Yep, pretty much anything hotter than a Fresno is for sauce mostly. Bonnets go in curry and with some beans. Doing a lot more dried/powdered this year though. I want those pods to be fresh and perfect.
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If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.
harvesting When to harvest? Red habaneros
- Thread starter nice.chili
- Start date
And here are the goods that I picked:
Unfortunately the battery for my good camera crapped out just when I needed it (and the back-up battery could not be found, always the way); so taken with my iPhone. The colour therefore is not quite representative. But visually I can say that all are a perfect 'red habanero' red.
To the use: could anyone point me to a good reference on THP for jam?
Unfortunately the battery for my good camera crapped out just when I needed it (and the back-up battery could not be found, always the way); so taken with my iPhone. The colour therefore is not quite representative. But visually I can say that all are a perfect 'red habanero' red.
To the use: could anyone point me to a good reference on THP for jam?
@SMDS - the question I asked was to make sure I had my thinking approx. right: always interested to learn from others with more knowledge. But if you need to pick today, then pick today.
(I'm often in this situation with work commitments, so know the conundrum.)
For saving seeds, as Mitzi suggested, for other varieties I've matched what was suggested with good success.
(I'm often in this situation with work commitments, so know the conundrum.)
For saving seeds, as Mitzi suggested, for other varieties I've matched what was suggested with good success.
So referring to one of the posters who mentioned that frozen when ripe and fresh pods not so good for fermentation-is that truly the case? I was hoping not but if that's the case I guess I better read up on a handy fermenting method for hot/habs/superhots so as to not waste any of my harvest as I definitely wanted to try some fermentation along with all the other processing methods and my preservation thread I was told by salsalady that it would be wise to freeze some while I figure out what to do with them.. Got my new dehydrator and loving it so far!
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YAMracer754 said:
Curious on this as well. I have a gallon bag of freshly-frozen reds that I was planning to thaw and then mash and ferment. They seem to thaw in a nice fresh state. I rigged up a 1/2-gallon fermenting jar this weekend. I have no way to accumulate that many fresh peppers in one sitting (5 mature plants currently), so I am picking and freezing daily.
Chorizo857_62J said:
Just a guess, but the freezing is going to kill the necessary bacteria needed to start a ferment. You might be able to reintroduce something to jump start things but even then I wonder if there would be enough bacteria present to sustain fermentation. You would be much better off starting off with a small ferment with fresh peppers and just adding to it as you harvested new ones. Similar to a Kombucha, you just constantly add fresh peppers to "feed" the ferment and try to maintain proper salt ratios throughout, tasting and adjusting as necessary. I use a large crock and just keep adding to it until I have enough for a batch of sauce and/or taste has reached its peak.
solid7 said:
To your point..."Do they taste right when you do this"?
Peppers absolutely do continue ripen when picked early, preferably at the "breaker stage" (for you tomato growers) or with at least some color. However, unlike tomatoes I don't feel that peppers continue the conversion of sugars, nutrients changing,etc. In my humble opinion, no they don't. Pretty much the only reason for this as you mentioned, end of season or broken branches.
How are you freezing them daily out of curiosity? Whole and with stem and then throwing in the gallon bag or what?
Sent from my XT1565 using TapatalkChorizo857_62J said:
Yup, whole pepper tossed in bag, bag put back in freezer. They all look to be in great condition.
Sucking the air out I presume?Chorizo857_62J said:
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Yes. Regarding bacteria for fermentation, I typically use a starter like sour kraut hooch, some probiotics, maybe both, to get things fired up. They seem to do well doing the rest, regardless of what other things I add (like fresh carrots, onions, etc.). Otherwise, guess i'm going to make a lot of powders and sauces.....
When you say probiotics, anything specific?
For frozen peppers, I have a couple of easy options at my end: i) make some sour kraut (this is absolutely not the worst idea in the world
); ii) use a yoghurt starter (maybe not the best, but why not a little sprinkle); or iii) rely on the frozen bacteria coming back to life, with added vegetables, and doing their "thing"....
For frozen peppers, I have a couple of easy options at my end: i) make some sour kraut (this is absolutely not the worst idea in the world
); ii) use a yoghurt starter (maybe not the best, but why not a little sprinkle); or iii) rely on the frozen bacteria coming back to life, with added vegetables, and doing their "thing"....nice.chili said:When you say probiotics, anything specific?
For frozen peppers, I have a couple of easy options at my end: i) make some sour kraut (this is absolutely not the worst idea in the world
Nothing special, just stuff from Walgreens or CVS. It does work. I have also used plain yogurt hooch juice, and sometimes a combination of several things.