HabaneroHead - 2013 - New Hope

Hi Everyone!

I started my season quite early this year... I was making the same mistake...again, and managed to cook my seeds. Despite of that there were 2 Naga Morich seeds germinating,this is the reason I am calling them 'The Survivors'.
At the end of February I was on a business trip to London, my peppers germinated just before of that. When I returned two weeks later, the seedlings were still very small, no improvement was seen, and the leaves were almost completely purple. I was searching on the forum, and I arrived to two possible reasons:
- Suncald: well, it was snowing, and practically it was winter, I really doubt that
- Lack of Phosphorus: caused by the poor soil. Since mine was fine, it wasobviously caused by the too cool soil, which was preventing the uptake of this element
I was giving them some light, and heat, and in two weeks the issue was resolved.
I have the following plants now (30 in total):
- Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon (8 plants)
- Trinidad Scorpion CARDI Yellow (6)
- Naga Morich (9)
- Red Habanero (8)

I repotted them this week, and 19 of them is wearing 1.4 liter shoes, and 11 of them has 0.75 liter.








A week ago I was starting some more seeds, received from Rick (Stickman), except the Tobago Seasoning :
- Gochu
- Chimayo
- Serrano
- Jalapeno
- Tomatillo
- Tobago Seasoning
- Kurtovska Kapija
- Belcato Kapija

Thanks for watching!
Balázs

 

[HabaneroHead]

Oh, when she makes sauce they drained and then are cooked for two days. So we end up the same, just prepare them differently as we can them....

I see. It is not rocket science, you just need to puree them, and boil out the excess water. It is rather time consuming. My Mom hates the canning days, I personally love them...preparing something which is valuable...you hardly get that feeling in the accounting... :-)



I thought to post only one pic today...the most awaited one :-) Guess what is it? :-)

 

[Devv]

Congratulations!
 
Looks like nice soil too!

 

[HabaneroHead]

Congratulations!
 
Looks like nice soil too!

Thank you! :-) It is not too big, but at least small :-) Still negotiating with fiancee the portion I can get... I am planning to amend it with some rich compost. I have found places where they sell 1 m3 for like 10-20 dollars, which is not too much.

 

[Devv]

Well at least along then fences
 
Find some plants she likes as well, makes it smooth over nicely...especially if hers are planted first...
 
I've been married 34 years come Dec. strategy my friend
 
Edit: And she's the one who wanted this huge place we have...LOL, I'm the dog that has to work it..hahaha

 

[stickman]

Hi Balázs,
   Things are surely moving for you my friend! From huge pods to home canning to a pic of your new back yard, it's all great! I wish you a long and happy time there!

Well at least along then fences
 
Find some plants she likes as well, makes it smooth over nicely...especially if hers are planted first...
 
I've been married 34 years come Dec. strategy my friend

 
+1 on that... if Mama's not happy, nobody's happy...

 

[HabaneroHead]

Well at least along then fences
 
Find some plants she likes as well, makes it smooth over nicely...especially if hers are planted first...
 
I've been married 34 years come Dec. strategy my friend
 
Edit: And she's the one who wanted this huge place we have...LOL, I'm the dog that has to work it..hahaha

 

34 years...eh...I know I have a lot to learn...with my 4 years.
Thanks for sharing the strategy.
 
 

Hi Balázs,
   Things are surely moving for you my friend! From huge pods to home canning to a pic of your new back yard, it's all great! I wish you a long and happy time there!

 
+1 on that... if Mama's not happy, nobody's happy...

Thank you, Rick!
Hello Everyone,It's been a month I was not dealing with my glog...well...and checking the other chilehead's glogs once a week, only.
The house project took all of my time, so do my job.
Bad thing is that I am busy in the part of the year, when I would need to have some time to deal with preserving my peppers.
So far I was dehydrating once, and made a small batch of garlic-tomatoe-superhot sauce.
I was uploading some pictures a month ago to Photobucket, and I haven't shared them yet, so here you go:
 

 

 

 

 

 


We are having some issues with the house.
It took almost a month to select the vent hood to the kitchen...then another two weeks for the supplier to deliver...and now I am waiting for a guy who has the tools to drill a hole into the ceiling, and build it in. Bad thing is, that even though we bought the necessary paint for the kitchen-living room, we cannot have it painted till the vent hood gets built in. (because of the dust the process would cause). This is the reason why my newly bought AEG induction stove did not got built in yet, and why we have been eating sandwiches in the last 5 weeks or so. Hopefully everything gets solved in the next 2 weeks, so I will have an operating kitchen, not only machines, waiting for their destiny in boxes. 
Since I do not have a stove, I was not able to make any sauce, and even I have a Weber Kettle, and collected some apple wood chips, I cannot make any smoked sauce yet. I tried to be smart, and have forzen a lot of ripe peppers, so once I have the stove working, I can smoke them, and make some sauce.
Bitching is over now. 

 

[stickman]

Wow, you've been getting some nice harvests Balázs! Sorry to hear you're having to make do with no working kitchen for now, but I hope it's taken care of before it gets cold there. At least you've got a kettle grill to roast with in the meantime. I forgot if you mentioned whether or not your wife likes hot peppers... for your sake I hope so...   Take care my friend!

 

[Devv]

Nice pepper pics!
 
I understand house woes! It's great to have one but dang they cost! You'll be happy once it's all done the way you want it to be.
 
Have a great weekend!

 

[HabaneroHead]

Wow, you've been getting some nice harvests Balázs! Sorry to hear you're having to make do with no working kitchen for now, but I hope it's taken care of before it gets cold there. At least you've got a kettle grill to roast with in the meantime. I forgot if you mentioned whether or not your wife likes hot peppers or not... for your sake I hope so...   Take care my friend!

Thanks. Yeah...I tried the kettle grill twice, we were eating grilled staff for 4 days in a row...enough is enough.   My soon-to-be wife likes moderate hot staff, she is crazy about Almapaprika, but Habanero is too strong for her.
 

Nice pepper pics!
 
I understand house woes! It's great to have one but dang they cost! You'll be happy once it's all done the way you want it to be.
 
Have a great weekend!

Thank you. To be honest, I am happy, even though we are dressing from boxes. Things are improving, and getting better and better. :-)

 

[stickman]

Thanks. Yeah...I tried the kettle grill twice, we were eating grilled staff for 4 days in a row...enough is enough.   My soon-to-be wife likes moderate hot staff, she is crazy about Almapaprika, but Habanero is too strong for her.

 
Thanks for the clarification... let us know when you switch rings from left to right...   Don't give up hope... when we got together, my wife and I didn't eat anything hotter than a Jalapeno. After 3 years of growing chiles, my tolerance level is up to Trini Scorps and hers is up to Habaneros. Cheers!

 

[Devv]

But you can cook using the BBQ using foil and not have the BBQ taste. Heck I wouldn't be afraid to make spaghetti on one. Sure beats sandwiches.
 
Also the Coleman camping stoves are cheap, one can cook bacon&eggs, pancakes, you name it.
 
As you can tell I've roughed it a bit...LOL

 

[stickman]

Hi Balázs,
   We finally cracked the jar of pickled Almapaprika we made with  your Mom's recipe at our Thanksgiving dinner and ate half the peppers at one sitting... they were freakin' awesome! I'm definitely going to plant another couple of plants next year and  pickle  the whole crop. I bet your Mom's recipe will be excellent for cold-pickling Jalapenos too. Thanks  a lot for  sharing!

 

[HabaneroHead]

Hi Balázs,
   We finally cracked the jar of pickled Almapaprika we made with  your Mom's recipe at our Thanksgiving dinner and ate half the peppers at one sitting... they were freakin' awesome! I'm definitely going to plant another couple of plants next year and  pickle  the whole crop. I bet your Mom's recipe will be excellent for cold-pickling Jalapenos too. Thanks  a lot for  sharing!

 
Hi Rick,
I'm glad to hear you liked the pickled Almapaprika! So you have the third Hungarian variety you might plant next year. I think it is a compliment :-)
Indeed, it would be great with Jalapenos as well, you should give it a try. (and report the outcome as well :-)
 
Balázs

 

[HabaneroHead]

I am spending this week at my parents.
They bought 2 tons of beech wood for the winter, which got me thinking... Beech is used for smoking for various things, like ham, sausages etc, so while I was shredding the trunks, I tried to cut out thin pieces, which I could use as wood chips in my kettle grill.
It was heck of a good excercise! 
 

 

[Devv]

2 tons? That a lot of wood to burn, nothing like the warmth of a fire, be it a wood stove or fireplace.
 
Let us know how the smoked products come out.

 

[HabaneroHead]

2 tons? That a lot of wood to burn, nothing like the warmth of a fire, be it a wood stove or fireplace.
 
Let us know how the smoked products come out.

 
Well, indeed. My parents have a big house (1000 square feet), which has two systems in place for heating. They are using wood now, since it is much cheaper (and more effective) than using gas.
I have a lot of peppers frozen, which are waiting for their destiny to be used in sauce, and I really like the way you guys are smoking them first to widen their flavour scale. So far I collected beech, apple and Robinia pseudoacacia (hardest wood I know, at the part of the country I live, it is used for smoking) for smoking. I cannot wait to try them out.
I am going to post the results, for sure

 

[stickman]

I am spending this week at my parents.
They bought 2 tons of beech wood for the winter, which got me thinking... Beech is used for smoking for various things, like ham, sausages etc, so while I was shredding the trunks, I tried to cut out thin pieces, which I could use as wood chips in my kettle grill.
It was heck of a good excercise! 

 
Very cool Balázs... I think you'll really like the results when you begin smoking your pods before drying or making sauce. You probably don't need to break up the wood for your smoker quite so much unless it's seasoned and you need it to soak up water quickly before adding it to your fire. If using green wood, I just cut it up into fist-sized chunks.
 
Good luck with your sauce-making offorts... we're looking forward to the pics!

 

[HabaneroHead]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the kind words. I am going to use this wood in small quantity, and also my kettle is not too big.:-)
To be honest, I am not sure when I can begin the sauce making, since I am having issues to find 5 OZ woozies in Hungary...even in Europe.
It is a nonsense, since I can see a lot of sauces in the supermarkets...and the producing companies must get it from somewhere.
Anyways, I am considering to order at least a small batch of it from China (via alibaba.com), to see whether it is safe and I am receiving quality product.

Balázs

 

[stickman]

Hi Balázs
    Here's another alternative... I've been using swing-top bottles like the ones from this Hungarian manufacturer to put my sauces in... http://www.tarjanglass.hu/index_EN.php?page=2 with proper care, you'd only have to occasionally replace the rubber gaskets if they dry out and split, but those are cheap and readily available. The ones pictured are Grolsch beer bottles from The Netherlands. They come in 4-paks with the beer inside... just wash and sterilize like you would to put beer inside, but fill them with sauce instead.

 
I got my woozies from a beer and winemaking supply shop. If you have any near you, you could ask them if they can get you woozies. Failing that, I don't know what the shipping costs would be to mail American-made 5 oz woozies to Hungary, but you could send an Email inquiry...
http://www.containerandpackaging.com/item/G330
http://www.specialtybottle.com/woozy5ozroundglassbottlewcap.aspx
 
Let us know how it works out for you.

 

[annie57]

That seems odd about the woozies, Balázs. But the swing-tops work, as Rick said.
 
Also, while you're smoking for sauce, check out smoking and fermenting! Like smoke half and don't smoke the other half as smoking can take sugars out of peppers that help the ferment. Easy to do with whey from yogurt with live and active cultures. If interested in fermentation, PM me. Entire LONG thread on THP about doing it. Do keep everybody posted and PM/message me if interested in creating a mash that mellows flavors of peppers that can then be processed into sauce.
 
Hope you get kitchen/stove/oven soon!
 
Be well! Annie