Pepper X, world’s hottest chilli pepper

The Carolina Reaper is no longer the hottest chilli pepper in the world after the same grower unveiled Pepper X.

Carolina Reapers average 1.64 million Scoville Heat Units, while Pepper X rates an average 2,693,000 SHU, a team at South Carolina’s Winthrop University determined. While jalapeño peppers typically come in at 3,000 to 8,000 SHU.

Guinness World Records announced Pepper X is now officially the world’s hottest chilli pepper. Ed Currie, founder of Puckerbutt Pepper Company and creator of the Carolina Reaper pepper, unveiled Pepper X on the popular YouTube channel First We Feast. It took about 10 years of breeding to develop the superhot pepper.

Pods and seeds of Pepper X will not be made commercially available and the public will be able to try the pepper through the release of Pepper X hot sauces.

Man paddles 38.4 miles in hollowed-out pumpkin

A Missouri man climbed into a hollowed-out pumpkin he grew himself and paddled 38.4 miles down the Missouri River to break a world record.

Steve Kueny, of Lebanon, carved his 1,208-pound pumpkin into a boat he dubbed Huckle Berry and spent 11 hours paddling from Kansas City, Kan., to Napoleon, Mo.

Kueny was accompanied in his journey by about a dozen boats from the Paddle KC Padding Club. Club members served as a support team and helped document the journey.

Nebraska man Duane Hansen previously set the Guinness World Record for longest journey by pumpkin boat (paddling) at 37.5 miles in 2022.

19th century boat unearthed under road

The Florida Department of Transportation’s crews were working on a drainage improvement project at the base of the Bridge of Lions, in downtown St Augustine, when they came across some timber.

It turned out to be part of a well-preserved wooden ship measuring about 20 feet long. Southeastern Archaeological Research, or SEARCH, is now working on exhuming the boat, that “has the characteristics of a locally built craft, most likely used in fishing or maybe general carrying trade.”

The team has also found other objects at the site, including an old leather shoe, fragments of old ceramics containers, bottles, rusty bits of iron, as well as cuts of bone, possibly from chops they had for dinner.

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A Minnesota farmer’s 2,749-pound pumpkin took the top spot at the 50th annual World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-off in Half Moon Bay, Calif., and broke a world record in the process.

Travis Gienger claimed his third victory in the competition with a pumpkin he named Michael Jordan. He previously won in 2022, with a 2,560-pound pumpkin named Maverick and in 2020 with a 2,350-pound gourd named Tiger King.

Gienger’s latest effort took the Guinness World Record for largest pumpkin from a 2,702-pounder grown by Italian farmer Stefano Cutrupi in 2021.

Feeding and caring for Michael Jordan cost Gienger about $15,000 since being planted on April 10. Gienger said his $30,000 prize for winning the weigh-off will go toward growing his next pumpkin.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 28th, 2023