About Chiles:

The chile pepper, chili peppers, chilli or chilie, is the fruit of the plants from the genus Capsicum, which are members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Although chiles may be thought of as vegetables, their culinary usage is typically a spice, the part of the plant that is usually harvested is the fruit, and botany considers the plant a berry shrub.

The name, spelled differently around the globe (chili, chile, chilli or chilie), comes from Nahuatl chīlli via the Spanish word chile. The term chili in much of the world refers almost exclusively to the smaller, hot types of capsicum. The mild, larger types are called bell peppers in the United States, Canada and sometimes the United Kingdom, sweet pepper in Britain and Ireland, capsicum in India and Australia-Asia, and paprika in many European countries. Bell peppers are often named simply by their color -- usually reds and greens.

Chile peppers and their various types originated in the Americas; they are now grown around the world because of their wide use as spices or vegetables in cuisine and for medicine.

Chili peppers have been part of the human diet in the Americas since at least 7000 BC and perhaps earlier. There is archaeological evidence at sites located in southwestern Ecuador that chiles were already domesticated more than 6,000 years ago and one of the first self-pollinating, cultivated crops in the Americas.

Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to encounter chiles while in the Caribbean. He called them "peppers" because of their similarity in taste (though not in appearance) with the Old World peppers of the Piper genus.

About This Site:

The idea for this website is rooted from a photography assignment for internationally acclaimed Arizona Highways Magazine in 2007. The magazine asked Stevenson Photography on Location to produce the photography for a story on the large, yet often overlooked, chile pepper industry in Arizona. During their 6 months of shooting, photographers Don and Ryan Stevenson kicked around the idea of producing an Arizona Chile Poster as a fun side-project to the magazine article.

As the poster idea heated up, so did a variety of other chile related projects. What about a line of chile tee shirts or greeting cards? How about a fun web site? So, here are the fruits of our labor with more to come. Some fun facts about chiles. A showcase of photography from our photo shoots. Some tasty and very good chile recipes. Our poster and a few other merchandise items. Poke around. Explore a bit. And don't forget... EAT MORE CHILES!