Cause and Effect

                There are many different factors that go into raising a healthy pepper plant. Some of these factors include soil type, fertilizers, light received, water, and seed genetics. One must keep a watchful eye out for pests, diseases, and mold or fungus of any type. The list goes on and on, as there is not just one magic amendment that will grow a lush and healthy plant. It may seem like a lot that goes into raising a healthy plant, but if you can do a couple of basic things it is really not. Everything starts with your plants source of life, the soil.

               
               The soil is where your plant will start its life, and is where it will live its days out in. This key factor in your plants life could be the most important aspect of all. They drink and eat from the soil through their root system, which transfers the nutrients to the plant. If you have unhealthy soil that is low in organic matter and beneficial organisms, you will have unhealthy plants. The key to building a healthy soil is the return of organic matter and nutrients. The easiest way to do this is with the incorporation of compost into your garden soil. Compost is made of the decomposed remains of dead plants.  It is full of organic matter, and will help bring beneficial organisms to your soil. Other organic practices such as not using synthetic chemicals or fertilizers will also help maintain a healthy soil system.

                Synthetic chemicals and fertilizers are not only bad for your soil, but for the environment as a whole. They pollute the air, contaminate the water, and poison the soil that your plant depends on for its survival. Synthetic pesticides will kill all beneficial insects such as bees and worms, not just the unwanted pests. These beneficial insects are very important to your plants and the local eco-system, and are needed for a healthy plant. Synthetic fertilizers only add nutrients to the plant, and at very large unnatural rates. They do nothing to feed the soil. If you have healthy soil there is no need for the use of synthetic fertilizers. Soil is just one of the many factors that go into a healthy plant, but a very important one. Once you grow healthy soil, the plants will have no choice but to grow healthy as well.

Argumentation, response to "Why I Blog"

The essay that I chose to write about is Andrew Sullivan’s “Why I Blog”. In this essay he makes a lot of very good points about blogging. I agree strongly with all the points that he covered, and he did a very good job of hitting a lot of points. One of the things that really stuck out to me was the fact that you can publish anything instantly. As soon as an event happens you can post about it, in the heat of the moment you could say. This really makes for some strong emotions that can come out in a blog, no time to cool down. There is no waiting for editors or revisions of your work; as soon as you hit post, it is out there for the whole world to read and comment on. Your readers can be your best friends who love everything you write, or your worst critic that picks out every single mistake that you make. You have to be open to this instant scrutiny, all most embracing it. This adds to the appeal of the blog I think, as this really makes it a community effort. Your readers may even know more about your topic then you do, so they can be a wealth of knowledge to help enrich your blog. Your readers may even open your eyes to a new view point that you did not take into account.  As a blogger you are forced to see different views from your own, like that or not. Your options may change on certain topics, so you must post your new thoughts now, not tomorrow. 

Blogging is very much a “in the now” form of writing and the deadline is now, not tomorrow. Tomorrow every other blogger may have posted about this topic, and it will be old news. You want to the first to have the story on the hot topic issue of the day. You have no time to check that your sources are legit, and must learn to get good sources of information quickly. Also in the blog world one can access other external web sites or blogs from hyperlinks. Hyperlinks have really replaced the works cited that you find in pen and paper essays or reports. They give the reader instant access to the sources that the blogger has used. This makes it very easy for the reader to check any and all sources that the blogger has used. They can then facts check a blog in real time, as they read it. This is a very powerful tool I think and it really makes all the readers editors. Blogs tend to be a very free form of writing, and have the freedom to break or bend rules. 

The last point that I really liked in this essay was how Sullivan talked about how blogs are kind of like Jazz. Both are very much an improvisational act and can go whichever way the musician or blogger wants them to go. Both are very free to do whatever they want, not having to follow the set rules. They both broke the mold of what was considered “normal”, and dared to do something different. They both feed off the audience, all most needing them to progress in their craft. One could say they were the odd ducks in the group, not fitting in with the rest of their kind. Being different, they had to do something no one had ever seen or heard off. Pioneers in their fields, they changed the way people heard and saw the things around them.

Process analysis draft

                                                         Yucatan style hot sauce

First of all to make an amazing hot sauce you need good fresh produce, this is the key element to a great sauce. If you can find local organic produce, that would make it even better. If you start with a sub-par produce, you will end up with a sub-par end result. Most hot sauces that one can buy at the store are made up three basic ingredients, peppers, vinegar and salt. This style of sauce is just too plain for me, it really just tastes like vinegar and the heat level is very low, if there is any at all. The best sauces have great flavor all around, not just a vinegar taste. They also have enough heat to let you know that it is a hot sauce. The style of sauce that I like most is a Yucatan style hot sauce. This particular style of sauce originates from the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. It has the three basic ingredients that all sauces have, plus it has other added ingredients for sweetness and added flavor.  Before you can start making your own hot sauce, there are some things one must know first.
          When handling hot peppers in the home kitchen, there are a few precautions that one must make. First, and most important, is to wear latex gloves at all times when handling the peppers. When you cut a hot pepper open the inner walls are exposed and start to secrete capsicum oil. This oil is what makes peppers hot and will stick to your hands if touched without gloves. It is very hard to wash this oil off your hands, and it will transfer to any part of your body or others body that you touch. I have made this mistake before, and it burns very badly let me tell you. The second measure you should take is having a separate knife and cutting board that you use only for hot peppers. This goes back to the oil being very hard to clean off. The third measure is you must work in a very well ventilated room, as the fumes from the peppers will make you cough and make your eyes burn. Lastly one must make very sure to keep the peppers and pepper products out of the reach of small children, who make mistake the colorful peppers for a sweet treat. You should wash any item that comes in contact with the peppers with cold soapy water first, then hot water, do this at least 3 times. This should get the oil off, just be careful not to use hot water first as this will make pepper fumes come into your face, and make you cough. Now that we can safely handle the peppers, we are ready to start.
The ingredients used are: 12 habaneros, 1/2 cup carrots, ½ cup onion, 6 cloves of garlic, ½ cup white vinegar, ¼ cup fresh lime juice, 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and black pepper to taste, and ½ cup water. You can de-seed the peppers if you would like to save them to grow, but this step is up to you, the final product will taste the same with or without the seeds. All the vegetables should be cut into small pieces, the smaller the better, as this will make blending them more easily done. You can use any color carrot that you can find, but it will affect the color of the final product, I used white for this. I prefer a sweet white onion for this recipe, as it really adds to the overall sweetness.  The vinegar used is white as I do not want to hide the taste of the peppers too much. The process is very simple to make the sauce, and can be done in about an hour and a half. After all the vegetables are cut up and your other ingredients are measured out you are ready to start.
Heat the olive oil in pot over medium heat till it starts to shimmer. Add the ½ cup onion and chopped garlic, then toss them in the olive oil and sauté them for two to three minutes till the onion is soft and translucent. Next add the chopped carrots and toss them to coat them in the oil as well. Sauté this mixture for two to three minutes till the carrots get some brown color. After some color is on the carrots add the ½ cup water to the mixture, and bring this to a boil. These should take about three to four minutes. After this comes to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cover your pot with a lid. Simmer this mixture till the carrots become very soft, about forty to fifty minutes. Once the carrots are soft transfer the mixture into a blender, or use an emerson blender if you have one. You can add your habaneros to the mixture at this point. Blend this for about four to five minutes, till there is no pieces of vegetables left and it is very smooth. Pour the mixture back into your pot then add the lime juice, vinegar, salt and black pepper. Mix this well, and return to a simmer over a medium low heat. Simmer the mixture for ten to thirty minutes, depending on how thick you want your sauce. The longer you simmer at this point, the more it will reduce and become thicker. You can store this sauce in the refrigerator for up to six months or you can process it in a water bath canner or pressure canner. If you choose to can it for later use, make sure you follow proper canning techniques for safety reasons.
This sauce has a very fruity taste upfront from the habaneros, and has a nice sweet after taste from the carrots and cooked onion. It has a nice mild acidic taste to it, not to over powering at all. The heat level is mild but can be adjusted to be more or less hot with the addition or reduction of peppers. It pairs well with just about anything you put it on, so it really is an all-purpose sauce, but it is really goes well with pan fried potatoes or a light flakey white fish. It is mild enough that you can use it at any meal of the day, be that breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It can have a nice thin consistency to pour out of a bottle smoothly, or can be thick enough that you can spread it on a bun or piece of bread. The color can also change a lot, depending on what color of peppers and carrots you use, making it very pleasing to the eye, as well as to the mouth.
This is just one way to make hot sauce, a simple base really. There are lots of different ways to go about it; you just have to find one that works for you. You can make this sauce your own by adding whatever flavors you like, be that adding fruit, liquor, or other vegetables. You can roast the ingredients or toss them on the smoker for a couple hours for some added depth to your sauce. Also if you like a screaming hot sauce, like I do, you can sub a hotter pepper for the habaneros very easily. Once you have the experience of making your first sauce, I can promise you that you will never go back to the store bought products. They just cannot compare to the many levels and depth of flavor, and sheer variety you can come up with on your own. So go ahead and try your hand at sauce making, your only limit is your creativity!