Thursday, 7 November 2013

A ship loaded with ....

Hi!

Long time since my last post. This chile pepper year was not very productive. I still have a few plants left. Waiting for the pods to mature. I won't give any promises about updates or pictures, but in the meantime I will share this picture with you.

It's from our recent vacation in Brazil. I think it' the right spirit to have a ship loaded with ...

... pimentas :-)


Abraços,
   Mats

Sunday, 2 June 2013

Time flies

Hi!

Already June, and I realize that there have been very few updates since the start of the year. Actually no updates at all. I ended up in a philosophical discussion with myself. I thought that it was the same patterns repeating themselves year after year. So the conclusion was that there was limited value to write about all the repottings and work. But of course, priorities change, and I have been busy with other things.

Anyway, that doesn't mean that I have quit growing chiles :-) It has not been a very good start of the chile year. I have had problems with aphids (again), and plants have died and I have had to restart and do the best of the situation. I have some really nice plants, and that's good. But I also have some that I doubt that they will survive midsummer. But we will see. Maybe I will take some pictures of them and see how they develop.

So, here are a few of the plants this year. In the back corner I have blackcurrant. It's been out all winter on the balcony. Wrapped in some fiber cloth, but I was surprised to see that it survived. It's nice. It has good history. 15-20 years ago, I had the "mother" plant on my balcony, but it grew too big, so I gave it to a friend who planted it in their back yard. And this one is the cutting from that one. Nice. It has some berries already, so that's fun!

In the left corner, there is a spruce (?). Also out there all year around. It's growing nicely :-)

New for this year, is that I took bokashi, and put it in a big box. We're goring salad and radishes and nettle there. The bokashi seems to be fantastic for the plants. It's not very practical to do compost when living in a flat, so we have stopped that experiment now. Here are my two fellow field workers getting ready to pick some salad :-)

And here is the first radish for the season! It was delicious!

Well, not so much about chiles, but hopefully there will be a good chile pepper year without any aphids and pest. So I hope to be back with some more chile pepper pictures :-)

Until we hear again - keep it hot!
   Mats

Sunday, 6 January 2013

Starting the chile year

Happy New Year!

The start of a new chile pepper year! Some of us are more enthusiastic than others :-)

Getting the seeds. Ready to be planted.


It's great to have some help.

I realize that I can reuse the same picture every year. It looks the same. But anyway, these are the ones I started this year.

In total 17 chile varieties. I don't expect all them to make it, since some seeds are quite old. The oldest ones are 12 years old.
  • Malagueta small Salvador 2001
  • Cheiro Recife 2001
  • Long chocolate habanero
  • Peru Yellow '02
  • Patricias
  • CAP 1153 / 96
  • Chilipiquin - Manor
  • Timplin - Bird pepper
  • Goatsweed '03
  • Goat '06
  • Cumari (Salvador) 2006
  • PI 441624 Porta da rua, Aji Yuquitania
  • Dedo de moca
  • Another small rocoto
  • Pequin from Ischia
  • Indian frutescens
  • Amarillear

More about this later! Wishing you all a good start of the new year!

    Mats

Monday, 31 December 2012

Happy New Year

Hi!

I've been silent for a long time. Mostly because there have not been much activity with the chile peppers.

I have kept one plant (until today), waiting for the pods to mature. So we had fresh "Patricia" / Pimenta cambuci today. That's what I call a late harvest :-)


So, with these words, I close 2012. Wishing you all a ....

Happy New Year

More later, next year :-)
   Mats

Sunday, 11 November 2012

More canarios

Good morning!

Yesterday I got rid of the canario plant. It was way too big to fit in our living room. The final "harvest" looked like this.


So now we'll be eating canarios for a while. What a luxury. They do have a fantastic heat. Sometimes a little annoying heat, but very nice!

Now I only have one pepper plant left. It's a baccatum. No leaves left on the plant, but some pods. Waiting another week or so, to see if they will start to mature.

Wishing you all a great week to come!
   Mats

Sunday, 4 November 2012

Canario

Hi!

Finally, finally, finally, finally!

The canarios are ready to be picked. I love the thick, juicy flesh of this Capsicum pubescens.

These four were part of our lunch today. I think I have read somewhere that another name for this variety is "gringo killer". They are not that hot, but can be a little challenging to eat as they are.

And there are more fruits on the plant. A very nice one. I think I will try to cut it down a lot, and try to overwinter it. To get a flying start in 2013.

Wishing you all a great week to come!

Hot regards,
  Mats

Monday, 29 October 2012

Some like it hot ...

No words needed... My favourite tea cup :-)

Take care,
   Mats