A Good Old Fashioned RedHotChiliPepper Grow Off

[andIhalped]

I've been doing final harvest/taking down plants/winterizing beds...all my weed's been chopped, dried, cured & I've also taken a final fall harvest of basil, oregano, mint, thyme, maters, peppers including these Thai Red & Peruvian Yellow

20181015_peps.jpg

• andIhalped
• Oct 15, 2018

Made a sesame oil relish with the Thai which turned out impossibly hot (yum) and will use the yellows in several preserves, including jelly, salsa, & a relish in an olive oil base. The peruvian was the absolute star of the garden this year: highly productive, healthy, easy to grow, with great super-hot, hot, hot peppers...color me impressed. Gonna grow one next year!

Also took down the sunflowers...this is the head of the 14 footer I grew

20181010_104433-1-1.jpg

• andIhalped
• Oct 15, 2018

Harvested seeds are drying & then shelling...wish I could leave for the birds, but the F*&(ing squirrels eat.

I love fall harvest, but the garden now looks empty...as it should, winter's tuning up...

 

[Itibitiguy]

Wow nice peppers... i didnt fo that well with the peppers but the soil wasnt the best where I put them. I was out cleaning up some of the greenhouse heres what was under my jungle of ground cherry plants.

 

[BeezLuiz]

I've been doing final harvest/taking down plants/winterizing beds...all my weed's been chopped, dried, cured & I've also taken a final fall harvest of basil, oregano, mint, thyme, maters, peppers including these Thai Red & Peruvian Yellow

20181015_peps.jpg

• andIhalped
• Oct 15, 2018

Made a sesame oil relish with the Thai which turned out impossibly hot (yum) and will use the yellows in several preserves, including jelly, salsa, & a relish in an olive oil base. The peruvian was the absolute star of the garden this year: highly productive, healthy, easy to grow, with great super-hot, hot, hot peppers...color me impressed. Gonna grow one next year!

Also took down the sunflowers...this is the head of the 14 footer I grew

20181010_104433-1-1.jpg

• andIhalped
• Oct 15, 2018

Harvested seeds are drying & then shelling...wish I could leave for the birds, but the F*&(ing squirrels eat.

I love fall harvest, but the garden now looks empty...as it should, winter's tuning up...

I'll probably do the same in a week or two. Lots of peppers ready to harvest, but I've been so busy with my weed harvests that I've unfortunately neglected my other garden. I plan to try making habanero hot sauce (hopefully) next week, once all the weed activities have wound down.

 

[newty]

Nice stuff! I didn’t have time for my peppers to finish but next year!! All my garden and yard work is done and put away

Bring on Xmas!! Woop

 

[andIhalped]

Nice stuff! I didn’t have time for my peppers to finish but next year!! All my garden and yard work is done and put away

Bring on Xmas!! Woop

Kudos @newty for starting this great thread & kudos, too, to all that contributed. Really helped leaven & break up the monotony of weed, weed, weed, weed.

Variety ain't the spice of life, it's the main f&*^ing course!

 

[Itibitiguy]

So I'll toss this question on here

So alot of my ground cherries seem to split as they ripen this year. And they don't seem to have the same last compared to last year. I put it off to washing the berries this year, I'll wash the the bits of dirt off the hush and let them dry, but I picked a bunch and never washed them to test it out.... they turned out to be even worst. So there not much on growing ground cherries so I google its cousin the tomato. What I found was uneven watering schedule, which I definitely done, also I've thinking frost may have something to do with this as we have had a few heavy frost.

Any input would be great

 

[BeezLuiz]

You might try searching tomatillos, as they are in the same goose berry family. They are not related to tomatoes as far as I know. I assume you are referring to the fruit splitting and not just the husk -- because that's normal for the husk to split. I know tomatillos like hot & dry weather, so if it's been cold or rainy that might be the issue. Or they might be "over-ripe".

Just guessing here as I have never grown ground cherries (or tomatillos).

 

[andIhalped]

The squirrels have made it on the news here. There's a population explosion. Lost all my corn and the sunflowers are a mess. They're now eating the spag squash and their seeds. They were cute now I have a different view of them. There is a raptor overhead daily I think is an osprey but could be a hawk. He's nice and fat!!

Yep, too many squirrels, due to both lack of predators (martens, owls, fox, etc) and too much food—like most rodents, squirrels increase their frequency of ovulation in response to ample food, which = more squirrels. Ugghhh. Makes me sick when I see folks leaving out food for the bastics.

In natural settings with predators, the average density of squirrels is about 2-12 per acre, but I’d guess there’s about 50-60 acre here, which is extremely out-of-balance & ecologically unhealthy.

I’m going to be doing some numbers control this fall and winter. It’s the right thing to do—a little dharma for the area.

 

[andIhalped]

only sorta, while I was jarring it. Quite nice. Very satisfied, especially since I've never made jelly, even though I've cooked and baked for about 40 yrs.

I think in the next batch, I'm going to cut the sugar a bit & maybe add a bit of fresh squeezed lime juice. But I always mess with recipes a lot after the initial try.

BTW, very helpful hint on rotating the jars to distribute the pepper shards.

Hey @BeezLuiz:
Made a 2nd batch of the jelly, but cut the sugar by about 20% (used 4.5 cups), added the juice from 1/2 a lime & ramped up the heat by going with all Thai red & Peruvian yellow & it's really good. Thanks for the inspiration & starter recipe!

Grow on!

 

[BeezLuiz]

That's great news! I've been wanting to cut the sugar down a bit more as well. Good to know it should work out fine. Once I get home, I think the rest of this week will be devoted to hot sauce and jelly makings.

 

[kgg634]

Yep, too many squirrels, due to both lack of predators (martens, owls, fox, etc) and too much food—like most rodents, squirrels increase their frequency of ovulation in response to ample food, which = more squirrels. Ugghhh. Makes me sick when I see folks leaving out food for the bastics.

In natural settings with predators, the average density of squirrels is about 2-12 per acre, but I’d guess there’s about 50-60 acre here, which is extremely out-of-balance & ecologically unhealthy.

I’m going to be doing some numbers control this fall and winter. It’s the right thing to do—a little dharma for the area.

I didn't realize the squirrels were a problem in other places also. 50 to 60 per acre, you win Buddy. I feel sorry for you guys. Lived here since '71 and had never seen squirrels on a daily basis. We would see one once in a while. This spring we saw a pair, I thought they were cute and named them Ozzy & Harriet. This was when they were cute. Then their numbers exploded.

They ate every ear of corn, hollowed out my spaghetti squash, pumpkins and butternut squash to get to the seeds, but what really did it, was when they went after my apples. I have two 20 + yr. old trees. They produce so well that I put up lots of apple sauce and apple pie filling each fall. This year its incredible to see what the squirrels did. Not a single apple is left in either tree and all the drops are gone. These are big, well cared for, productive trees. Last year was a light year for Red Delicious, maybe 4 milk crates of good apples, the Brock puts out large crisp apples that don't sweeten up till mid Oct. after a few frosts. I don't need to sweeten anything I make with them. By mid Sept. they were bare. I didn't even have to rake up the drops, all gone. Something to be grateful for I guess.

My neighbor has been taking care of them, so has my brother. Her method is lethal and we are using an air gun with plastic beads. Now I have some in the ceiling above my bed. There isn't an attic over this part of the house so I'm not sure what to do.

And then there are the mice and rats. Its an invasion I tell you! They're plotting against me, I know it.

 

[Itibitiguy]

Its must be the peak of the cycle for squirrels, cause there's a lot around here too that I've noticed.

 

[andIhalped]

I didn't realize the squirrels were a problem in other places also. 50 to 60 per acre, you win Buddy. I feel sorry for you guys. Lived here since '71 and had never seen squirrels on a daily basis. We would see one once in a while. This spring we saw a pair, I thought they were cute and named them Ozzy & Harriet. This was when they were cute. Then their numbers exploded.

They ate every ear of corn, hollowed out my spaghetti squash, pumpkins and butternut squash to get to the seeds, but what really did it, was when they went after my apples. I have two 20 + yr. old trees. They produce so well that I put up lots of apple sauce and apple pie filling each fall. This year its incredible to see what the squirrels did. Not a single apple is left in either tree and all the drops are gone. These are big, well cared for, productive trees. Last year was a light year for Red Delicious, maybe 4 milk crates of good apples, the Brock puts out large crisp apples that don't sweeten up till mid Oct. after a few frosts. I don't need to sweeten anything I make with them. By mid Sept. they were bare. I didn't even have to rake up the drops, all gone. Something to be grateful for I guess.

My neighbor has been taking care of them, so has my brother. Her method is lethal and we are using an air gun with plastic beads. Now I have some in the ceiling above my bed. There isn't an attic over this part of the house so I'm not sure what to do.

And then there are the mice and rats. Its an invasion I tell you! They're plotting against me, I know it.

Figure out a way to get 'em out of the house via either live trapping or lethal ASAP or you'll have a growing headache on your hands. They're not out to get you but they also don't give a ratzazz about any havoc they create for you...so they might as well be out to get you...

 

[andIhalped]

Hey @BeezLuiz:
Made a 2nd batch of the jelly, but cut the sugar by about 20% (used 4.5 cups), added the juice from 1/2 a lime & ramped up the heat by going with all Thai red & Peruvian yellow & it's really good. Thanks for the inspiration & starter recipe!

Grow on!

@BeezLuiz -- I tried some of the pepper jelly as a glaze on chicken & you're right, it's an awesome glaze! Yum!

 

[BeezLuiz]

Yep, I just grilled pork chops last week and gave them a brushing of the jelly for the last minute or two on the grill.

@Liquidintel is always telling me the jelly I make isn't hot enough, so he brought home a variety of peppers from his friend's garden that included ghost peppers. I made a batch of jelly with those and reduced the sugar again, but also added some crushed pineapple. It turned out REALLY hot, but really good. It's at my upper threshold of heat, but Intel loves it!

 

[newty]

I wish my peppers would have made it to harvest! I really cant wait until next year

Shall we do this again next year?? I think I might close this journal unless anyone is still using it?

 

[kgg634]

Figure out a way to get 'em out of the house via either live trapping or lethal ASAP or you'll have a growing headache on your hands. They're not out to get you but they also don't give a ratzazz about any havoc they create for you...so they might as well be out to get you...

We had to resort to using a poisoned bait for the rats and mice. When I found turds in the pots and pans, and on top of the bath towels in the bathroom that was it. They would wake me up at night with their gnawing, and I knew they were destroying my home from the inside out. I couldn't let it go on any longer. It's been a week now, and I think we got most of the sob's to my cats disappointment. No more toys! We've raised many farm animals ourselves, and never did we see as many rodents as we did this fall. Squirrels moved out when I poked rods into the ceiling where I heard them scratching. Then a little mud and the holes disappeared.

Now that that's over I'm going to make a batch of pepper jelly. I grew a few plants in the greenhouse, and got a respectable crop of peppers. No name, they were given to me. Not too hot, I can eat a seed without running for a drink. Never made it or eaten it before, but after reading your threads I just have to try it. I hope to make it this weekend. Wish me luck!

 

[andIhalped]

I wish my peppers would have made it to harvest! I really cant wait until next year

Shall we do this again next year?? I think I might close this journal unless anyone is still using it?

I don’t think it needs to be closed—it’s not a journal, or at least not in the journal section.

And hell ya on the doing it next yr!

 

[andIhalped]

We had to resort to using a poisoned bait for the rats and mice. When I found turds in the pots and pans, and on top of the bath towels in the bathroom that was it. They would wake me up at night with their gnawing, and I knew they were destroying my home from the inside out. I couldn't let it go on any longer. It's been a week now, and I think we got most of the sob's to my cats disappointment. No more toys! We've raised many farm animals ourselves, and never did we see as many rodents as we did this fall. Squirrels moved out when I poked rods into the ceiling where I heard them scratching. Then a little mud and the holes disappeared.

Now that that's over I'm going to make a batch of pepper jelly. I grew a few plants in the greenhouse, and got a respectable crop of peppers. No name, they were given to me. Not too hot, I can eat a seed without running for a drink. Never made it or eaten it before, but after reading your threads I just have to try it. I hope to make it this weekend. Wish me luck!

Glad you got 'em. Home invasions by rodents are never a stable situation.

G'luck on the pepper jelly!

 

[BeezLuiz]

Made my best batch of preserves so far. I bought a couple mangoes, peeled, pitted and diced them to add to the habaneros. Made for a nice chunky, more fruity preserve.

Here's the quick recipe:
1/2 cup diced habaneros (approx 14)
1 1/2 cups diced mangos (not too small of a dice)
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 oz liquid pectin

This recipe was half the batch I usually make because I ran out of jelly jars -- only had 4 available. I was going to add lemon juice, but didn't remember until I was pouring everything into jars. I reduced sugar from my previous batches since I was using real fruit. I had to cook everything a bit longer - until the mango was tender - about 20 minutes or so. This was quite hot, but the heat fades quickly - especially if you eat it with cream cheese and crackers.

I have just enough peppers left in my garden to make another small batch, just need to find more jars.
Midway through November and the garden is still hanging in there. Gonna yank the remainder next week. Still have a couple tomato plants and basil plants too.