BPWilly's 2014 grow

OCD Chilehead · Sep 6, 2014

Very nice variety pull Bill. I've seen people put those green pods in a paper bag with a apple, and they ripen in a day. Might have a try.

Have a great weekend

Sawyer · Sep 6, 2014

Nice pull. I picked a bunch of completely green, no color showing, MoAs off a broken limb. Surprisingly about a third of them appear to be ripening up now. They are just sitting on a cutting board, away from direct light.

Devv · Sep 6, 2014

I love the loaded down plants!

And a nice pull there too!

Good job.

bpwilly · Sep 7, 2014

OCD Chilehead said:
Very nice variety pull Bill. I've seen people put those green pods in a paper bag with a apple, and they ripen in a day. Might have a try.

Have a great weekend

Will try the bag trick and see what happens. Have heard of this, but never tried it.

Got a roof raising task for this weekend. Have a old chicken coop and the side walls are sinking due to a crunbling foundation, so will be jacking up the roof to get some braces in to keep it from falling down while I work on fixing it up a bit. Thank god for brother in laws who have some experience in construction. I can do the work, but need some instruction on where the heck to start.

Sawyer said:
Nice pull. I picked a bunch of completely green, no color showing, MoAs off a broken limb. Surprisingly about a third of them appear to be ripening up now. They are just sitting on a cutting board, away from direct light.

I hate it when a branch gets broken off. I did that a few weeks ago when using the water hose on the plants. snagged a branch and broke it clean off. Dang, waited all summer, only to break it!

Devv said:
I love the loaded down plants!

And a nice pull there too!

Good job.

Thanks,

Seems my Brain Strains are picking this week to really get some color. Each day I get a few more starting to color up. Same with the Bhuts, lots of color starting to show.

Weird thing is the Bahamian Goat peppers. Last year when I got these, they were a bit milder than a standard orange habanero. But when I was cutting some from this years crop up and tried a sample, they felt a lot hotter. Surprised me with the increase in heat. Same great taste though. Love the color of them

turbo · Sep 8, 2014

Nice pull Bill! Especially those Fatalii. Looks like your peppers are starting to ripen up a bit. I noticed the same thing this weekend. I've had nothing ripe for a couple weeks, and Sunday morning pulled a good 8 peppers, with another dozen a few days away. Love this time of year!

How are your 7-pot Jonahs looking? The one you gave me are about half way ripe. Cant wait to try it.

bpwilly · Sep 9, 2014

turbo said:
Nice pull Bill! Especially those Fatalii. Looks like your peppers are starting to ripen up a bit. I noticed the same thing this weekend. I've had nothing ripe for a couple weeks, and Sunday morning pulled a good 8 peppers, with another dozen a few days away. Love this time of year!

How are your 7-pot Jonahs looking? The one you gave me are about half way ripe. Cant wait to try it.

Nothing much on the Jonahs yet. Unfortunately, I have a few semi dead spots on my garden, and the few Jonahs I planted happen to be right there. I need to keep track of these areas and maybe do some soils amendment, or find out what is wrong. The plants on those areas are about 1/2 the size of the rest. I am thinking it is water, since they are near the end of the water line runs and may not be getting as much water as the others. But all is good, since I have plenty of plants all together.

I did start a ferment today as well as a sauce, since it is a bit cooler. Needed to get some space cleared out of the freezer, so used up a few bags of Bahamian Goats for a ferment.

FermentedYellowFataliiandPineapple-IMAG0854-1_zps0b7e6da8.jpg

Then I took one of my existing aged ferments (11 months) of Fatallis and made a sauce. That fermenting sure changes the taste a lot. No need for any vinegar with this batch, as it had a PH of 3.2.

Mixed it up with some garlic, onions and pineapple and bottled it. Still need to make a label, but it did come out look nice.

Then I made a trip through the plants to see what has ripened up in the past couple of days.
Ended up with more than I thought would be ready. Not a haul, but a nice mix.

Starting in the bottom right There are 7 Pot Chaguana (small), Lemon Drops, Fish and 1 ripe Jalapeno, Aji Panca then a mix of red, yellow and black congos. a few maters, plus a ripe fig!, super chilies, Fataliis, Nagabon abd "not black" Naga, Bonnets, "not yellow" Bhuts, yellow Bhuts and 1 choc bhut, a couple of yellow Brain Strains, and in the middle my first yellow biquinos, Charleston hots, first Mustard Hab, some real small white 7 pots (look like little bullet habs) and finally the Blue Mystery pods.

A good variety for today, my lips and mouth are burning!

OCD Chilehead · Sep 9, 2014

That sauce looks amazing. Good luck on the ferment.

turbo · Sep 9, 2014

That sauce looks amazing!

I have to thank you again for your plant donations this year. I've loved the varieties you shared, but especially the fatalii. I was so bummed when my two fataliis died off before I got them in the ground. The one you gave me is producing like CRAZY. I don't know if that's normal for fatalii, but all the branches are super heavy with pods. I'm lucky I planted it in the center of my bed, with plants all around. The other plants are holding its limbs up.

turbo · Sep 9, 2014

Hey Bill, a heads up on a local source of peppers. The Renton farmers market has a vendor that had these peppers today:

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/50023-peppers-from-local-farmers-market

I have no idea what they are or how hot they are yet, but they looked pretty fun and they had a lot of them. The Renton market is every Tuesday and runs for 3 more weeks.

bpwilly · Sep 10, 2014

OCD Chilehead said:
That sauce looks amazing. Good luck on the ferment.

Thanks, I will see what it tastes like in a month or so to see if it changes a all. It did get a bit thicker than I normally like, but it is still pretty pourable, and as long as I stay away from those dribble caps, it should be OK.

I had a little left over and saved it in the fridge. Sampled it yesterday and it is pretty hot, since it did not get much diluting at all. I like the taste. of a ferment. Really different than unfermented.

turbo said:
That sauce looks amazing!

I have to thank you again for your plant donations this year. I've loved the varieties you shared, but especially the fatalii. I was so bummed when my two fataliis died off before I got them in the ground. The one you gave me is producing like CRAZY. I don't know if that's normal for fatalii, but all the branches are super heavy with pods. I'm lucky I planted it in the center of my bed, with plants all around. The other plants are holding its limbs up.

So glad they are working out for you. My Fatallis have not produced as well as they did last year, so glad they are working for you. They can be really productive when they work out well, plus they have a nice flavor to me and seem pretty versatile as they are plenty hot, but not so hot that they are tough to use in recipes that will be enjoyed by non-pepper heads.

turbo said:
Hey Bill, a heads up on a local source of peppers. The Renton farmers market has a vendor that had these peppers today:

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/50023-peppers-from-local-farmers-market

I have no idea what they are or how hot they are yet, but they looked pretty fun and they had a lot of them. The Renton market is every Tuesday and runs for 3 more weeks.

Great find and thanks for sharing the info. I will have to check them out next week, as I did not get around to looking at this site till late last night. I looked at your post and they sure do look fresh.

bpwilly said:
Ended up with more than I thought would be ready. Not a haul, but a nice mix.

Starting in the bottom right There are 7 Pot Chaguana (small), Lemon Drops, Fish and 1 ripe Jalapeno, Aji Panca then a mix of red, yellow and black congos. a few maters, plus a ripe fig!, super chilies, Fataliis, Nagabon abd "not black" Naga, Bonnets, "not yellow" Bhuts, yellow Bhuts and 1 choc bhut, a couple of yellow Brain Strains, and in the middle my first yellow biquinos, Charleston hots, first Mustard Hab, some real small white 7 pots (look like little bullet habs) and finally the Blue Mystery pods.

A good variety for today, my lips and mouth are burning!

Then I made a trip through the plants to see what has ripened up in the past couple of days.

I guess I should have reviewed my post #86 from a few days ago before I submitted it. Looks like I forgot to attach the picture of the pull from the other day.

Must be getting old! Anyway, here is that picture. Hope it make sense :rolleyes:

bpwilly · Sep 20, 2014

Used the directions that[SIZE=12pt] Alabama Jack [/SIZE]provided for making a Puree. I have been needing to clean out some of last years peppers from the freezer so I have some room for this years crop.

Started with Lemon Drops as I had a bumper crop last year. Took 3.18 lbs of peppers and reduced them till they fit into 3 pints!

Then I combined my remaining Yellow Fatalii and Devil Tongue peppers and took 3.2 lbs of peppers and came out with 4 pints of puree. Then decided to tackle my Red Jamaican Congo's, since last year these plants put out more peppers than any of my other plants. I managed too reduce a bit more than 5 lbs of Congos into 7.5 pints of puree. Then Before I ran out of steam, I reduced down my Yellow Jamaican Mushroom peppers from 2.3 lbs down to 2.5 pints.

This will really freed up some space in the freezer, and has me thinking about what else I can reduce. I found I had more peppers stashed away than I thought I had, and need to get this under control. I have plenty of powders, so this might be a great way to preserve them for a later day.

Here are a couple of pictures

and the results

LemondropFataliiRedCongoJamMushroom-014_zps1064faa7.jpg

I really like this process, so thanks again to Alabama Jack for sharing this method

OCD Chilehead · Sep 20, 2014

Looking good Bill. That looks like a lot of work, but looks like its worthwhile indeed. Nice pepper haul.

Thanks for sharing

Devv · Sep 20, 2014

Wow all in a puree?

Some pure heat there!

bpwilly · Sep 21, 2014

OCD Chilehead said:
Looking good Bill. That looks like a lot of work, but looks like its worthwhile indeed. Nice pepper haul.

Thanks for sharing

Well, It is just the start, but it sure felt good to get going on it. I have been stashing peppers in the freezer, and I really need to clear them out. This years grow, while slow, might be pretty good. I have a lot of large pods on the plants, but they have a ways to go to get ripe. Will get some pictures soon.

Devv said:
Wow all in a puree?

Some pure heat there!

I now know what Hunan hands is all about. My fingers have been burning for 2 days now, from all the processing. Seems like even nitrile gloves do not stop the oils. I am looking forward to using these purees when I get to that point. I made a batch today that was mostly Naga's, Bhuts and a few piles of 7 pots. Then I made a batch with all the 7 Pot yellows, yellow bhuts and "not red" Nagas that I grew last year that really produced a lot of pale yellow pods. That batch came out tasting great, but hot!.

I really need to reduce the size of my grows, as there is no way I can use all this anytime soon.

Devv · Sep 21, 2014

I'm in the same boat, got hot sauce ready to bottle, and a ton from last year still to use.

I wonder how long it keeps?

bpwilly · Sep 22, 2014

Devv said:
I'm in the same boat, got hot sauce ready to bottle, and a ton from last year still to use.

I wonder how long it keeps?

Considering how many bottles of store bought hot sauce I have bought or received over the past several years, I figure my bottled sauce will last several years as well. Not sure if it will lose much flavor or not. Good question.

Peppers are so much fun to grow, that I always seem to grow more than I could possibly use, plus each year new varieties come about that I want to try growing. What a addiction! And I thought it was hard to stop smoking!

turbo · Sep 22, 2014

bpwilly said:
Peppers are so much fun to grow, that I always seem to grow more than I could possibly use, plus each year new varieties come about that I want to try growing. What a addiction! And I thought it was hard to stop smoking!

I have the opposite problem. I've got limited space for peppers. Not enough for the number of plants I want to grow (though more than enough according to my wife). Maybe I'll have to contract you to grow some plants for me next year

Devv · Sep 23, 2014

Oh yeah, weeded out a bunch from next seasons grow, and have many new seeds to try...and I promised the wife. But she already told me..she knows..LOL

bpwilly · Sep 24, 2014

I keep telling myself I will cut back, and I actually did reduce from a insane amount to just a crazy amount. Now I need to get down to where I can actually get some other plants in my garden besides Hot peppers.

Some day!.

The weather was predicting rain from Monday night through the end of the week, so I went out yesterday and made a pass though the garden, as I knew I had plenty of ripe peppers out there.

Here is the outcome

I have a few closer shots, but I did get a pretty good variety this time. The Naga pull surprised me

First ti,me growing the Perfumes or the smooths. Still need to take a taste test. (so many honey do's, so little time!)

I grew out reapers last year and kept the seeds from the plants that showed the expected shape. Some of those this year really changed, as I now have ones that look like a Habanero/Congo, but are burgundy color?

Looking forward to these Black Congos, as they make a real nice jam with Blackberries.

My Naga's were a surprise. Most of these were suppose to be a black Naga, but as you can see, I have only 1 black Naga pod. The good news is that the few plants I have are loaded with pods, just need to ripen up.

Well, that is 10 pictures. I do have a few more pictures, so need a bump. (please)

ribbedturtleneck · Sep 24, 2014

Bump!