Carl Part II

I can't resist to show you the exciting episode of the Monkey in the pepper jungle.



Actually, I think part II is more exciting than part I :-)

More from Carl

It's Saturday afternoon, and Carl is improving hos skills in the wonderful world of photography. Or should I say film now.



Wishes for a nice weekend!

    Mats

My Chilipiquin Manor goes to Bergianska

Today Kaili, the gardener from Bergianska came to pick up my Chilipiquin Manor for the "Het Höst" exhibition.

I've touched this topic before, but it's really a fantastic hobby! I can cook great food using the chile peppers that I grow. I can play as much as I want with my camera in the chile pepper "jungle", getting totally absorbed by the beauty of the flowers and fruits. I can make friends all over the world, exchanging seeds and information. Sharing is nice! And, I can meet great people in real life. Today was such a day. We had a great hour talking chiles and growing and all these fun things.

Here I am with my plant, saying bye bye for a while. I have picked a few pods so I can eat. Chilipiquin is a great variety. I love the peppery, dry heat of all the tepin/pequin/piquin/chilepin/chilipiquin or whatever name is used for these nice chiles.

And here is some information about Het Höst. I borrowed this picture from Patrik (http://chilepeppar.blogspot.com). It's a nice poster.

October 1-17, 11-16 daily, in "Gamla orangeriet", entré 80 SEK. More info here:
http://www.bergianska.se/index_program.php?vidare=program_hethost10.html

See you there :-)

My "gringo killer"

It's not often I have the luxury to have a rocoto with dinner. For me, it's a very special chile pepper. Not like any other.

So it was a big moment when I put this rocoto on the cutting board.

Looking great! Saving the black seeds for future use :-)

And eating it, I was not disappointed. The taste was great, and nothing wrong with the heat. I got hickups and entertained the whole family :-)

I think the heat in rocotos is special. It is definitely much harder to resist than other chiles. I think I have read somewhere that the pubescens species contains more dihydrocapsaicin than other Capsicum species.  So in other words, the molecules have a different structure. Chemistry is not my home turf, but you can read more about it here: http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/chilli/index.htm

Hot regards,
  Mats

Habanero cheese

A cheese with the wonderful heat of habaneros!

Wow! Thank you Mats! This cheese was really good!

Carls photo excursion in the chile jungle

Carl was busy this afternoon playing in the chile jungle in his room. Here are his pictures of what was going on :-) A big jungle party!

Here we have Curious George in the habanero tree.

And here we have Curious George playing the chile penguins. The bear is doing some exercises.

Woodstock is taking a nap. Donald and the bear is playing.

The dog is barking under the pepper tree...

The artist and his friends :-)

So, the conclusion is: Chiles are fun for all ages :-)

Here we go again - 318 serranos

Today I decided to give in for the pressure. Time to get rid of the two serrano pots.  So follow me into the jungle and join for the harvest ritual :-)

Here, Carl is helping me again.

And here I am helping Carl :-)

And here is the result

We gave it a try to count them, and in total we picked 318 serranos today. The weight! Over a kilo :-)

Life is great!

Have a fantastic weekend!
   Mats

Harvesting again

This is fun. Carl is helping me a lot, and here he is sorting some dedo de moça. Isn't it beautiful? :-)

While I'm busy fixing some habaneros for drying.

The ones that I don't dry, we eat as they are.

An update

There is no doubt about it. It's total chaos in every room, but I think it will be better soon. The plan is to do the "final" harvest in a couple of days, for at least three or four pots. But it's still too much.

My tabasco is doing fine on the floor in the kitchen. Still quite a long time before it's harvest time here.

My dedo de moça is doing fine. I think I will be able to pick most fruits in a couple of days. I just love the way some fruits shift in colour.

Alberto's is coming strong now, with lots of red fruits. I really like the shape of the fruits. The taste is not so special, but the heat is nice.

And Patriks chinense is doing fine. Patricia picked 132 fruits again yesterday. Don't really know what to do with them. We picked 481 pods a couple of days ago, so I have over 600 of them now.

And yes. My brown... eeeh. red habanero. Big nice pods. Great taste and wondful heat!

Lavendel

I started this lavendel from seeds in the spring, and finally I have some flowers. Not many, just a few. But I'm stunned by its beauty.

I will definitely try to keep it over the winter.

Cheiro from Recife

When we were visiting Recife in 2001, we bought some chiles on the market. As we always do.

This cheiro has a fantastic tropical taste, almost like a habanero, but with very limited heat. So for heat seekers, this may not be a fun chile to grow, but I think it's beautiful, and taste fine. So it's a very nice one.

Immature pod.

Pods getting ready to pick.

 

Before eating it...

 

Saving some seeds.

More cheiro pictures here: http://www.petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=40

Seventy three habaneros!

Coming home this afternoon, I picked 73 nice habaneros!

I think I have some nice activities to do later tonight. On my list is to dry some of them so I can make a good powder and some flakes.

The rest I'm going to put in the freezer for later use.

Peru yellow

I like the way some chiles mature. This is one of my peru yellow that turns from green to yellow.

Here are some peru yellow that I'm going to make a wonderful chile powder of. The smell that fills our apartment when drying the pods is wonderful. Lots of flavor, heat and energy.

Hot regards,
  Mats

Ashwagandha update

It's an interesting plant. The pods, which I suspect contain seeds are growing and growing.

I'm curious what will come out of this :-)

Capsicum cardenasii (again)

Say hello to Mr. Cardenasii with one green and one red eye :-) Seriously, when I went to take a look at the plant, I felt someone staring at me...

Finally the fruits are turning red.

So I decided to pick one. Because I have wanted to taste a cardenasii for years. And this is the first time I have got mature fruits.

The heat was good, and I think the taste was fine.

I'm thinking about which varieties I will keep for the winter and next year. And I believe that this is one that I want to keep!

Have a hot week!

Harvest time

Phew! Talk about a weekend in the spirit och chile peppers!

Here Carl and I are picking some habaneros. In total we harvested 79 habaneros (572 grams on the kitchen scale), and there are plenty more left on the plant. Nice! I love the taste of them.

Happy me :-)

Carl is well over 150 cm, so it's not a tiny plant.

Can I eat it? :-)

"Team chinense" picking the tiny berries. In total, Carl counted to 482 harvested chinense. But there are so many more left on the plant.

 Our special "chile counter" keeping track of the harvest.

Yum! Eighty one Peru Yellow and seventy nine habaneros!


More later! Have a fantastic Sunday!

What have I done :-)

I just want to share this with you. This is me, wandering what I have done :-)

Reason: All the plants have been moved inside today.

More later....

With happiness!
   Mats

Thank you Patrik!

Growing chiles is fun, it's inspiring, and you learn new things! And one "side effect" of growing chiles is that you meet new and interesting friends.

Today I had lunch with Patrik (http://chilepeppar.blogspot.com/). We went to a nice African inspired restaurant called Chakula, here on Kungsholmen. With the steak, they served a papaya+what we thought must have been habanero salsa. Wonderful :-)

Patrik brought some nice chiles, so I can't wait trying them out. From left to right, top to bottom they are:
Jaloro hybrid, Pimenta da Neyde, Habanero, Peruvian white habanero, Yellow Bhut Jolokia, Inca red drop, large unknown baccatum, Sangria, Pimenta barra do Ribeiro and Limon. Phew :-)

Thank you Patrik for a great lunch and the great chiles!

So my advice to everyone: keep on growing chiles, keep on meeting each other and have a great time!

And - have a great weekend!

Capsicum cardenasii

They are not easy to see, but this year, I have finally managed to get a Capsicum cardenasii with lots and lots of fruits. Nice! Can't wait for them to turn red and to taste them.

Still flowering!