glog Bold Badger 2025 Glog

I'm back for another fun-filled, jam-packed summer of growing a load of peppers. This year I started about 1k plants and wound up with 700 in the ground. The leftovers were mostly chocolate habs, which I decided I could do without more than the others. I'm also growing some tomatoes, and unlike previous years where I basically neglected them, didn't stake them or anything, and got no tomatoes, this year I'm really trying not to screw it up. I've attempted to make spaghetti sauce a few times, and it's always terrible. It comes out tasting more like salsa. Until I finally tried roasting all the ingredients before simmering them. That seemed to make all the difference. It turned out freaking awesome this time. I got a little pasta roller and I've been making all kinds of fresh noodles. So this year I'm determined to duplicate my previous success. I have 60 something roma plants in the ground, just seeds from Lowes. They're doing really well so far in the big spot at the community garden, in which my peppers have always done terrible.

Here's the breakdown of the peppers:

ID    Variety                  Qty
1.    '23 yellow 7 pot    234
2.    '24 yellow 7 pot    234
3.    chocolate habs     360
4.    ghosts                  36
5.    reapers                 36
6.    caribbean reds     72
7.    MOA bonnets      36
=                                 1008

Just a preview for the glog image thing.

6k bottles

First sprouts 03/03

Sprouts 03/05

Sprouts 03/09

Bottling a yellow 7 pot carboy

Making berry sauce

Plants 03/17

Plants 03/24

Potted up 04/01

Tomato sprouts

Wide shot of the plants potted up

Big base on one of my curry trees

Curry trees outside 06/11

Plants 04/16

Plants 04/20

Tomatoes 04/23

Plants 04/23

Plants 04/24

Plants 04/27. Ghosts on left, reapers on right.

Tomatoes 04/28

Plants outside 04/29

Ghosts outside 04/29

Yellow 7 pots outside 04/29

Plants 05/04

 

[The Hot Pepper]

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

Continued...

The compost pile

After decimating it to put in the garden this year

Cover crop before

After

Plants 05/11

Plants 05/17

Plants eaten up 05/20. Pretty sure most of the damage was from slugs, not the cicadas. We had the big 17 year hatch this year. It was glorious.

Tomatoes in the ground 05/26. I now admit that the cardboard was a terrible idea. I'll probably not do it again.

Look at those tendrils.

Getting row cover down at the big spot.

Basil and oregeno in my little raised bed. These will go into the spaghetti sauce.

Caribbean reds in at the community garden 06/01

Tomatoes 06/01

Tomatoes 06/06

Caribbean reds 06/06

Yellow 7 pots 06/08

Plants in at big spot 06/10. These are mostly yellow 7 pots and chocolate habs. A few ghosts and bonnets. I was really late getting everything in.

Tomatoes 06/11

Caribbean reds 06/11

Tomatoes 06/16

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

Continued...

Caribbean reds 06/16

Basil 06/17

A giant load of manure for the compost pile. It's very rich.

Made perfectly round holes in the row cover by heating up a christmas tin with a blow torch.

Plants at the big spot 06/21

Yellow 7 pots 06/24

Caribbean reds 06/24

Tomatoes 06/24. I plan to put up lengths of fencing to act as trellises. The ropes aren't cutting it. Not sure if I'll have time before they get too big though.

 

[OCD Chilehead]

Nice work! Love seeing the progress. It’s going to be a jungle!

 

[Harmonic_Heat]

This should be interesting to watch develop! Glad I don't like tomatoes, they always appear to be a lot of work to keep from self-destructing...kinda like horses! Great scenery too!

I didn't think curry grew on trees! I never knew there was such a thing as a curry tree. I need one, although, I'm still waiting on my rubber tree to produce rubber 12 years later

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

I tried to put in the fence trellis but no dice. The plants are already too big, as I expected. The ropes will just have to do this time.

There are no curry leaves in curry. It's a distinct spice. It has a unique kind of bitter taste. I love them.

Big spot 07/02

Yellow 7 pots 07/03

Tomatoes 07/05. You can see where I tried to put in the fence length but it was doing more bad than good.

Caribbean reds 07/05

Mmm...manure tea

Basil and oregeno 07/06

 

[Harmonic_Heat]

Lookin' good

There are no curry leaves in curry. It's a distinct spice. It has a unique kind of bitter taste. I love them.

I was joking around haha, I know, but good info for others who may not Gonna have to find some of those curry leaves now though after reading about them a little. I don't remember hearing about them before which feels odd as I have about 80-90 dried herbs, spices, and spice blends in my kitchen and like Thai food. Then again my memory is terrible if it's not an important detail these days. I've probably seen them for sale at the Asian markets but will keep an eye out specifically now. I see you use them in one of your sauces, I'm intrigued, will keep it in mind. About to finish a bottle or two of other sauces.

After spending too many years sweltering in south Louisiana and seeing your location I can smell that "tea" from here

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

I don't think you can really get them dried. They lose a lot of flavor that way. Typically you saute them in some oil until they get a bit crunchy, and pour them over a dish like a tempering. This is my favorite thing to do with them:

 

[ahayastani]

There are no curry leaves in curry. It's a distinct spice.

You have no idea how confused I was when I found that out...

 

[Harmonic_Heat]

I don't think you can really get them dried. They lose a lot of flavor that way. Typically you saute them in some oil until they get a bit crunchy, and pour them over a dish like a tempering. This is my favorite thing to do with them:

Fried chicken veal...believe it or not I tried frying for the first time in my life (4+ decades) about two months ago after bringing home some enoki mushrooms from a Korean (mostly) supermarket! Came out delicious and was asking myself why I didn't try frying food earlier lol (probably better for my health ha!). I'm gonna have to try making this, thanks!

As for searching out the leaves, I appreciate the heads up that dry isn't really a viable option. There's some grocery stores around here that I'm hoping to luck out and find some relatively fresh. H-Mart (aforementioned Korean supermarket) has a bunch of stuff in their produce section that I've never heard of and have no idea what to use it for. And a couple other options within about a half hour of me, but, unfortunately they all involve going deeper in to the city with worse and worse traffic. I tend to stock up when I go.

 

[SatanicFlatIron]

A few years ago I bought dried curry leaves from an Indian shop, also intrigued by the fact that we normally mean the spice mix. Following the advice of a friend, I used them crushed together with coconut powder (and IIRC black pepper & chili pepper) to make a great ethnic breading for chicken cutlets
It would be nice to grow it fresh here too!

 

[Bold Badger Sauces]

I should get hundreds of seeds from my trees this year. Hit me up later in the summer if you want some. They can't survive cold weather so I bring them in and put them under lights in the winter, but they should survive just sitting near a window.