chile harvest

It was a beautiful weekend in the garden. A good day for picking peppers. I picked all of the red cayenne and round chiles, and all of the green and red jalapeños. It made a nice sized bowl full. I noticed that there aren't any more Hungarian wax - these seem to be an early season chile. Also only 1 little Anaheim (which maybe is a green Hungarian). There sure weren't many Anaheim's in my seed mix.

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harvests from my vegetable gardens

peppers planted

Good news about all my chili pepper seedlings. I have successfully found good homes for all 90 plants! Some to my parents, some to a friend of theirs, some to a friend of mine and some to a friend of my friend. Then another 20 are happily mulched in my vegetable garden. The last 10 plants I snuck in among my flowers in the perennial beds.

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planting day!!!

If you click on this photo, you can mouse over the beds to see what's growing where.

Well, its really great to do the big planting day with a helper. Amelia from SmartTart helped me plant in my community plot today. We got a ton of work done. My garden is suddenly full of seedlings.

Here's a list of our accomplishments:

- 15 tomatoes planted (with collars for cut worms)
- 3 hills of summer squash seedlings planted (Zephyr, Starship and Sunburst)
- new cucumber bed prepared and 3 varieties of seedlings planted
- gourd, squash and pumpkin seedlings planted along the south side fence
- new bed prepared in north-east corner
- the new north-east planted with chiogga beets, onion seedlings (small white and Spanish yellow) and Stuttgarter onion sets
- seed more carrots seeded where my early seeding failed
- seed more parsnips seeded since none sprouted from my early seedling
(Did I forget anything here Amelia?)

What a productive day! And many, many thanks to my awesome helper!

A few comments:

- I have killed so many cucumber, squash and watermelon seedlings in the past two days that I am feeling miserable. They are soooo delicate. Next year I will remember to plant many extras of these. Somehow, I just slip and step on them or bump the stem and it breaks off. Arrgh. I planted another tray of several varieties yesterday.

- I planted some large squashes along my fence. I wonder, are heavy fruited varieties OK on a sturdy fence? Big Rock is a 20+ lb pumpkin, Lakota is a 5-7 lb heirloom squash, and my watermelons are a big variety. Can the vines support the heavy fruits or will they fall off before ripening?

- I planted my summer squash in hills. Right now only 1-2 seedlings per hill, but I'll add more to replace the ones I squished. My question is why hills? Several people have asked me this now. I have just always read to plant squash in hills. I assume it makes the soil warm up faster if it is hilled. Is this the right answer?

- We made little cut worm collars by cutting off the bottom of the plastic pots and using the 1.5 inch pot rim as a collar. The plant can be pushed through the collar and planted deep with the collar remaining at the surface. I don't know if there are cut worms at my new community plot, but I'd rather not find out with my babied little heirloom seedlings.

- I planed to only plant 12 tomato seedlings, but couldn't part with a few and ended up squeezing in 15.

- Skippy was very good today. He liked having extra hands around to pat him. Amelia did comment that HE gets all the attention on my blog, but actually just snoozes in the garden. (Shhh, don't tell anyone...) I do have to add that he is great company when I'm on my own and he does a good job defending the plot intermittently against unseen and probably non-existent threats.

- I thought my original plot outline would be enough space, but already I'm looking for more space. Today we narrowed several paths, and extended the north plot to both the east and west. I hope I'll be able to get into the plot to water and harvest later in the season.

- I'd like to get a NSEW directional sign for my garden. Anyway, most of my community plot photos are taken from the brush pile to the east of my garden. So north is to the right, south is to the left, west is straight ahead.

- I went back to the plot to water our newly planted seedlings because the rain predicted to fall between 3 pm and 4 pm did not. At 5:30 I went over and watered. Of course heavy rains came in later in the evening. But if I didn't water, it would not have rained ....

- I have a very cute new cayenne seedling from Amelia. It is an exciting seedling because she grew it from seeds she saved from plants she grew last year. She grew a variety of peppers including yellow wax, cayenne and another variety. Peppers do self-pollinate, but have a fairly high rate of cross-pollination if bees are around (reference site). It will be interesting to see what the chiles from this plant look like. I will plant this plant and my seedlings in a week or so. In the meantime, I will continue to baby it...

And finally, another thank-you to Amelia! I really enjoyed her help.





(By the way, Skippy dug that little hole to the left in the bottom photo. That's where he napped today while we worked.)

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HOT! habanero chile

I finally got the courage to try one on my garden habanero chiles - described as the hottest chile in the world.

I was warned to wear gloves, but I thought I'd try without first. I sliced the orange chile open and touched the cut edge with my finger and then tasted just a little bit, very carefully, only on the tip of my tongue. Well.... after scrubbing my hands several times with soap, drinking lots of water and washing it down with cheese and bread (and wine), I put baggies on my hands (since I didn't have any gloves) and even wrapped a towel over my face. Those are HOT!!! I will agree - wear gloves!

I was nervous about using them in our dinner. But went ahead and tried.

Recipe for chicken wings with chiles: Put 2 lbs of chicken wings in the oven at 375F for 2 hours uncovered in a thick cast iron pan. Add chopped chiles (I used 1 habanero and 1/2 Anaheim chile) and some barbecue sauce (I used Bulls Eye regular). Cook covered 30 min in oven. Pour off oil. Add more sauce. Cook uncovered another 30 min.

They were really delicious. But surprisingly, not very hot. I think I could have used at least twice the number of chiles, or added Tabasco or Frank's hot sauce as I usually do. My Anaheims are mild, and this one had a bug problem so I could only use half of it. For both chiles I threw away the seeds.

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Skippy's vegetable recipes

chili pepper blossom

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its tomato and squash planting week!

This looks like a good week to transplant my tomato seedlings. Also my squashes, pumpkins and cukes. The temperature is staying sort of warm - about 50 F at night and up near 70 on sunny days. I've seen nearby gardens with tomatoes and squash already planted. I think its time to set mine out.

I have some fancy thermal plastic this year. Its from Johnny's and lets near IR through, but not visible light. This is supposed to warm up the soil well. I'll try this under my tomatoes in both my community plot and at home.

My plan is to plant half of my tomatoes in my home garden and half in my much sunnier community plot. I'll see what does better where. It can be an experiment. I have 10 varieties, 24 total plants, both heirlooms and hybrids.

As for squashes, the ornamentals (gourds and pumpkins) will go in my bed along the house and the edibles (summer squash, winter squash and cucumbers) will go to the community plot.

I was very lucky to find a gardener who would like to help plant on Thursday! So I'll have extra hands and we can set plants out in my community plot. I think Wednesday will be a good day for transplanting in my home garden.

Wednesday also my parents will stop by and pick up their plants. I have about 50 or more seedlings ready for them. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, chiles, squashes, etc. I've gotten very fond of my little sprouts after tending them for the past two months. I'm glad they will go to a good home!

Cucurbita pepo (squash)
chile and bell peppers (Capsicum)
tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum)

transplanting peppers

This year I raised one type of plant indoors from seed - peppers. They are a mix of five types of chili peppers. I made the pots from strips of newspapers. Today I planted them, paper and all. The pots worked great. They held together well. And even without bottoms the roots held the dirt in the pots. The only problem, I have room for 20 and I raised 90 plants! Chili peppers anyone?

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summer chiles

By far, my best chile this summer is a cayenne plant given to me by Amelia. It has been producing bright red spicy chiles for a couple weeks now. I'm looking forward to saving seeds from this plant, as Amelia did, and growing them again next year.

Of course, one of the reasons this plant did so well is that it got the front seat in my chile pots. The plants towards the back have had to compete with pumpkin, gourd, sunflower and dahlia leaves. Not so easy. And considering all the clouds and rain... I'm just glad to be enjoying some red hot chiles now.

The second best chile in my garden this year is are Anaheim. The yellow and purple bell's are coming along still. Poblano's had some trouble under the pumpkin leaves.

This week, we have enjoyed cayenne and Anaheims chopped and sauteed in chicken wings and local calamari. Yum! The flavor is super.

chile and bell peppers (Capsicum)
garden gifts

repotting pepper seedlings

Time to repot the peppers! I ended up with two trays: 90 plants total. I had peat pots for one tray (no pictures), but thought I'd try making paper pots for the other (these are the photogenic ones). The paper pots probably took me an hour to make and fill. Not too bad. Of course, its much too many plants for my little garden. I'll probably bring them down to the plant sale in the town center in the middle of May. Maybe I'll get rich.

Here's a link to Mr Brown Thumb's site where I found the paper pot idea.

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pepper sprouts on my window sill

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sowing pepper seeds

At the last minute, I found a few more varieties of pepper seeds, bought some trays and quickly planted my pepper seeds on schedule - March 15. Same date as last year.

My garden is now 7-8 weeks before the last frost. Our usual last frost date here is May 5-10.

I planted these five varieties of peppers.

Sweet Canary Bell: (hybrid) Easy to grow, exceptional flavor, thick-walled and bright yellow color. It sets fruit early and produces throughout the summer. A vibrant accent in salads and deliciously sweet when sauteed or grilled. 69-80 days

Sweet Chocolate: (open pollinated) A lovely purple brown. Lumpy, elongated shape. Smoky-sweet flavor. Very productive. Peppers are very sweet, have thick walls, and turn from green, to chocolate when mature. The interior walls are brick red. Excellent fresh in salads. 85 days.

Anaheim Chile: (open pollinated) a mild variety of the New Mexican chile pepper. Like a poblano with a slightly thinner flesh. Fresh Anaheim peppers, like the poblano, need to be roasted before use. 78 days.

Poblano Chile: (open pollinated) a very mild chile pepper. The plant is multi-stemmed, and can reach 25 inches in height. The pod itself is about three to six inches long, and about two to three inches wide. An immature poblano is dark purplish green in color, but eventually turns a red so dark as to be nearly black. It can be prepared a number of ways, commonly including: dried, breaded and fried, stuffed, or in sauces called moles. After being roasted and peeled (which improves the texture by removing the waxy skin), it can be preserved by either canning or freezing. When dried, this pepper becomes a broad, flat, heart-shaped pod called an Ancho chile. 65 days.

Habenero Chile: (open pollinated) The habanero is the hottest chile pepper you'll find. Most habaneros rate 200,000 to 300,000 Scoville heat units. Yee ha!! That's hot!! 95 days.

I put the tray under my fish tank in among all the plumbing. It stays a nice constant 78 degrees F under there and worked well last year. For pepper seed, the recommended soil germination temperature range is 75-80°F.
chile and bell peppers (Capsicum)

baby chili pepper sprouts

My peppers have just started to get little second leaves. I'm thinking about transplanting them someday in the near future. There's only about 50 million of them. Today I moved them to a south facing window (where they have a view of the vegetable garden and lots of sun).

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planting the first seeds of the year

I bought a package of hot peppers and decided I would try growing just one thing inside this year. Its alot of work to raise seedlings, so I haven't done it recently. Of all the seeds to pick, I chose peppers. Patrick at Bifurcated Carrots has told me that these need to be kept above 70F to sprout. So I have set up a way to keep them warm. They are next to a small light on the refugium in a cabinet under my salt water fish tank. I turn this light on at night and I've been checking the temperature near it - about 78F, same as my fish tank temperature. It should be a nice spot for the pepper seeds.

The pepper package says the seeds should sprout in 10-21 days (at 70F) and then be ready to plant in the garden in about 8 weeks (about May 15). Last year it wasn't warm enough (and dry enough) to plant peppers in my garden until May 23. I think this timing should be good.

As an aside, this is the second time I've touched dirt this year and the second allergy attack I've had. Of all of the things for a gardener to be allergic too! Thank goodness for antihistamines. I love playing in the dirt!

S&P
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first chili pepper

I found a little chili pepper today. There are also lots of blossoms setting fruit now. Looks like it will be a good chili crop. The weather is hot and sunny - which I hope will give me spicy hot chilies.

Something is chewing on the leaves a bit. In general, I have a lot of insects in my garden this year. A lot of green and black aphids, white flies, several types of beetles, a lot of black and green flies, a few wasps and a very few bees. I have not done anything about these bugs except photograph them now and then.

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clover as a ground cover

I have a new crop of Crimson Clover. The leaves are very pretty after the rain. They collect the droplets like shiny jewels.

The clover is in the garden bed adjacent to my house. This bed has lead levels too high for vegetables. I had cleared the shrubbery from this area before testing the soil. I am planning to fill the bed slowly with flowering perennials and small bushes. In the mean time, I've planted clover. Soon it will bloom with flowers the bees should enjoy.

Scattered in the clover are a few seedlings of pumpkins, sunflowers, dahlias and some wildflowers I grew from seed this spring. There are also three large barrels that I planted with chiles and bell peppers. I'll plant bean seeds soon in a few window boxes along the edge.

chile and bell peppers (Capsicum)

topic: soil

a new crop of chile peppers

It really must be summer! Chile peppers are a heat-loving, full-sun crop. I have young fruits on the plants of my cayenne and Anaheim chile plants.

I planted 5 varieties of peppers in big pots next to my house this year. A beautiful cayenne plant was raised and given to me by Amelia (of Gradually Greener). I sowed seeds for Anaheim, Poblano, sweet Canary and chocolate bell peppers. Lots of flowers, but no fruits yet on the last three varieties.

The photo on the left is cayenne, on the right is Anaheim.
chile and bell peppers (Capsicum)

seedlings by the window

These are my pepper seedlings. They have a nice spot in a south facing window over looking the garden. They aren't getting much sun since its very overcast and still raining out there.

I noticed that the soil temperature under the black plastic layer in my garden is the same as the soil temperature in the beds without plastic. I guess that's what happens when there is no sun.

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today's chile harvest

I like to wait until my chiles get full ripe (red or orange) to pick them. These varieties are cayenne, habanero (the orange one) and Anaheim (the big one). Is my first habanero and I'm a little nervous to try it. This variety is known as the hottest chile pepper in the world!

chile and bell peppers (Capsicum)
harvests from my vegetable gardens

chile peppers

Even my jalapeños and Hungarian wax peppers are turning red this year. The thinner skinned Hungarian wax and cayennes are drying nicely on a plate in my kitchen. The others I will clean and freeze soon for winter chili.

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lots of hot peppers

I've got to start collecting jalepeno pepper recipes. I'm thinking that canning a batch of pickled peppers would be good this year.


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