February 13, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, “Smokin” Ed Currie is an American chili pepper breeder who is the founder and president of the PuckerButt Pepper Company. He is best known for breeding the hottest chili pepper in the world, the Carolina Reaper and now Pepper X, as recognized by Guinness World Records. A former addict, Ed is now a man with a strong faith. Here’s Ed sharing a story involving him and his wife.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Smoking' Ed Curry
is an American chili pepper breeder who's the founder and
president of the pucker Butt Pepper Company. He is best
known for breeding the hottest chili pepper in the world,
the Carolina Reaper, and now Pepper X. Is recognized by
Guinness World Records. A former addict and is now a
(00:33):
man with strong faith. Here's Ed sharing a story involving
him and his wife.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Linda. Was trying to get me to go to her church,
and I kept on saying, I'm Catholic. I can't go there,
even though I hadn't been to the Catholic church except
for Christmas and Easter with my parents, who my whole life,
I mean, from thirteen on, and I support the Catholic Church,
don't get me wrong. But she finally talked me in
(01:02):
to going to the church she was going to, and
it was a really good service. Then they had a
communion service, and this was a non denominational church, and
she said, come on, have communion and I was like,
I can't do that. I'm Catholic. You know, this isn't
a real church, you know, And she said, no, come on,
(01:23):
you can't. I said, no, I'm not going to. And
she got up to get in line for communion, as
did all the other people who were with us, And
the pastor was up on the stage, you know, with
his bible, and he was singing whatever song the band
was playing. And he closed his bible and put it
down on the stool he had next to him, and
he jumped off the stage and he grabbed a chalice
(01:46):
and the plate, and I'm watching him, and he came
all the way up the aisle and then across back
into the darkness. He couldn't have possibly seen me from
the stage, you know, when the lights are on you
you can't see out, walked straight up to me and
he said, ed, you're worthy of the body of Christ.
Received communion, And I was immediately. Even though I had,
(02:12):
like I don't know, six seven, eight years clean, whatever
it was, I still carried all that guilt and shame
from all that stuff I had done. And I did
some pretty horrible stuff. I mean stuff I thought I'd
never be forgiven for, stuff that was going to send
me to hell. Okay, all the guilt and shame, everything
(02:32):
just immediately left my body, Okay, immediately left my body,
and it has been nothing nothing, even my very worst
days have been nothing but full of gratitude ever since. Man. Sorry, ah,
(02:55):
And it's just amazing. What well, you know, I I
tell people this stuff all the time when I'm interviewing,
like especially when the camera's rolling, because the kids shut
you up and then they headed it out, you know.
And that's the kind of story that people need to hear.
All right. It's funny because I got approached to do
(03:18):
a feature film okay from a big studio, but they
refuse to give me any creative control and actually told
me I had to stop the God talk and I
dropped the film. I said, now, I'm not gonna do this,
even though they were offering a whole lot of money.
(03:39):
Not a month later, I got approached by a rock
band who's got a production company now, who they're going
to give me total creative control, actually executive producer position,
so I can literally I can say this stays in,
this goes out. They don't care about what I say,
(04:00):
what I do. They think it's all part of the story.
And if I want to talk about Jesus, that's just fine.
And that's the way they put it. If you want
to talk about Jesus. It's just fine, you know. And
so you know, when one door closes and the other
one opens. Well, I got a call in the middle
(04:21):
of the night, all right from a woman and she goes, hey, ed,
how you doing. I'm like, hey, Laura, how are you doing?
You know, why are you calling me? You know that guy?
And I had done service work in an a with her.
And she goes, you remember my daughter And I was like, well,
kind of, you know, I have met her five years
ago and she said, well, you know she's an atheist
(04:44):
and I said, yeah, you just told me, you know.
And she goes, you know, I'm agnostic and I said yeah,
you tell me that all the time. And she goes, well,
my daughter has been having dreams that the baby she's
carrying from an eighteen year old gangbanger God is telling
her that that's your baby. And I was like what,
(05:04):
and she goes yeah, and I've been having dreams that
you have a daughter named Katherine Anne. And I had
a sister named Katherine Ane who died and I never
told anybody. Linda didn't even know about her at this point, okay,
And I was like wow, and she goes, yeah, we
want you to adopt the baby. And she knew that
(05:25):
Linda had a bunch of miscarriages and we had stopped
trying to have a baby. And I was like, well,
I got to talk to Linda about that, thank you.
But my answer is yes, you know, because to me,
that was a God thing. That was a miracle happening, okay,
and it was after this other miracle adapted. So I
(05:47):
go into bed and I tell Linda's like, who's on
the phone, you know, And I told her what happened
and she started cursing out God, all right, cursing and
I'm like, you can't curse God, and she goes, I
can do whatever I wanted to do, you know, you
know she because she has a really good relation. And
really what it was was that Sarah and Abraham thing.
(06:08):
She was about to turn fifty. We tried for so long.
How come God's providing this right now? And we were
literally we're praying on it. And she was like, no,
we're too old, blah blah blah blah. And I said,
let's go talk to Pastor Chadwick about this. David Chadwick
is his name, And we get to the we'd go
(06:28):
to the church service, and we'd get in line to
talk to him, and we see that a woman who's
dying of cancer is with him. So we went over
to thank the visiting pastor had spoke during that meeting
for being there. He's like, oh, you want to talk
to Pastor Chadwick and she's like, yeah, we're we got
an offer for adoption, but I'm fifty years old. And
(06:50):
the pastor stopped her right there and he said, you
see that little kid right there. God put that child
in my life when I was fifty two. You see
this other one right here. God put that child in
my life when I was fifty six. And before he
could even stop, Mastor Chadwick stopped talking to the lady
(07:12):
he was talking to, walked over to us and said,
lay hands on Ed and Linda, we have to pray,
and literally, out of his mouth came everything that Linda
had said in our marriage bed we hadn't shared it
with anybody, all of her fears, all of her worries,
(07:35):
even saying God forgives you for talking to him like that, okay,
all of it just came out of his mouth. And
then he said, adopt the baby, and that was it,
and We called her from right there in the church
and said we'll adopt the baby. We had no money, okay,
(07:58):
you know, literally we had no It was all going
into the business. I had paid for a legal benefit
at the bank that she had been trying to get
me to get rid of. Guess what it covered, adoption
one hundred percent. Adopting that baby cost us a total
of eighteen hundred and fifty dollars for the social worker
(08:20):
that the state required comes and visit its your house
and make sure you're okay for adoption. That's all it
cost us to adopt the first baby. And when the
miracle happened, the same thing, call from in the middle
of the night, someone Linda Knows, saying, my daughter is
pregnant and she wants you guys to adopt the baby.
(08:43):
And same thing that one I had already paid. I
had filled out the paperwork with the social worker for
five babies, so she didn't have to come back. And
it just cost us the legal you know, the legal
documents from the court, which was like two hundred and
fifty dollars, and my wife literally cut the cord for
both children. That doesn't happen to fifty year olds. Doesn't
(09:06):
happen to fifty year olds. You can't even get on
the list to adopt new boards. And I'd adopt more,
but she says no, you know, but just amazing, amazing stuff.
And I can keep on going on over and over
and miracles everywhere watching them happen to others and not
(09:28):
think it's good luck or something like that. You can
see that as an absolute miracle. Ah wow, thank you
for letting me share that.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And thank you for sharing it, Ed. And miracles, well,
they happen all around us, believe her or not. Miracles
happen every day. And my goodness, what a miracle for
Ed and his bride in her fifties, angry at God,
and my goodness, why not me? Lord? Why not me?
Why that other girl? Why is she pregnant? Why aren't I?
(10:03):
Why have you denied me? And then well, this is
why we go to church too. So many Americans go
to church, to synagogue, to mosque. Why Well, anybody who
goes knows why. And if you don't go, well we
love you too. Here on this show, we love people
of every faith and every faith walk including none at
all the story of Ed Curry's miracle baby and miracle babies.
(10:24):
Here on our American stories.
And we continue with our American stories. Smoking' Ed Curry
is an American chili pepper breeder who's the founder and
president of the pucker Butt Pepper Company. He is best
known for breeding the hottest chili pepper in the world,
the Carolina Reaper, and now Pepper X. Is recognized by
Guinness World Records. A former addict and is now a
(00:33):
man with strong faith. Here's Ed sharing a story involving
him and his wife.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Linda. Was trying to get me to go to her church,
and I kept on saying, I'm Catholic. I can't go there,
even though I hadn't been to the Catholic church except
for Christmas and Easter with my parents, who my whole life,
I mean, from thirteen on, and I support the Catholic Church,
don't get me wrong. But she finally talked me in
(01:02):
to going to the church she was going to, and
it was a really good service. Then they had a
communion service, and this was a non denominational church, and
she said, come on, have communion and I was like,
I can't do that. I'm Catholic. You know, this isn't
a real church, you know, And she said, no, come on,
(01:23):
you can't. I said, no, I'm not going to. And
she got up to get in line for communion, as
did all the other people who were with us, And
the pastor was up on the stage, you know, with
his bible, and he was singing whatever song the band
was playing. And he closed his bible and put it
down on the stool he had next to him, and
he jumped off the stage and he grabbed a chalice
(01:46):
and the plate, and I'm watching him, and he came
all the way up the aisle and then across back
into the darkness. He couldn't have possibly seen me from
the stage, you know, when the lights are on you
you can't see out, walked straight up to me and
he said, ed, you're worthy of the body of Christ.
Received communion, And I was immediately. Even though I had,
(02:12):
like I don't know, six seven, eight years clean, whatever
it was, I still carried all that guilt and shame
from all that stuff I had done. And I did
some pretty horrible stuff. I mean stuff I thought I'd
never be forgiven for, stuff that was going to send
me to hell. Okay, all the guilt and shame, everything
(02:32):
just immediately left my body, Okay, immediately left my body,
and it has been nothing nothing, even my very worst
days have been nothing but full of gratitude ever since. Man. Sorry, ah,
(02:55):
And it's just amazing. What well, you know, I I
tell people this stuff all the time when I'm interviewing,
like especially when the camera's rolling, because the kids shut
you up and then they headed it out, you know.
And that's the kind of story that people need to hear.
All right. It's funny because I got approached to do
(03:18):
a feature film okay from a big studio, but they
refuse to give me any creative control and actually told
me I had to stop the God talk and I
dropped the film. I said, now, I'm not gonna do this,
even though they were offering a whole lot of money.
(03:39):
Not a month later, I got approached by a rock
band who's got a production company now, who they're going
to give me total creative control, actually executive producer position,
so I can literally I can say this stays in,
this goes out. They don't care about what I say,
(04:00):
what I do. They think it's all part of the story.
And if I want to talk about Jesus, that's just fine.
And that's the way they put it. If you want
to talk about Jesus. It's just fine, you know. And
so you know, when one door closes and the other
one opens. Well, I got a call in the middle
(04:21):
of the night, all right from a woman and she goes, hey, ed,
how you doing. I'm like, hey, Laura, how are you doing?
You know, why are you calling me? You know that guy?
And I had done service work in an a with her.
And she goes, you remember my daughter And I was like, well,
kind of, you know, I have met her five years
ago and she said, well, you know she's an atheist
(04:44):
and I said, yeah, you just told me, you know.
And she goes, you know, I'm agnostic and I said yeah,
you tell me that all the time. And she goes, well,
my daughter has been having dreams that the baby she's
carrying from an eighteen year old gangbanger God is telling
her that that's your baby. And I was like what,
(05:04):
and she goes yeah, and I've been having dreams that
you have a daughter named Katherine Anne. And I had
a sister named Katherine Ane who died and I never
told anybody. Linda didn't even know about her at this point, okay,
And I was like wow, and she goes, yeah, we
want you to adopt the baby. And she knew that
(05:25):
Linda had a bunch of miscarriages and we had stopped
trying to have a baby. And I was like, well,
I got to talk to Linda about that, thank you.
But my answer is yes, you know, because to me,
that was a God thing. That was a miracle happening, okay,
and it was after this other miracle adapted. So I
(05:47):
go into bed and I tell Linda's like, who's on
the phone, you know, And I told her what happened
and she started cursing out God, all right, cursing and
I'm like, you can't curse God, and she goes, I
can do whatever I wanted to do, you know, you
know she because she has a really good relation. And
really what it was was that Sarah and Abraham thing.
(06:08):
She was about to turn fifty. We tried for so long.
How come God's providing this right now? And we were
literally we're praying on it. And she was like, no,
we're too old, blah blah blah blah. And I said,
let's go talk to Pastor Chadwick about this. David Chadwick
is his name, And we get to the we'd go
(06:28):
to the church service, and we'd get in line to
talk to him, and we see that a woman who's
dying of cancer is with him. So we went over
to thank the visiting pastor had spoke during that meeting
for being there. He's like, oh, you want to talk
to Pastor Chadwick and she's like, yeah, we're we got
an offer for adoption, but I'm fifty years old. And
(06:50):
the pastor stopped her right there and he said, you
see that little kid right there. God put that child
in my life when I was fifty two. You see
this other one right here. God put that child in
my life when I was fifty six. And before he
could even stop, Mastor Chadwick stopped talking to the lady
(07:12):
he was talking to, walked over to us and said,
lay hands on Ed and Linda, we have to pray,
and literally, out of his mouth came everything that Linda
had said in our marriage bed we hadn't shared it
with anybody, all of her fears, all of her worries,
(07:35):
even saying God forgives you for talking to him like that, okay,
all of it just came out of his mouth. And
then he said, adopt the baby, and that was it,
and We called her from right there in the church
and said we'll adopt the baby. We had no money, okay,
(07:58):
you know, literally we had no It was all going
into the business. I had paid for a legal benefit
at the bank that she had been trying to get
me to get rid of. Guess what it covered, adoption
one hundred percent. Adopting that baby cost us a total
of eighteen hundred and fifty dollars for the social worker
(08:20):
that the state required comes and visit its your house
and make sure you're okay for adoption. That's all it
cost us to adopt the first baby. And when the
miracle happened, the same thing, call from in the middle
of the night, someone Linda Knows, saying, my daughter is
pregnant and she wants you guys to adopt the baby.
(08:43):
And same thing that one I had already paid. I
had filled out the paperwork with the social worker for
five babies, so she didn't have to come back. And
it just cost us the legal you know, the legal
documents from the court, which was like two hundred and
fifty dollars, and my wife literally cut the cord for
both children. That doesn't happen to fifty year olds. Doesn't
(09:06):
happen to fifty year olds. You can't even get on
the list to adopt new boards. And I'd adopt more,
but she says no, you know, but just amazing, amazing stuff.
And I can keep on going on over and over
and miracles everywhere watching them happen to others and not
(09:28):
think it's good luck or something like that. You can
see that as an absolute miracle. Ah wow, thank you
for letting me share that.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And thank you for sharing it, Ed. And miracles, well,
they happen all around us, believe her or not. Miracles
happen every day. And my goodness, what a miracle for
Ed and his bride in her fifties, angry at God,
and my goodness, why not me? Lord? Why not me?
Why that other girl? Why is she pregnant? Why aren't I?
(10:03):
Why have you denied me? And then well, this is
why we go to church too. So many Americans go
to church, to synagogue, to mosque. Why Well, anybody who
goes knows why. And if you don't go, well we
love you too. Here on this show, we love people
of every faith and every faith walk including none at
all the story of Ed Curry's miracle baby and miracle babies.
(10:24):
Here on our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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