Red Peppers
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A centuries old remedy for keeping your feet warm is to put cayenne pepper in your socks. Indeed, when you eat red pepper it's active ingredient, capsaicin, increases the circulation in your toes and fingers. Though, putting it in your socks only makes your feet feel warmer.

Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is The Weather Notebook.

Correspondent, Curt Nickisch reports on how that can be a problem when your feet are warm already.

The red pepper remedy was still popular in 1909 when Dorothy Finch was born on the South Dakota prairie. Her mother staked a claim in Dakota Territory and kept a diary of her life as a woman homesteader.

Dorothy reads from the diary in this 1977 recording.

FINCH: One evening I started for the claim. It was sprinkling and started raining quite hard. When I reached Gray's Roadhouse, I stopped for the night. The rain turned to a snowstorm. I was cold and it seemed like I couldn't get warm. Gray put me to bed, got me a pair of her brother Rob's socks. Sprinkled red pepper in them to keep my feet warm.

The storm subsided by morning, and she headed out again for home.

FINCH: When I got near the claim I thought I'd stop and see my neighbors, the Karrs. Their shack was banked up good with sod and was warm. They had a good fire in their little laundry stove. I sat down, put my feet up to the stove to warm them. And then the red pepper began to act. I thought I'd go frantic, they burned so badly. Mrs. Karr got a basin of water and I put my feet in and got rid of the pepper. I was finally able to get my feet dressed and walk again.

Today experts caution against this herbal remedy. They say cold feet should be telling you something. Like maybe: go inside and put on some dry socks. In Sioux Falls, this is Curt Nickisch.

The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory and is spiced with support from the National Science Foundation.