Competition heats up at Farmers Market

Quint Lockwood and Patrick Cash were certain of two things at the end of a pepper-eating contest Thursday.
Fellow competitor Jim Heinrich either has a stomach of iron, or he can bluff the most seasoned poker players.
“I could tell he wasn’t going to stop anytime soon,” a weary Cash told the Register after he bowed out in the final round of pepper eating.
The contest was the centerpiece of the weekly Allen County Farmers Market. Heinrich was one of four hearty souls who entered. Joining the finalists was Iolan Frank Clubine, who stopped in the opening round while trying to down a banana pepper.
The assorted peppers were provided by Farmers Market vendors, starting with the innocuous and heat-free bell peppers.
The competition heated up — literally — from there.
Each round consisted of an assortment of jalapeno, banana, cayenne, nutmex, and hottest of them all, a row of habanero chili peppers.
“After a few peppers, you couldn’t really taste anything,” said Lockwood, an Allen County Community College student from Caney.
But you could definitely feel the heat, he admitted, as he struggled to keep up with his counterparts.
Heinrich, Lockwood and Cash each made it through two rounds of peppers. Lockwood’s scorched taste buds caught up with him early in round three. Cash made it a short while longer, while Heinrich continued to down the peppers without a flinch.
“That’s when I knew he wasn’t going to stop,” Cash said. “It didn’t look like it bothered him at all.”
Heinrich said simply afterward that was “fine” and could have continued if necessary. Neither Cash nor Lockwood had any interest in challenging his claim.
For winning, Heinrich received a gift certificate to El Charro Mexican Restaurant in Iola.
All of the competitors were given plenty of water to help, and concluded the competition by quickly downing ice cream bars.
Cash said his dinner arrangements would likely change afterward.
“Think I’ll go eat a loaf of bread,” he joked.