Hot Stuff

Isn’t Indian food some of the best in the world? The colors: reds, oranges, greens; the variety: dosas, paneers, samosas; the mixture of spices – cinnamon, cardamom, cumin – and, of course, the chile pepper. 

I recently read on NPR about one of the sources of this divine seasoning. In India, almost all chile farmers are women. A labor-intensive job done in scorching heat, growing chiles is mostly a task for members of what used to be called the “gentler” sex. 

According to the article, the work has to be done by women because men “prefer to take on the agricultural jobs that involve finances, such as supervising and selling.” The women also believe that the men just don’t have enough stamina to do the work. The farmers sow the seeds from October to November, then harvest the crop from January to May. They hunch over the low plants for hours each day, their fingers plucking madly, filling a bucket each minute. In the evenings they separate the top quality specimens from those of lesser value. They dry the crop, listening in bed at night for rain, which would destroy the dehydration process. They also grow foods like eggplant, tomatoes, and onions among the chiles, and tend to goats, selling them for meat and peddling their milk and manure. It is a job that seems to give new meaning to the phrase “full-time.” Why do they do it? “[F]or women, chile is a godsend. If we labor hard enough in the fields for those few months, that extra income is enough to keep our homes running for the rest of the year.”

In other words, their business provides them with sufficient income to give them some control over their lives. These women are seriously entrepreneurial and independent.

I eat chiles all the time, the hotter the better. I usually don’t think much about where they come from. Now that I have read about it, I am fascinated to know about one of the sources. The next time I eat a plate of chana masala I will imagine these strong and capable women in their colorful saris coaxing growth out of the land, planning their next crop, and sharing their bounty with the world. 

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