicle.