Starting the chile pepper year

Hi!

It's already mid January and it's freezing cold outside. Below -10C. In other words, a perfect day to start the chile pepper year!

Here we are busy with the seeds. I'm lucky to have a helper :-)

Carl has been doing this since he was very small, so he's really good at it.

I'm busy looking for seeds.

My seed box. I used to have three of those boxes. Now I just have a few seed varieties. Many empty envelopes,

In the window, there are the over-wintered plants.

More seeds.

The happy team.

These are the ones I started:

• Malagueta (Capsicum frutescens)
• CAP 1153 (Capsicum chacoense)
• Serrano (Capsicum annuum)
• Datil (Capsicum chinense)
• Another small rocoto (Capsicum pubescens)
• Cheiro (Capsicum chinense)
• Another malagueta (Capsicum frutescens)
• Pimenta cambuçi (Capscium baccatum)
• Chile de Arbol (Capsicum annuum)
• Aji chinchi amarillo (Capsicum baccatum)
• Mareka Fana (Berbere) (Capsicum annuum)
• Yellow chicken heart (Capsicum chinense)
• White fatalii (Capsicum chinense)
• Peperoncino (Roumanian Giallo) (Capsicum annuum)
• Dedo de moça (Capsicum baccatum)

I try some new varieties as always, but I stick to my old favorites. Usually I don't grow so many annuum, so that's new for me. But this should be a good mix. Some seeds are quite old, so I don't expect them all to make it. We'll see. Now they are on the heated bathroom floor.

I have six over-wintered plants. One doesn't look so healthy, but the other five are looking good. So I expect to have fewer plants this year, but maybe more herbs. We'll see.

Wishing you a great weekend!
   Mats

Merry Christmas

Hi!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Regards,
  Mats

Ginger bread chile pepper cookies - chilepepparkakor

Hi!

It's mid December, and not much is going on with my chile pepper plants. What amazes me is that even the ones without extra light are producing flowers. And pods. The good thing is that we can have fresh habaneros for Christmas :-)

It's not that it's the brightest time of year. Just a little more than 6 hours of daylight per day now.



This weekend we made som ginger bread cookies, with chiles. Here are my samples of Capsicum Zingiber officinale :-)

 

I made the powder from a mix of bhut jolokia and peru yellow. Just to get the right instant heat, together with a fruitier one. Actually quite a nice mix. I like the chile pepper shape of the cookies. We bought the cookie cutter in New Mexico (of course :-) many years ago.

Here are some traditional old fashioned Swedish ones. Pigs and goats.

 And more New Mexican cacti :-)

Hot regards,
  Mats

Congo yellow

Hi!

The first week in November has passed, and my Congo yellow, that is VERY late has started to flower again. It looks pretty healthy, so I hope it will make it through the winter.

Wishing you all a great week!

Hot regards,
  Mats

Carolina Reaper

Hi!

Phew! I received a gift from a friend. A hot sauce. Not just any hot sauce. It was the Reaper Squeezins.

How hot could it be? Carl and I had a sample of it on a teaspoon, and I can guarantee it was a hot one :-) Patricia used a potato tester, and even though we couldn't see any sauce on it, she was burning.

Phew, I don't know how to handle this one. One drop at a time maybe :-)

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

(Final) harvest - almost

Hi!

A small harvest for lunch. On the top, there is CGN 21500. A very nice C. chinense. Good heat, and fantastic flavor that fills your mouth. Clockwise, we have dedo de moca, immature trepadeiro Werner, Peru yellow and ripe trepadeiro.

I have kept the plants out on the balcony until now. The warm autumn has done wonders for the peppers. They were all very late because of the slow start of the summer, but now we are in sync :-)

Here are some that I picked today. Will get back with better pictures. Clockwise. Top - trepadeiro,  piriz, aji dulce and dedo de moca.

Not everything is about chile peppers. We have the Chinese Navy visiting Stockholm. It's been a wonderful day. I think everybody was out in the warm weather :-)

Wishing you all a great hot weekend!
   Mats