Chilipiquin - Manor

It's 11 o'clock in the morning and temperature is well over 25C and rising, with over 95% humidity. Perfect weather for my chiles!

I'm especially happy today, to see that my old Chilipiquin (Capsicum annuum var. aviculare) from 2009 is doing fine. I have always loved the chilipiquin plants. They are both delicate and strong at the same time. With small white flowers on long flower stems.

There are immature pods on the plant which of course is promising. But this morning my eye got stuck on this beautiful flower. So I just had to bring out my camera tripod and crawl out on the balcony among the plants. And get a picture of it.

More pictures of it here: http://www.petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=1203

Have a nice Saturday!

My Capsicum annuum from Goa

I can't believe it is almost two years ago we were on our yoga retreat in Goa. That was absolutely fantastic. We lived more or less on the beach, did yoga every day, sunshine and good food. What more could one ask for?

Yes, maybe some chiles :-)

Of course I did what I always do when I'm abroad. That is - looking for chile peppers! We stopped at a grocery stand at the road, and I asked the woman for chile peppers. She did not have any chiles there. But she asked her son to run into their house, to get some dried chiles that they had for home use. So she sold me some of those.

Here is my "Indian from Goa". The plant was in a very poor condition after the strong winds earlier this year, but it survived, and has some flowers and tiny pods that I hope will grow bigger.

Namaste!

     Mats

Mr. Bumblebee meets my rocoto grande

It is harder to get a good picture of a bumblebee on a chile flower than one can expect, but today the gods were with me :-) These rocoto flowers are huge! The biggest Capsicum flowers I've ever seen.

Aren't the flowers fantastic?!

I'm also happy to see that my manzano plants have more than 30 pods this year. 

It's a different plant. It does not grow on the height. It is probably only 30-40 cm. tall, but sort of grows sideways. Understandable to a degree, because the pods are really heavy, so I have to support the plant with chairs.

A few more pictures of my manzano here: http://petterssononline.com/habanero/peppers.php?action=variety&id=1207

Wishing you all a nice weekend!

   Mats

The origin of my dedo de moça

The dedo de moça that I grow originates from Patricia's uncles farm outside Rio de Janeiro. When we were there over ten years ago, I got seeds from it. We were there in December, during their winter, and I still remember the hot days with a strong rainshower each day. Compared to this climate, I think it is amazing that it is at all possible to grow it here in Stockholm.

Here you can see me picking seeds from ripe pods.

Patricia's uncle also had malagueta (C. frutescens).  Here you can see me behind it. I am in heaven :-)

Me, my dedo de moça and my habanero

This is me and my overwintered dedo de moça and habanero (to the right).

The dedo de moça is about 175 cm tall, and now full of fruits. Some branches are so loaded with fruits so I'm almost afraid they will break. It's a very nice Capsicum baccatum!

The habanero is smaller and does not really show under the big baccatum. But since the latest heatwave it is also full of fruits. Really exciting to follow the development on the balcony.

Capsicum cardenasii

Cardenasii is believed to be the mother of all Capsicum, so it is special to me. It originates from Bolivia and Peru, and sometimes goes under the name Ulupica.

I can not remember the last time when my cardenasii produced pods. But this year it has been flowering a lot, and actually produced a couple of tiny pods. The pods are less than a centimeter in size.

I can't wait for tasting the pods when they are ripe! :-)

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 :-)