Two more! Serrano and Peru Yellow

After sampling the "Hot-Headz! Pepper Sauce Classics Serrano" yesterday, I felt an urge to grow serrano this year. I have a special relationship with the serrano. It's definitely one of my favourite Capsicum annuum.

My chile pepper passion started in Austin, Texas in 1992. At that time, "Spanish pepper" was more or less the only fresh alternative in the food stores here in Stockholm. It's a hot variety, without any real taste.

So when I came to Austin, and tasted my first jalapeño, the passion was awakened. I was sweating through more or less every lunch and dinner. Wanting to learn and experience more every day :-) Jalapeño, serrano, habanero, poblano and so on. That's when it all started. Though it took 3 years before I started to grow my own chiles.

And while I browsed through my seed list, my eyes were attracted by the line saying "Peru Yellow". It's a good Capsicum baccatum, that could be a nice colour complement to the red serrano.

I think that's going to be about it for what I will grow this year. I'm planning to give the plants a lot of space, and nice pots this year.

Status of the ones growing this year can be found here: chiles2010.

In addition, I'm overwintering my galapagoense, tovarii, tabasco, habanero, dedo de moca, chilipiquin, chacoense and rocopica. I feel that this is a good mix!

Regards,

  Mats

Welcome to four new varieties

Today, four more varieties have germinated!

It's one of my old favorites that I call "Alberto's". A Capsicum baccatum. I don't know the name of it. I got it from Patricia's uncle, who at that time was living on a farm outside Rio de Janeiro. Some old pictures can be found here.

Another one is "Cheiro de Para". Seeds that I took from fresh chiles that I bought on the market in Recife. A Capsicum chinense.

And another Capsicum chinense. A mild variety. Cheiro. Also from the market in Recife.

And also, my Capsicum cardenasii - CAP 1530. I tried to grow it some years ago. Without success. So I'm hoping for good luck this time!

Hopefully more to come! I'm waiting for a few other favorites to germinate.

Regards,
  Mats

chinense, rocoto and olho de pombo

Three more varieties have showed up!

It's the wild chinense from Patrik, one rocoto and the olho de pombo. Most of the other seeds are quite old. I've had them for more than 10 years, so maybe they will have a problem to germinate. We'll see.

That's the good thing with starting the seeds early. You have a second chance, and have plenty of time to start a second round :-)

//Mats

And the fastest one to germinate this year is...

... Prik dae luang. Which I suppose is a Capsicum annuum.

So tomorrow I will need to get my lamps and my second "mini green house" set up. How nice!

I keep a list of the chiles I grow this year in a spreadsheet, which can be found here.

Regards
   Mats

The 2010 Chile Year has started!

Happy New Year!

Usually I start the chile pepper year on January the 1st. But this year it took a few days to get started. So today is the day!

I'm looking at the thermometer. It's -16C right now and it's going to get colder the coming days. Everything outside is deep frozen. But it's a beautiful landscape.

It took me some days to decide on the varieties. Too many to choose from. As always. But anyway, here is the list :-)

Maraba. A favorite C. chinense from Brazil.
Alberto. From Patricia's uncle Alberto's farm outside Rio de Janeiro. A very nice C. baccatum.
Aji Norteño. Another C. baccatum favorite!
Cheiro de Para. C. chinense. Bought on the market in Recife 2001.
Cheiro. Also bought in Recife 2001. A mild chinense with wonderful flavour.
CAP 1530 /97. Capsicum cardenasii.
Manzano orange (rocoto). Capsicum pubescens.
Rocoto manzano grande (red). Capsicum pubescens.
Patriks chinense. I need to look up the name of this one :-) It's a wild C. chinense.
Prik dae luang. One of the first Thai peppers that I grow.
Olho de pombo. Funny name. Eye of a pidgeon. Couldn't resist to grow this one.
Cheiro '02. Another favorite C. chinense that I grew in 2002. Carl loves them on crisp bread.

Besides these, I keep several from last year, and the year before that.

• Dedo de moca
• Capsicum galapagoense
• Long chocolate habanero. But it's a red one. Anyway. Nice flavour.
  
• Tabasco '02
• CGN 22876 / PI606708 tovarii
• CAP 1153 / 96
• Chilipiquin - Manor
• Rocopica
  

So, I believe this is going to be a good chile pepper year. Lots of favorites! And a few new ones.

Back to today. Here are the photos :-)

Here Carl and I are getting ready to put the seeds in soil.

Carl is the chief seed-in-soil-putter, so here he gets them from me...

More varieties coming on.

The team!

Carl is happy with the work we've done.

Finished!

A closer look

The list, and my box with seeds. I used to have over 1000 seeds, but they have been decreased to less than 200 :-) Does that make me a minimalist?

More to come!

Regards,
  Mats