Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to all of you!

I have changed my homepage, and sort of modernized if. So now it should work better with mobile phones and devices with different screen resolutions.

Surf in, have a look, and please let me know if you find something strange or if there are some bug. The address is the same - http://petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php.

Hot regards,
  Mats

Dedo de moça

Hi!

These dedo de moça look like the ones I've been growing for 15+ years. But they are slightly hotter. Or actually, more than slightly. But they are delicious.

We had these on crisp bread for lunch. Wonderful :-)

Wishing you a great weekend!
   Mats

End of August

Hi!

A small update. Not much happening with the plants right now. All of them are out on the balcony, and I have not decided if I will save some for the winter. There are some nice varieties, and I like to have a quick start in 2015. So probably I will save a few. Maybe at least one of my malaguetas. We'll see. It depends on how they look in a couple of weeks :-)

Here are the ones that I picked today. For lunch. To the left, there is a baccatum. A no-name. And to the right is a chinense - Rio. Both with their distinctive taste. Not to mention the smell. When I slice them, the smell is absolutely fantastic! It almost fills the whole kitchen!

Wishing you all a great week!

Regards,
  Mats

Malagueta

Hi!

Another one from Brazil!

This plant is from seeds that I got in Brazil last year. The pods were really, really tiny. A couple of millimeters, so I thought that something was wrong. Now I can see that these pods are not bigger.

So it's the smallest malagueta I have grown.

The flowers are typical frutescens.

And, here is the tiny pod. Maybe a half centimeter.

The plant is very nice looking. The leaves are (sort of) greener than my other plants.

I hope it has the time to produce some nice pods. The nights are getting cooler, but I expect them to be able to stay out on the balcony for another month.

More later!

Wishing you all a great weekend to come!

Regards,
  Mats

Cumari flowers

Hi!

It's been a nice day! I got some pictures of my cumari flowers.

I still don't really know the species. The flowers do look like baccatum, but I'm not completely convinced. There is something about the shapet that is different.

Anyway, here are five different flower pictures :-)

Regards,
   Mats

Beautiful goatsweed

It's fantastic to see these pods mature. What a plant!

More pictures here => http://petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=59

Hot regards,
   Mats

Rio, again

This is really a beautiful plant. The pods are very decorative.

But there is something that puzzles me. The pods, even on the same plant, look different. Some are wrinkled. Some almost waxed. Some erect. Some are small, and some are like this fellow below. Like a Capsicum baccatum pendulum.

I've seen plants with different looking pods. But this one takes the prize :-)

Hot regards,
  Mats

Stockholm - question

I like to walk around in Stockholm with my camera around my neck. It's good as a change to crawling on the balcony, taking pictures of peppers :-)

I like the perspective of this one. Three landmarks of Stockholm in one shot.

Do you know where the picture is taken?

Regards,
  Mats

An old favorite - Alberto

Hi!

Cross pollination is inevitable on a balcony, and especially when the grower (me) doesn't do anything to prevent it....

This one grow in a corner of the balcony, and I have sort of neglected it during the summer. But now, when the pods mature, it is really a beautiful plant.

We had some ripe pods on bread for lunch. They had that fantastic Capsicum baccatum taste, with a distinct heat.

The funny thing is that I expected the pods to look different. I grew the source of the seeds in 2003. The seeds originate from the farm of Patricia's uncle. Hence the name.

But... Those pods looked very different to these ones.
This is a picture from 2010. Completely different plant, and shape. (More pictures of the "old" one here => http://petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=10)

I don't think that I have mixed the seeds with another variety. But it's impossible to tell now....

Anyway, it's a good one :-)

Keep it hot!
   Mats

Cumari

Hi!

This is my overwintered cumari. I got the original seeds from Salvador in 2001. The seeds that this plant originate from are from a plant back in 2006.

I like this one a lot. It is quite different compared to other plants that I grow. The stem and branches break more easily.

It does not show very well on these pictures, but the flowers look a little different compared to the other ones as well. At first glance, I would guess it's a baccatum. But it could also be an eximium I'm not sure.

The pods are not very hot, but have a nice heat. I enjoy them most when they are dried.

More about this fantastic plant later on. I will try to get a closer picture of the flowers tomorrow.

Hot regards,
   Mats

Sunday lunch

Hi!

The tiny ne to the left is a Goatsweed. It's really hot. Not like a chinense, but with an immediate heat that causes the taste buds on my tongue to shut down :-)

Number 2 and 3 from the left are from Brazil. A baccatum with a name that is unknown to me. A nice baccatum taste :-) Not so hot.

And the three ones to the right are dedo de moça. From seeds that I brought from Brazil last year. Its hotter than the old ones that I have grown for many years. Not as good taste. And the pods are thinner. Dedo = finger in Portuguese, and moça means girl. It's good. But not one that I will grow another year.

Wishing you a great week to come!

Hot regards,
  Mats

"Rio"

Thanks to Patrik, whom I got the seeds from. Patrik calls this one Rio. It's a Capsicum chinense.

This is a nice looking plant. The pods have an attitude and look very hot. They vary a lot in shape, so I don't know how stable it is.

But it's very nice to look at. Here are some pictures.

I think I will need to pick this one today or tomorrow :-)

Hot regards,
   Mats

Habanero cappuccino

Hi!

Haven't tasted this one yet. But the pods are nice, and I expect the typical habanero flavor.

The colour is nice. A paler kind of brown. Very nice plant.

I grew it some years ago. Back in 2006. The seeds come from the old plants. So it's nice to see that the seeds are OK after almost 10 years!

Some more pictures here => http://petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=231


Hot regards,
  Mats

Goatsweed, an old favorite

Hi!

Goatsweed is great! Not because of the taste. It's hot. Sometimes very hot. But no special taste. It's a Capsicum annuum, wth hairy stem. The pods are hard to take pictures of, because they are really really dark.

But, we're having a heatwave with lots and lots of sunshine. So the days are bright, and the contrasts are strong.

Look at this beauty.

And these nice ones.

I realize from the dates on my pictures that this is a variety I have been growing since 2000. 14 years!

http://petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=59

Hot regards,
  Mats

Lunch

Hi!

I picked three chocolate scotch bonnets today. We had them on crisp bread for lunch. Fantastic taste and a good heat.

I really think that scotch bonnets and habaneros have great taste. Hot, but not too hot. I had almost forgotten how good they are. I think they are so much better than the "newer" super hot varieties.

Hot regards,
Mats - going back to basics :-)

Jalapeño cheese

Browsing through pictures from the vacation. This is how happy we were when we found a Jalapeño Cheese in a Norwegian food store :-)

It was actually quite good. Haven't looked for it in our food stores here, but I wouldn't be surprised if I find it here as well...

Keep it hot!
  Mats

Last day in July

Hi!

It's been a while. I think that it's quite a paradox. Most of the chile pepper blogs are very active during the early season, when seeds are put in soil, and when plants are repotted and so on. (That includes me as well...) But, when the real action occurs. When the chile peppers are picked, eaten and used in cooking - the blog activivity is low. Isn't that funny?

Anyway, this last day in July, I will give an update :-) It's been a good year, and we have picked many peppers. The most productive ones are the one the I call the Brazilian Small Red Hot. I don't know the real name. When I got it from Brazil, it was a small annuum. Now it's not so small anymore. It's quite hot, but no special taste. An all-purpose variety.

Another variety with ripe pods is the Chocolate Scotch Bonnet. The plant is totally destroyed from the winds earlier this year. But there are some pods on it, and I'm really looking forward to eating them! On the picture, you see a broken branch.

 

This one that I call Orange Chinense Brasil, is from seeds that I got in Brazil last autumn. It's a small chinense. Looks like a tiny habanero. Haven't tasted it yet. Maybe tomorrow :-)

Wishing you all a great summer!

   Mats

Happy Midsummer

I was hoping for my annuum from Brazil to turn red. But I'm still waiting. I'm not sure how much the temperatures matter for the pods to ripen. We're having a cold midsummer, so it won't be the heat that makes these pods red... :-) For the moment, we're having 12 degrees C...

Anyway! We're going to have a hot midsummer. But in another sense. :-)

Wishing you a great weekend!
   Mats

Aci biber sosu

My Turkish is not so good, but I think this translates to Hot Pepper Sauce :-)

I got this sauce from my friend Mikael, who was in Istanbul a while ago. I'm used to the Mexican and Brazilian hot sauces, but this one was a little different. I enjoyed the distinct and peppery taste. It was hot, but not too hot.

Now I need to figure out in which cooking it fits best. A nice task!

Hot regards,
  Mats

Annuum from Brazil

Well, usually I'm crawling on the balcony with my macro lens. The Sunday was filled with sunshine, and I felt a little lazy...

So here is my no-name annum from Brazil, that I call small red hot... It's full with flowers and pods that I soon will start turning red. It looks like a really nice one. Really looking forward to sampling one of the ripe pods.

Maybe for Midsummer. Just a couple of days left :-)

Wishing you a hot week!

Regards,
  Mats

Trying to fix a chinense with a plaster

Good morning!

We have had a couple of days with really strong winds. It's been a thriller to see how the plants almost lie horizontally in the wind. I expected more "victims" than the two broken plants, that I ended up with.

Yesterday we tried to fix the broken chinense with a plaster. A technique that worked last year. But since the winds continued all through the day, I guess it never got a chance to heal. So this is how it looked this morning.

As you see, not a major problem. It's more a technique for fixing broken plants, that I wanted to share with you. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Today is a new beautiful day :-) So - I'm wishing you all great Sunday.

Regards,
  Mats

Lunch

Perfect on crisp bread!

It is really such a luxury to be able to pick ripe peppers from the balcony. 

In case you have missed it :-) Dedo de moça is a favorite of mine. I picked two ripe ones from the overwintered plant. Saving a few for next weekend. There will be a gap until this years chiles will be ripe, so I better not eat them all right now.

The peru yellow is also a nice one. Not so hot, but really great just as it is.

Hot regards,
  Mats

What a week

A week ago, we had temperatures around 25C. Perfect for the pepper plants.

Then we got some winds from the north. And we had night temperatures around 6C. Daytime around 10-13C.

To spice that up a little, the winds have been strong.

Saying that. It's a mess on the balcony. But it's not too bad. It could have been worse. Some broken branches, and many leaves that have blown away.

I used chairs to support the plants in the strong winds, and I think that is what actually saved them from total destruction.

Later on today I will go and inspect the damages. I hope I will get a positive surprise :-)

It's amazing. Even the 2+ metre Capscium baccatum is still standing :-)

Phew. Life as a chile pepper balcony farmer is more dramatic than you can imagine :-)

Wishing you all a nice weekend!
   Mats

Peru yellow

An update from the balcony. Also, the peru yellow that I overwintered is getting ripe pods. That's absolutely wonderful :-)

Now, I'm waiting for the "new ones" to set fruit. My annuum from Brazil has some pods, but it will take a while before they will be ready to be picked.

More about that later...

Have a great week!
   Mats

Dedo de moça - harvest

Wow! Dedo de moça for lunch. In the end of May. That's a record for me.

I was afraid that they had ripened too early, stressed by the weather or something. But there was absolutely nothing wrong with the taste and heat.

Yesterday I removed the net that covered the plants. From now on, they are on their own :-) The wind and sun being the worst enemies. But it will be fine in the end...

Wishing you all a great week to come!
   Mats

Looking good, so far :-)

Hi,
 a short update. So far, the plants look fine out on the balcony.

This is the view from the kitchen window. Even the tall Dedo de moca is OK. (Phew!)

And my chinense on the other balcony is fine. It is not totally covered by the protective net, and it gets very windy there. But, so far it's OK.

Under the net, there is another "climate". Nice looking plants.

Here are some pictures from my walk to a conference this morning. Passing the City Hall.

Further downtown...

Under the bridge...

At my destination. Viewing the Royal Palace

What a fantastic summer day!

Wishing you a hot weekend!
   Mats