Devv's 2014- Stick a fork in me, I'm done....

Time for the 2014 start...
 
Many of these plants were made possible by the generous people of the THP sending me seeds and pods Thanks!
 
I'm looking forward to warmer weather and dirt day!
 
I have a bunch of seeds started, and plants at all the stages.
 
Here's the grow bench, a T8 x4 on top and T5 x4 on the bottom, as you can see it's loaded.
 

 
Top rack:

 
Bottom rack:

 
I like starting the seeds in Jiffy Pellets, as soon as they stand up I trim the mesh off and plant them 1/2" proud in a pot, or in this case a cup.
 
Red Rocotto the lonely Pube..

 
A few plants living under the T5, I'm super impressed with this light!
 
Choc Hab
 

 
Bhut x Y7 x Choc Bhut Douglah-Spicegeist
 

 
 
Bhut x Y7 F2-Spicegeist

 
 
Yellow Cardi- Jamie

 
 
Choc Scorp-Ramon

 
Peach Bhut- Annie

 
 
 
Going to do some tilling will post more later

 

[stickman]

I hear ya 'bout the homemade sauce Scott... Ain't nothing else even close, and that one looked good enough to fight for! Are you canning it up for the winter?
 
Looking forward to hearing your take on Jerk chicken tomorrow...

 

[PaulG]

Your garden spaces look great, brother, the raised beds are kickin' it!
 
Your haul of pods is making me jealous!
 
Sorry to hear of the encounter with the sauce police.  Turds.

 

[Devv]

I hear ya 'bout the homemade sauce Scott... Ain't nothing else even close, and that one looked good enough to fight for! Are you canning it up for the winter?
 
Looking forward to hearing your take on Jerk chicken tomorrow...

 
Nothing beats the homemade red sauce. Rick, if it's one recipe if I can get people to make, I'll be a happy man. But they have to do the long cook time, that's the key. It's a really simple recipe. We've been making it since 1978, when Mom shared it. we still have the half page it was written on...LOL
 
We don't can it. We just freeze it in serving sized portions. I have to mention....you don't know LB, half the town already says they're coming here in the event of some weird stuff happening. As she has food stores to last us a month or more, if something happens. All's we need is the generator..LOL, I'm sure she'll have me buy one soon   She has 30 something cu feet of goodies frozen..LOL
 
I just go with the flow, she was raised really poor, so if it makes her happy. I'm good   She always makes me smile
 

Your garden spaces look great, brother, the raised beds are kickin' it!
 
Your haul of pods is making me jealous!
 
Sorry to hear of the encounter with the sauce police.  Turds.

 
Thanks Paul!
 
I'm really surprised at how well the raised beds are doing. Especially since I planted them and just let them do their thing. I mixed a 1/2 a yard of heavy top soil mixed about 50-50 with potting soil, I think MG green bag stuff. However I did hit them with some liquid nutes a few times, Hasta Gro ( 6-12-6).
 
 
Yeah, TSA, I'm sure they take the goodies home. I hope that sauce burns 'em twice Like all day

 

[randyp]

        Scott I am glad you put what your soil mix is.Like yours mine is 50% bag top soil and 50% Billy Bob's or some colorful brand of potting soil.Nothing expensive and down at my local grocery store.Keep a good fert schedule and pray for good weather.

 

[jedisushi06]

Some good cooking going on here!

 

[Roguejim]

Hey Scott, looking at your raised beds...you don't employ square foot gardening, right?  Man, the plants look packed in there.  What spacing between plants do you use?  My square foot raised beds have become almost a joke now, everything growing into one big homogenized jungle.  Looks cool, but not sure I won't give a bit more space next time.

 

[maximumcapsicum]

Sauce looks wonderful. Definitely on my todo list, especially when I manage to scale up the tomatoes. They seem to be much more finicky than the peppers, or at least much more susceptible to pests and disease.

 

[Devv]

        Scott I am glad you put what your soil mix is.Like yours mine is 50% bag top soil and 50% Billy Bob's or some colorful brand of potting soil.Nothing expensive and down at my local grocery store.Keep a good fert schedule and pray for good weather.

 
Hi Randy,
 
I think a lot of people use too much potting soil. For me if the rate is higher the soil drains too well and dries out to fast.
 

Some good cooking going on here!

 
Thanks Mikey,
 
I've handed that recipe out for many, many years. 2 people have ever made it. Daylon my work partner made it and said it was bland, he only cooked it 5 hours though. I brought in some and made meatball hero's for lunch. He took one bite and dialed his wife "we're making this sauce again".
 

Hey Scott, looking at your raised beds...you don't employ square foot gardening, right?  Man, the plants look packed in there.  What spacing between plants do you use?  My square foot raised beds have become almost a joke now, everything growing into one big homogenized jungle.  Looks cool, but not sure I won't give a bit more space next time.

 
Hi Jim,
 
After I planted the garden, I still had roughly 20 plants left. And that was after selling and giving away 20. Jeff mentioned a sale on the landscape timbers so I went and bought 50 and made the beds. They're 4x8', in 2 beds I put six plants in each, spacing them about 2.5-3' apart. The last bed just got "the rest''.
 
In the garden I went 4' between rows and 3' between plants, I wanted to go 5' between rows and 4' between plants but had too many. My season is long so the plants get huge and take up more room. Next year less plants for sure!
 

Sauce looks wonderful. Definitely on my todo list, especially when I manage to scale up the tomatoes. They seem to be much more finicky than the peppers, or at least much more susceptible to pests and disease.

 
Thanks Adam,
 
If you decide to make it you won't be disappointed! For me the tomatoes seem to be easier to grow, they tolerate the cool weather better. So when the temps stay above 40° at night they go in the ground. I did have a few just die on me, but I had disease in that part of the garden, and thought I had taken care of it. So no planting Tom's there for a few years. Several years ago I bought some infected plants, that's what got me started growing from seed.
 
Actually I have 8 I just planted for the winter. I put them in containers and we have Tom's all season.

 

[PaulG]

"Actually I have 8 I just planted for the winter. I put them in containers and we have Tom's all season."
That's just sick, Scott    

 

[KiNGDeNNiZ]

You are truly blessed with a green thumb. ..and are reaping what you sowed. .. i wish you continued success

 

[Roguejim]

Scott,
If you come up with a killer Scotch Bonnet sauce, would you post it here? I need one, quick! Thanks.

 

[Devv]

"Actually I have 8 I just planted for the winter. I put them in containers and we have Tom's all season."
That's just sick, Scott    

 
Well....you do have the greenhouse
 
 

You are truly blessed with a green thumb. ..and are reaping what you sowed. .. i wish you continued success

 
Thanks Denniz!
 
It's been a good year with Ma Nature on my side
 

Scott,
If you come up with a killer Scotch Bonnet sauce, would you post it here? I need one, quick! Thanks.

 
Hi Jim,
 
I have one that I copied from JJJ's glog.  Untested as yet. I'm storing mine in the freezer, did use a few to make jerk chicken, which is cooking on the pit as I typo...
 
 
25 pods
 
with the juice of 3 limes

~1/4 cup DJohn mustard(wife's recipe)

~1/4 cane vinegar

Salt

Allspice

fresh ground Coriander

Cumin

Onion powder

and little honey

 

[Devv]

Okies, so tonight was jerk chicken night. It was a "blind" meal for LB and I, as we've never made this before.
 
The first thing I did was clean the BBQ, all the briskets and ribs we've cooked left a layer of grease, fat, whatever on the bottom of the pit. I clean it every so often, and it was time. So I filled the cooking area with a bit of homemade charcoal, lit that and loaded it up with Mesquite. The Mesquite that was on the dirt in my wood pile, stuff we don't want to use. After an hour I used a shovel to scoop everything into the homemade Hibachi and let things settle a bit.
 
I then scooped up some coals from the Hibachi and set them on a grate I use when I cook with coals inside the pit, the chicken was placed off to the side, so indirect heat here. I ran it at 300-325° for about 1.5 hours, the temps ran closer to 300° most of the time. I used the Hibachi to let the Mesquite turn to coals, so the Mesquite flavor would not overwhelm. I did use Cherry chips soaked in water to introduce a mild smoke flavor.
 
Here's a pic of the chicken at the start:
 

 
When it got close to being done I added more coals and opened the lid to the pit, I then added the final 1/3 of the jerk mix with the lime juice and brown sugar and got some "bark" on the chicken.
 

 
And there's a piece of sausage we smuggled from our NY trip there too
 
Overall:
 
A fantastic recipe. Sorry no plate shot, that disappeared right quick! I used 5 MoA's total, I was worried about LB's tolerance. Next time 6..LOL, she handled it just fine. And we both give this recipe a 5 star rating!
 
Thanks Rick! For expanding our culinary experience!
 
This is definitely a recipe worth trying!

 

[stickman]

I was waiting to see how you liked the Jerk Chicken... glad you both did. Dat be irie mon!

 

[cone9]

 
That looks so good!

 

[HillBilly Jeff]

Some nice looking food there.  

 

[Devv]

I was waiting to see how you liked the Jerk Chicken... glad you both did. Dat be irie mon!

 
Oh yeah! We're still talking about it. I really liked how the flavor went into the meat, and man was it tender. In fact LB is going to stir fry some Bishops Crown and Jimmy Nardello peppers tonight and warm some of the chicken up for tacos.
 

 
That looks so good!

 
 

Some nice looking food there.  

 
It was good! The recipe is a few pages back. Definitely a must do meal.

 

[annie57]

Yep: if it's dark green/brown is jerk paste! BeUteeful! And man, brilliant meatball sauce recipe, Scotty! I might pass this recipe off to aunt (Waldensian--they claim Italy, do Italian, keep their secrets closely guarded) in exchange for her O.M.R.A. for processing toms. But then, she'll still tell me "no." Her mother was the one who taught me that if tomato based sauces don't cook for at least 10 hours or more--they still did overnight on wood-fire--her husband did most of that, that the sauce would be some phrase in Italian that aunt told me never to use. So, was kid, forgot phrase.
 
THANK YOU for sharing this!

 

[Devv]

Hope you try the sauce recipe; once it "takes over" the house it's time to taste. LB and I both taste and she adds sugar and salt as needed. We used canned Tom's so the cook time was closer to 12-14 hours. When you make 16 quarts you can turn it off and leave it on the stove, it doesn't cool much. Then turn it back on again the next day.
 
I looked up the O.M.R.A, pricey little machines, but so was the meat grinder. I'd love to see one in action...hm youtube search?
 
And yes jerk chicken is going to be made a lot!

 

[Roguejim]

Oh yeah! We're still talking about it. I really liked how the flavor went into the meat, and man was it tender. In fact LB is going to stir fry some Bishops Crown and Jimmy Nardello peppers tonight and warm some of the chicken up for tacos.
 

 
 

 
It was good! The recipe is a few pages back. Definitely a must do meal.

That's an interesting grill you have there, Scott. Home made, I'll bet. Can you tell us a bit about the construction of it? Do you also have a smoker, or do you use the grill for that, too?

I know you already posted your tomato sauce recipe here somewhere, but it would be cool if both the tomato sauce, and jerk chicken sauce recipes were posted in the Cooking forum for others to enjoy. If I get permission, I'll copy/paste them over to that forum.