Operation Golden Garden 2014: Let's Get Started!

Devv · Jun 19, 2013

Way cool!

Bill, Matt, really glad to see this!

I'm at a loss for words...yeah me..

Peptacular · Jun 19, 2013

Lookin good! Great stuff, that review. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes, and apparently nor did you haha.

Edit: thanks for your service to our country. Also nice to hear you're having such great germination rates so quick, and the table is a nice touch.

MGOLD86 · Jun 19, 2013

stickman said:
Thanks for putting some of the history of the strain in the review Matt... I didn't know any of that. It makes it that much more special!

You might want to keep some hard candies or a very ripe, chilled watermelon handy when your wife does her tasting. Sugar seems to damp out the fire quicker than anything I know of. Beer comes in third for me... it has sugar in it too, but not as much.

No worries. I hit up the aussies in their awesome 200 hundred page thread to get some of the background to talk about it during the video. And I will definitely have the whole litany of emergency hot pepper relief remedies on hand!

RocketMan said:
So I stopped by the mail box on my way he tonight and there was a package in there from Matt. Now Matt had told me that he was sending me something but it was not want I expected by a long shot. Brother as much as you were floored by the garden I was floored when I opens your package. Here's what was in there:

At the bottom of the Certificate it says, "This flag was flown on November 26, 2012 over Camp Lawton, Herat Provance, Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom" Matt, I have no words worthy of this so I'll just say that this will have a place of Honor in the RocketMan room at the new house and Thank you.

I am glad that it got to you safe and sound. I really do appreciate everything that everyone did to support us while we were deployed, but it was your brainchild and you put it together. I am happy that it put a smile on your face and again, thank you for everything!

Devv said:
Way cool!

Bill, Matt, really glad to see this!

I'm at a loss for words...yeah me..

Bill definitely deserved it. I remember getting a message last summer saying "give me a call when you get a few minutes". So I finished picking one of my last harvests and he told me to sit down. When he finally broke the secret I was amazed. The rest is history!

Peptacular said:
Lookin good! Great stuff, that review. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes, and apparently nor did you haha.

Hell no, those badboys came off quicklike!

Well I was strolling through the garden today to see how the rains have been treating everything and it looks like the plants are LOVIN it! I got some more pods forming!

Assam Bhut

Yellow Bhut. This is great for me, last season I had a Yellow Bhut from CCN that only produced a single pod all season. Now, the three plants that I have growing are putting out a ton of buds, and it looks like this one is gonna start to pop!

Naga Morich, this is one of 3 pods that are hanging amongst 2 of the 3 plants.

Lemon Drop:

And some Nons, Black Pearl Tomatoes

Things are gonna start to get exciting! I am probably gonna feed with some tea in another week or week and a half. That way the babies are big enough to handle it and the weather should switch to a bit more sun in between downpours. I have 2 tea mixes from Keep It Simple organics. It worked wonders for me last season, so dont fix what aint broken!

capsidadburn · Jun 20, 2013

Beautiful night shots Matt! Very nice.

Mike

MGOLD86 · Jun 20, 2013

Thanks Mike!!

Alrighty folks, headin out to the grocery store. Care to take a guess at what comes next??

capsidadburn · Jun 20, 2013

Fermento Gold!

stickman · Jun 20, 2013

Matt's got his sauce-makin' mojo workin'! If you want to make a thicker sauce Matt, throw a few carrots in there too...

WalkGood · Jun 20, 2013

Great review, did you name it the White Whale because of issues last review or is that an AKA from the true name “The Billy Boy Douglah” that I've not heard? I didn’t see your last review as I’ve only been here since November 2012. But if you ask my opinion I don’t see any issues as we are all human and prone to mistakes. Fact is that I welcome people to correct what I just wrote or wrote in the past about powders, that way I can learn from others ... Nuff said on the old one …

I love this new one just like the ones I saw before, awesome job mon! I say this because I like the details you put into the review, you do your homework and research very well, don’t think I could review a taste off the top of my head like that, I have to take notes so hat’s off mon \o_

The little needles comparison is an interesting comparison, nice! Great pic updates … pods and soon come pods look great, have a great weekend!

MGOLD86 · Jun 20, 2013

capsidadburn said:
Fermento Gold!

Hellz yea!

stickman said:
Matt's got his sauce-makin' mojo workin'! If you want to make a thicker sauce Matt, throw a few carrots in there too...

Yea, I ran out and picked up the stuff that I am gonna need. I planned to do it all this afternoon, but time was not on my side! I am busy all day tomorrow, but Saturday is open for me and I plan to get it on! I wanted to smoke the pods for a couple of hours, so I am gonna need some time to get the smoker up to temp and let them cook. I also picked up a digital scale because if I am gonna be making sauce for the forseable future, I think it is important to keep notes and that way I can tweak and keep. I do plan on throwing some carrot into the mix, but I do not want to make the sauce too thick. I think pourability is a key component to any good sauce. I am not the biggest fan of slamming the bottom of the bottle a dozen times to get the stuff to come out, and then explode all over you and the dinner guests....

WalkGood said:
Great review, did you name it the White Whale because of issues last review or is that an AKA from the true name “The Billy Boy Douglah” that I've not heard? I didn’t see your last review as I’ve only been here since November 2012. But if you ask my opinion I don’t see any issues as we are all human and prone to mistakes. Fact is that I welcome people to correct what I just wrote or wrote in the past about powders, that way I can learn from others ... Nuff said on the old one …

I love this new one just like the ones I saw before, awesome job mon! I say this because I like the details you put into the review, you do your homework and research very well, don’t think I could review a taste off the top of my head like that, I have to take notes so hat’s off mon \o_

The little needles comparison is an interesting comparison, nice! Great pic updates … pods and soon come pods look great, have a great weekend!

It was a "white whale" inasmuch as the first time I thought I had it, it turned out not to be so. I really enjoy the pods with the great history, and the Billy Boy has all of the history one could want. I like to talk through the review and hopefully get enough of what the pepper is all about to the viewer. The first time I really didnt have much experience and jumped right in. I got my peepee slapped a bit because I didn't do my homework, and now I make it a point to know, or at least try to know, what I am talking about. So when I got the chance to review it, I was super stoked.

GnomeGrown · Jun 20, 2013

MGOLD86 said:
...if I am gonna be making sauce for the forseable future, I think it is important to keep notes and that way I can tweak and keep

Excellent idea.

Dude, how did members here give you a growing season?

(I know and it is an awesome story)

:cheers:

stickman · Jun 21, 2013

MGOLD86 said:
Yea, I ran out and picked up the stuff that I am gonna need. I planned to do it all this afternoon, but time was not on my side! I am busy all day tomorrow, but Saturday is open for me and I plan to get it on! I wanted to smoke the pods for a couple of hours, so I am gonna need some time to get the smoker up to temp and let them cook. I also picked up a digital scale because if I am gonna be making sauce for the forseable future, I think it is important to keep notes and that way I can tweak and keep. I do plan on throwing some carrot into the mix, but I do not want to make the sauce too thick. I think pourability is a key component to any good sauce. I am not the biggest fan of slamming the bottom of the bottle a dozen times to get the stuff to come out, and then explode all over you and the dinner guests....

Hi Matt,
I was only suggesting a couple because I noticed when I fermented mine that the sauce was quite thin, about like tabasco, and unless you have a bottle that restricts flow like theirs does you might want to slow down the pour a little bit... or not... it's your sauce.

PIC 1 · Jun 21, 2013

Have fun with your sauce making and ferments.......... a scale is the best measurement...jot the numbers down......use your "taste buds" to tweek the ingredients.

RocketMan · Jun 21, 2013

Woot, Woot, get it on Matt! Let me know if you have any questions. Oh, and after you wash the jar run it through the dishwasher with the heated dry on. It'll sanatize it and help prevent nasties getti g in.

DocNrock · Jun 22, 2013

That Douglah looked BA, man! Whole pods are too much for me. Glad to see some are humanly capable of downing such a firey creation! Those Brains Jamie sent you look killer, as well. Those from the "Brain Tree?" That thing is awesome.

Your drip system looks great. Love the way you trenched for it. Automated watering makes things soooo much easier. Thinking about an injector? Definitely thinking of one on this end.

"Southern Cutlery." hahaha! The starts are looking great, and the developing pods mean heat is coming soon. Very appropriate for the first day of Summer!

MGOLD86 · Jun 22, 2013

stickman said:
Hi Matt,
I was only suggesting a couple because I noticed when I fermented mine that the sauce was quite thin, about like tabasco, and unless you have a bottle that restricts flow like theirs does you might want to slow down the pour a little bit... or not... it's your sauce.

Yea, I was planning on using them anyways. I had no idea that they were a thickener, so that went into my final decision on how many I used. I do like some "meat to the sauce", I just want to maintain some pourability.

PIC 1 said:
Have fun with your sauce making and ferments.......... a scale is the best measurement...jot the numbers down......use your "taste buds" to tweek the ingredients.

It was a lot of fun, pics up below!

RocketMan said:
Woot, Woot, get it on Matt! Let me know if you have any questions. Oh, and after you wash the jar run it through the dishwasher with the heated dry on. It'll sanatize it and help prevent nasties getti g in.

LOL. I didnt even make it 24 hours before I came a callin!

DocNrock said:
That Douglah looked BA, man! Whole pods are too much for me. Glad to see some are humanly capable of downing such a firey creation! Those Brains Jamie sent you look killer, as well. Those from the "Brain Tree?" That thing is awesome.

Your drip system looks great. Love the way you trenched for it. Automated watering makes things soooo much easier. Thinking about an injector? Definitely thinking of one on this end.

"Southern Cutlery." hahaha! The starts are looking great, and the developing pods mean heat is coming soon. Very appropriate for the first day of Summer!

Youd have to ask Jamie about the brain tree, I am not 100% sure on which plant they came off. I am definitely eying an injector, I think it would be a great way to feed everything quickly and efficiently. I still like to folliar feed with tea, but hitting the roots with the injector would be much easier!

Alrighty, as I alluded to above, my first ferment is cookin! I wasn't able to work on it on Thursday because of timing, but today I was determined! And alas....mother nature told me NO!

Lesser a man, or smarter depending on how you look at it, would have threw in the towel and postponed. But NO, NOT ME! I decided to go for it anyways. I didn't need to worry so much about smoking temp because I was only trying to get a bit of smoke on them and was ok with temps anywhere from 150-250.

So to start I setup my starter. I used whole milk plain yogurt and dripped it through cheesecloth and a mesh strainer into a metal mixing bowl. I got about 1 and a quarter cup of whey in about 3 hours.

I built the fire for low and slow cooking, and used a chunk of hickory and a chunk of apple. I didn't wanna go overboard on the smoke because this is my first ferment and don't know how peppers will hold the smoke.

I decided to go all 7s on this one. Primos, Originals, Barrakpores, Brains, Infinities, and of course...the DOUGLAH. I pulled everything out of the freezer, let them thaw, stemmed, and cut in half. I added in some sun dried tomatoes and a head of garlic.

And 2.5 hours later

I threw it all in a sanitized gallon jug, loosely screwed on the lid and then we wait...

Recipe:

Smoked:
59g garlic
85g sun dried tomatoes
21g 7 Pot Primo
164g 7 Pot Original
85g 7 Pot Barrackpore
160g 7 Pot Jonah
50g Brain Strain
28g Infinity
213g 7 Pot Douglah

Raw:
110g carrots
150g vidalia onion
300g roma tomatoes

About 6 cups water and 1 and a quarter cups of whey.

When I added all the veg to the jar I was sitting just above half way up the jar. I added 4 cups of water and floated the mix a bit, but decided to add more water to create less space in the jar. I will be cooking the sauce down when it has finished fermenting, so that should thicken it up. I am hoping adding more water now will let me add less later. In my mind, water now=flavored in 45 days. Water later=dumb tasteless filth.

For the salt I went with 2.5% by weight, which I rounded up to 35g. Talking to Bill and reading the earlier threads, I decided that since I am using a starter I could go with less salt. But I didn't wanna go with an unsafe amount so I went just below the requirement for peppers when going with wild fermentation. As I grow in this and try other mixes I will tweak.

So it has been a blast, and right about now my arm and half my face are on fire. My glove only goes up to the wrist...and when I REACHED into the jar to mix the ferment by hand before I added water....I guess I was elbow deep....

Thanks for stoppin in! Let me know what you think!

stickman · Jun 22, 2013

Good job on the sauce Matt, how long are you gonna leave it in the jar before processing?

MGOLD86 · Jun 22, 2013

I won't open it until 45 days at the minimum. I would like to keep it going longer, but it will depend on what else I have cooking, how badly I want to get into it, and other stuff. I am hoping to do a couple more of these so they are cooking all the time and once I start pulling in some harvests I have a feeling there will be MANY more jars on the work bench!

Devv · Jun 22, 2013

What do I think?

Way cool!

I want to follow this through, it won't be long before I have the inventory to try something like this.

All looks good from my house, and you have the sauce king to call upon... :onfire:

MGOLD86 · Jun 22, 2013

Devv said:
What do I think?

Way cool!

I want to follow this through, it won't be long before I have the inventory to try something like this.

All looks good from my house, and you have the sauce king to call upon...

Thanks DEVV, should be a HOT one! I wasn't planning on throwing the douglahs, but I wanted to fill the jar a bit more. GONNA BE FRIGGEN HOT!

WalkGood · Jun 22, 2013

Looking good, can't wait 45 days to see da finished sauce