Chiltepin for sale

*** AS OF JULY 2010, ALL CHILTEPIN SUPPLY HAS BEEN EXHAUSTED. CHECK OUT WWW.NATIVESEEDS.ORG FOR SOME MAIL ORDER CHILTEPIN***

I happened to procure a small stash of chiltepin - the wild chile from NW Mexico or the "mother of all chiles" - on my way back to the USA. During various points of our travel, a number of folks have expressed interest in purchasing some chiltepin. So for those of you interested, I have about 60 bottles of chiltepin, packaged by Don Tepin. Don Tepin is a small business in Baviacora, Sonora. Its actually the hobby of a couple brothers and their neighbor. They purchase ripe, wild harvested chiltepin, the best of which get rinsed, washed, dried and packaged into these bottles.

You can buy a bottle of chiltepin (51 grams of dried chile) for $10 plus S/H. If you purchase more than one, I can combine the S/H charges.

To purchase, send me an email at kraigkraft [at] gmail [dot] com. I have a paypal account with the same email address as well.

Images of the border

Lost in the return to Davis and in the subsequent frenzy of lab work and catching up here at home, I've failed to share with you some of the most interesting and poignant images that Heather and I have taken during our time in Mexico. So after some delay, here they are.

For the school year 2007-2008 UC Davis selected The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea as the Campus Community book. If you have not read it, the book follows 26 men as they attempt to cross into the United States by walking through the Arizona desert, telling the story from all of the angles - the border patrol, the smugglers and the would-be migrants.

Heather and I used the book as a road map of sorts and took some incredible images of the border - the concept of which I have trouble wrapping my head around all of the myriad issues, especially this particular border, which has its own controversial history and politics.

We encountered the border just west of Nogales, then followed it as it ended in the Pacific Ocean, on a stretch of municipal beach just outside of Tijuana's bullfighting ring.

This abarrotes in Altar sold everything you needed to cross. Dark windbreaker, dark hat, dark backpack and gallons of water.

Just outside of Sonoita, just south of Organ Pipe National Monument, the border is a rather simple series of 4x4 metal posts of alternating height with some barbed wire stretched across the top and bottom parts. Not much of a deterrent.

Ceniza, our newly adopted Mexican street dog crosses the border illegally.

Kraig and Ceniza approach the border's end - the municipal beach in Tijuana.

Vendors selling peanuts, churros and cold coconuts right up to the fence.

Footprints on the other side

The border patrol keeps a watchful eye on the vendors and the proceedings.