Repotting Saturday

Low activity on this blog nowadays. This year, I'm cutting down on the amount of varieties, and focus mostly on my favorites.

Anyway - here is an update.

Here are the ones that yet are to be repotted.

Peru yellow to the left, and pimenta cambuçi to the right

Bod'e vermelha

This will be my forest of dedo de moça :-)

Pimenta cambuçi to-be-forest :-)

And some cherry blossoms from Kungsträdgården. One week ago.

Wishing you a great weekend :-)

Hot regards,
  Mats

Burning fingers and fantastic smell

Hi!

I've been slicing chiles half afternoon, in order to put them in the dryer. I'm going to make chile flakes and powder of them :-)

Here is what I'm going to make. A mix of green dedo de moça, and green peru yellow.

And another mix of trepadeiro werner and piriz.

 And som red habaneros.

The smell from the dryer is fantastic. I wish it was possible to make a recording of it, so I could share it with you. :-)

I didn't use any gloves while working on the chiles, so my fingers are on fire right now. So a friendly advice - if you're going to do this at home - remember to protect your fingers. 

Wishing you a great week!
  Mats

Mid September reflection

Hi!

Almost mid September, and the chiles are really late.

This is the time of year, when I realize that the new flowers won't turn into pods. So I've started to take away some plants. Always a little sad, because it marks the end of the season.

But, I'm happy to be able to pick some fresh pods for lunch. Here we have 3 dedo de moca, 2 peru yellow and 1 trepadeiro werner.

All of them are Capsicum baccatum. The dedo de moca this year, seems to be hotter than usual. Peru yellow is an old favorite of mine. It's so crisp, so it's a great feeling to have a bite of it :-) Trepadeiro is the one with least heat, but it has a great taste.

The remainings of some harvested peppers. Drying the pots... Before putting them away.

But, hey, wait a minute. The season is definitely not over yet. There is actually a massive amount of peppers on the balcony. So, there is more to come for 2015 :-)

Wishing you a great weekend.

My good old peru yellow

This is one of my old favorites. I think I have grown it since 1995 or something like that. It's a very nice baccatum. Quite compact compared to the bigger ones.

The heat is moderate, the taste is good, with a citrus flavor. And I like the crispy feeling, when having a bite :-)

Not many ripe pods yet. It's becoming a race against time.

Summery regards,
  Mats

Habanero for lunch

Hi!

The summer temperatures continue, and that is great for the pods!

Here is a "view" of the corner of the balcony, where I can't go anymore. The plants are so big, and totally dominates the corner :-) There are plenty of pods, with new ones turning red every day.

Today for lunch, I picked some Dedo de moca, peru yellow and a habanero.

Ready to be eaten on crisp bread with cheese. Yum :-)

Have a great hot week :-)
   Mats

Sunday part II - an update

Phew. Things are looking better now.

The tallest one in the background (window) is the Trepadeiro Werner. It's suppost to grow tall, I guess, judging by the name. It's almost 60 cm tall now. And in front of that one, is the Peru yellow. Almost as tall.

In the kitchen, the plants are not as tall. In the lower right corner it's one of my favorite herbs - ashwagandha.

And here are the gang of four that still is waiting for their final pots... Right now I'm out of pots, so they have to wait for a while :-)

Hot 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

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

Easter pods

Hi!

I keep some of my overwintered plants in the kitchen window. Usually I don't keep plants over the winter, but this year I gave it a try. I even  cut the roots earlier this year, and repotted them in new soil. (http://chilesinstockholm.blogspot.se/2014/01/repotting-old-ones.html). The result has been over my expectations.

Here is the dedo de moça. I has some nice pods.

 In the foreground, there is the peru yellow. Also with some nice pods.

 

And finally, my pequin from Ischia. This one is full with pods, but they are hard to spot.

No pictures of my overwintered cumari and goatsweed, but there are some pods on them too. Nice, maybe we will have some fresh peppers for midsummer :-)

Wishing you a nice week to come.

Hot regards,
  Mats

March update

Hi!

End of March already. Today I have been busy repotting some plants. The table in our living room is occupied with pots and plants :-)

Here are some pictures of the plants that I have overintered.

Pequin from Ischia. Very nice. Full of flowers, and some tiny pods.

Goatsweed. This variety is always hard to take pictures of. Somehow the pods are darker than usual.

Dedo de moça. The first "pod". Who knows. Maybe I can pick som peppers for midsummer :-)

Peru yellow. Looking good. Plenty of flowers. Maybe, maybe som pods...

This is a variety from Brazil, that I don't know the name of. I just loved the  distinct patterns on the bottom of the leaves.

Wishing you a nice week to come!

Hot regards,
  Mats

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

Inspiration

Growing chiles is a fantastic hobby! Great friends! Beautiful plants! Good tasting fruits that inspires cooking. Trying new recipes. Learning! And so it goes. Actually I think it's a lot about learning. And sharing. And to inspire people.

Before I get philosophical here, I want to share these inspiring photos. It's my habanero. You know, the one that was supposed to be brown. But that doesn't matter. They sure are beautiful, and I can tell you that they taste really good!

Not as hot, but still with great taste and beauty. Here is my peru yellow.

Wishes for a great week!
   Mats

Forty three

I decided that today was a good day for picking some peppers. Actually I picked forty three. It is definitely not a lot, but considering that Carl and I did our best for lunch, eating four serranos, that leaves me with 39 hot chiles on the plus side.

The serranos were so hot, so I got hickups, and even scared Carl, so he almost dropped the spoon :-) It's interesting. I thought that after eating home grown chile peppers for fifteen years, I should be used to it. But sometimes, that special heat comes, and it's really hard to be prepared for it.

Some other varieties that I picked were rocopica, Patriks chinense and chacoense. A nice bunch of chiles :-)

There are more ripe fruits out on the balcony. But I couldn't pick my peru yellow and dedo de moça. Simply because I think they are so beautiful just as they are!

Here is my peru yellow. I had a hard time to break through the "jungle" in order to take this picture. But it shows some of the beauty.

And here is my dedo de moça. My good old overwintered plant from 2009, delivering lots and lots of nice baccatum fruits.

Have a nice weekend!

These yellow ones are really hot. Two is enough!

That's what Carl said when he had picked these two for lunch.

And I think he is right. This year, our Peru Yellow is hotter than I remember. It's still one of my favorite chiles. Thin, crisp flesh with a fresh taste of citrus. Yum!

Ripe rocopicas

Yesterday's heat was great for the chiles! Resulting in four ripe rocopicas. Also the peru yellow got a boost, and many pods turned yellow.

The rocopica is a special one. It combines the fantastic massive heat of the rocoto, with the more explosive heat of the cardenasii. Many thanks to Joe Carrasco (http://www.rocoto.com) for developing this great chile!

More rocopica pictures here: http://www.petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=1197

I know what is going to be for lunch already :-) Fresh rocopicas and peru yellows :-)

Have a nice Sunday!

Fresh chiles and crisp bread

These days when we have unusually high temperatures here in Stockholm, it's good to see that the chiles are ripening at high speed :-) Today it's 31C, and there is a fantastic smell of flowers on the balcony.

So for lunch I picked two dedo de moça and one peru yellow. Yum! I think that these baccatum have the perfect heat.

So, how do we eat them? I just chop them and put on crisp bread. A true delicacy :-) What I really find amazing is the Carl (8 years old) also have adopted the taste for hot chiles on crisp bread. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree :-)

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