OK so I've been eating for a long time, my whole life practically, but i've only somewhat recently gotten into somewhat hott chiles. I guess I've been eating Jalapeños/Chipotles for a while and whatnot, plus the occasional other Serrano or whatever, but i started to truly appreciate chiles when i started growing produce at work. Then, at my other job, i started making a lot of salsa and hot sauce and what not, often from dried chiles but from fresh'ns too. At the same time we were (and still are) partnering with a local CSA, and getting some very fresh, very nice chiles was awesome, even if i'm not particularly into the Long Hots and Anaheims the CSA was producing (nothing wrong with those chiles; just not my preference) but the crazy-fresh locally-grown Jalapeños did wonders for my salsa, so... Just wish the lady running the CSA would heed my pleas, and wait til the Jalapeños got red before picking'm...)
I've more recently become obsessed with growing peppers, but growing the ones that i&i wanna grow, rather than what made sense for the needs of my employers. I've also been messing with hotter stuff; nothing superhot (yet) but Habs and Scotch Bonnets and whatnot, mostly for sauces. I also make a tasty hot sauce out of dried De Arbols. This year, i got my buddy Cindy growing peppers in her garden for me, but i dropped the ball on starting seeds so she's not really growing anything i need beyond Jalapeños, but at least she leaves'm on til they're red. (I love green Jalapeños too, but they're cheap and plentiful at the local market...) She's growing some other peppers too; her boyfriend is Macedonian and he brought a few seeds from his homeland to grow, but they seem to be just Hungarian Wax peppers (great producers!), some generic Numex-looking jawns that are s'posedly a Macedonian strain(?), and then these stumpy little pods with like no heat that just taste bitter, to me. And of course she's growing Long Hots; seems like everyone in Jersey grows Long Hots, which I'll eat and enjoy but they just seem boring to me, for some reason.... But still....it's cool to have these fresh peppers, and I want more.... and, I want varieties more in line with my own weird tastes, curiosity, and hot sauce ambitions.
I'm on the cusp of moving into a different home, with an actual yard big enough to garden in, plus the wife is totally on-board with loading up the tiny yard with raised beds for peppers, so long as i promise to grow some eggplants and zucchini too. We just put the offer in; we'll likely move in this fall, and i wanna be waaaaaay out ahead, in terms of having a buttload of chile plants for 2017. I want to build the beds ASAFP, start the seeds indoors (when the time is right) with artificial light, and get them into the ground at the best possible time in the spring. I'm registering on this site b/c I'm going to need advice on timing for all this stuff, plus other helpful hints, especially for chinense seeds b/c it's my understanding they can be a hassle to start and my experiences at the farm were mostly with annuum (Jalapeños, Serranos, Bells, Wax) which start, grow, and produce super easily. I've been lurking here and reading info online voraciously, but most searches seem to land me on a thread from thehotpepper.com, anyway. So, yeah, for now i have little to offer in terms of knowledge, but I hope to one day have the know-how and experience to give back to this community.
My plans for the chile garden in 2017 is to grow some Habs or Scotch Bonnets, maybe try the Paper Lantern Habs b/c they're supposed to be mean producers. I also want to try one variety of superhot; not sure which and b/c those aren't something i can buy and try at the local market, I gotta kinda go with my gut, but I'm leaning towards the 7Pots or the Trinidad Scorpion types. And, of course, I'll grow Jalapeños and Serranos because I use tons of those in salsa, hot sauce, etc..... and i want to try my hand at smoking my own in the backyard with a DIY drum smoker. (I go thru lots of Chipotles Moritas and some Mecos, as well as smoked Serranos, too.... and they ain't cheap. But, i bet getting suitable wood for smokin' my own won't be cheap, either. Still, it'd be cool to have some Chipotles that were grown and smoked in the (856), even if i don't save much $$$....)
So, that's a long post, but i'm a long-winded guy and this is my first post here. I'm sure I'll be pestering y'all for input shortly; I'll try to be more succinct in future posts.
I'm glad I found the site, and I wanna thank thehotterpepper.com community for providing this awesome resource.
I've more recently become obsessed with growing peppers, but growing the ones that i&i wanna grow, rather than what made sense for the needs of my employers. I've also been messing with hotter stuff; nothing superhot (yet) but Habs and Scotch Bonnets and whatnot, mostly for sauces. I also make a tasty hot sauce out of dried De Arbols. This year, i got my buddy Cindy growing peppers in her garden for me, but i dropped the ball on starting seeds so she's not really growing anything i need beyond Jalapeños, but at least she leaves'm on til they're red. (I love green Jalapeños too, but they're cheap and plentiful at the local market...) She's growing some other peppers too; her boyfriend is Macedonian and he brought a few seeds from his homeland to grow, but they seem to be just Hungarian Wax peppers (great producers!), some generic Numex-looking jawns that are s'posedly a Macedonian strain(?), and then these stumpy little pods with like no heat that just taste bitter, to me. And of course she's growing Long Hots; seems like everyone in Jersey grows Long Hots, which I'll eat and enjoy but they just seem boring to me, for some reason.... But still....it's cool to have these fresh peppers, and I want more.... and, I want varieties more in line with my own weird tastes, curiosity, and hot sauce ambitions.
I'm on the cusp of moving into a different home, with an actual yard big enough to garden in, plus the wife is totally on-board with loading up the tiny yard with raised beds for peppers, so long as i promise to grow some eggplants and zucchini too. We just put the offer in; we'll likely move in this fall, and i wanna be waaaaaay out ahead, in terms of having a buttload of chile plants for 2017. I want to build the beds ASAFP, start the seeds indoors (when the time is right) with artificial light, and get them into the ground at the best possible time in the spring. I'm registering on this site b/c I'm going to need advice on timing for all this stuff, plus other helpful hints, especially for chinense seeds b/c it's my understanding they can be a hassle to start and my experiences at the farm were mostly with annuum (Jalapeños, Serranos, Bells, Wax) which start, grow, and produce super easily. I've been lurking here and reading info online voraciously, but most searches seem to land me on a thread from thehotpepper.com, anyway. So, yeah, for now i have little to offer in terms of knowledge, but I hope to one day have the know-how and experience to give back to this community.
My plans for the chile garden in 2017 is to grow some Habs or Scotch Bonnets, maybe try the Paper Lantern Habs b/c they're supposed to be mean producers. I also want to try one variety of superhot; not sure which and b/c those aren't something i can buy and try at the local market, I gotta kinda go with my gut, but I'm leaning towards the 7Pots or the Trinidad Scorpion types. And, of course, I'll grow Jalapeños and Serranos because I use tons of those in salsa, hot sauce, etc..... and i want to try my hand at smoking my own in the backyard with a DIY drum smoker. (I go thru lots of Chipotles Moritas and some Mecos, as well as smoked Serranos, too.... and they ain't cheap. But, i bet getting suitable wood for smokin' my own won't be cheap, either. Still, it'd be cool to have some Chipotles that were grown and smoked in the (856), even if i don't save much $$$....)
So, that's a long post, but i'm a long-winded guy and this is my first post here. I'm sure I'll be pestering y'all for input shortly; I'll try to be more succinct in future posts.
I'm glad I found the site, and I wanna thank thehotterpepper.com community for providing this awesome resource.
