Are Chilis dried on the plant ok?

Factual Questions
1

So I have a Aero garden which I have been growing nice hot chilis. The plants pretty much abandoned the grow light for the nice sunny window, and have been very productive. Far more productive then even I can eat. I have been meaning to pick the overflow for some time and, oven dry them for some home-made hot pepper powder. Unfortunately I never did, and I probably have 50 or so dried or nearly dried on the plant.

I am curious if they are safe for food if I still grind them up, or does the slow natural drying cause any potential food safety issues.

2

If the chiles are small and completely dry, and you see or smell NO MOLD, yeah, absolutely they are good!

If they are big, honkin’ poblanos, I’d cut a few open and make sure there’s no mold lurking inside.
~VOW

3

If they are dried enough you can use a coffee grinder to pulverize small quatities of them. Just be careful, they get torn to power very fast. Be sure you don’t breath deeply while you are doing this and clean the grinder throughly.