Hi All! It's been an incredibly busy winter dealing with one thing and another, and it's only about half over here. 
Still, it's time to get on the stick and put my seeds in the dirt in preparation for plant-out in another 12 weeks or so. I have a Manzano over-wintering inside that's going on its third year. It's next to a sliding glass door with a great southern exposure but the light it gets here this time of year is pretty paltry... I expect it'll start to perk up sometime in March. I have a couple of MoA Scotch Bonnets over-wintering at a friend's house because there wasn't space in front of the sliding glass door for them and my wife's indoor plants... the deal is that if they both survive the winter, we'll split the plants. If not, he'll keep the one that lives. That seems fair since he did all the work. 
The rest of the list is looking like this...
Pubiscens Varieties
Total bust this year... nothing that germinated survived.
Baccatum:
Ditto
Frutascens:
Tabasco
Hawaiian Bird chile
Chacoense:
Ditto
Chinense:
7-pot Yellow Turned out to be a red "Not"
MoA Scotch Bonnet
Beni Highlands... Also turned out to be a "Not"... maybe a Mako Akokrosade cross?
Ja Hab
Trinidad Perfume
Zavory
Annuum:
Cabe Rawit (mouse turd pepper, in Singapore where the seeds were collected they're called Cili Padi)
Red Thai
Biggie Chile Anaheim
Poblano Gigantia
Jalapeno Ciclon
Jalapeno Tormenta
Serrano Tampiqueno
Hungarian Hot Wax
Almapaprika
Ethiopian Brown Berbere
I'll also be planting a sweet Criolla de Cucina plants and about 20 sweet Kurtovska Kapijas. The Kapijas have the longest growing and ripening times of any Annuum I know, but they're big, meaty sweet peppers that average around a half a pound apiece... just the thing for making that eastern european condiment called Ajvar.
Too tired to say more now, but will pick up later... Cheers!
Still, it's time to get on the stick and put my seeds in the dirt in preparation for plant-out in another 12 weeks or so. I have a Manzano over-wintering inside that's going on its third year. It's next to a sliding glass door with a great southern exposure but the light it gets here this time of year is pretty paltry... I expect it'll start to perk up sometime in March. I have a couple of MoA Scotch Bonnets over-wintering at a friend's house because there wasn't space in front of the sliding glass door for them and my wife's indoor plants... the deal is that if they both survive the winter, we'll split the plants. If not, he'll keep the one that lives. That seems fair since he did all the work. The rest of the list is looking like this...
Pubiscens Varieties
Total bust this year... nothing that germinated survived.
Baccatum:
Ditto
Frutascens:
Tabasco
Hawaiian Bird chile
Chacoense:
Ditto
Chinense:
7-pot Yellow Turned out to be a red "Not"
MoA Scotch Bonnet
Beni Highlands... Also turned out to be a "Not"... maybe a Mako Akokrosade cross?
Ja Hab
Trinidad Perfume
Zavory
Annuum:
Cabe Rawit (mouse turd pepper, in Singapore where the seeds were collected they're called Cili Padi)
Red Thai
Biggie Chile Anaheim
Poblano Gigantia
Jalapeno Ciclon
Jalapeno Tormenta
Serrano Tampiqueno
Hungarian Hot Wax
Almapaprika
Ethiopian Brown Berbere
I'll also be planting a sweet Criolla de Cucina plants and about 20 sweet Kurtovska Kapijas. The Kapijas have the longest growing and ripening times of any Annuum I know, but they're big, meaty sweet peppers that average around a half a pound apiece... just the thing for making that eastern european condiment called Ajvar.
Too tired to say more now, but will pick up later... Cheers!
Do you know what time of year they'll be sending you there? Koreans cuisine is very reflective of the growing seasons, and I could make some suggestions of things to try if I knew when you're gonna be there.
Octopus (Nakji Bokkeum) cooked in the same sauce is just as good, and the sauce can be quite spicy when it's made with gochugaru, gochujang and fresh, ripe gochus. The other ingredients include fresh ginger, garlic, toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, scallions and a bit of sugar. The combination is downright synergistic! If you really want to challenge yourself... probably one of the strongest foods the Koreans eat is fermented Skate (Hongeo). It's probably the strongest ammonia smell I've ever come across outside of Limburger cheese. The Koreans say it smells like Hell but tastes like Heaven. I personally couldn't get it past my nose... I don't like Limburger either, but the Koreans say it's a great pick-me-up if you're feeling tired. Not good hangover food though...