Sawyer '18 – Back from the Void

Sawyer · Jun 7, 2018

Genetikx said:
Came to see how you were doing...yup, you got things well under control!

Padron is the same as poblano or just similar?

Thanks, Ryan. "Under control" might be an exaggeration, but I'm trying.

Poblano and Padron aren't the same. I'm not really sure how similar they are. I think the Poblano is significantly larger. I guess they both have the variable heat thing going. They might play similar roles in Mexican and Spanish cuisine, respectively.

Devv · Jun 9, 2018

The Padron is about half the size of a Poblano, it also has a thinner wall. Heats in the same range. Padrons should do well stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon. We also use them in salads and we're drying some as well. Another use would be diced and cooked with Squash or Asparagus with Garlic; we use a pinch Avocado oil when cooking them.

DontPanic · Jun 12, 2018

The Original Ghosts, Mystery Jalapeños, and Fudge arrived Monday.

Thanks for all your generosity and effort on these.

Everything looks like it made it in good condition. I was worried about them sitting in a hot warehouse somewhere, but it looks like they made it just fine.

There's more plants in there than it looks like. I broke these four bundles of pepper seedlings up into 10 pots. I could have broken them out even further, but it is already more than I need at this point in the year.

The fudge is really good. The mixture of heat and sweetness is unique. Did I detect some Orange flavor in that batch? It also tasted alittle like caramel, but maybe that was the vanilla flavoring? The consistency was fine, pretty much exactly what I'd expect for fudge. As an added benefit, you can probably count on the kids leaving it alone.

I know it's late in the year to be working with seedlings, but my first freeze isn't typically until the end of November or beginning of December, so I should still have time to get a harvest in the fall.

Thanks again for everything!

Sawyer · Jun 14, 2018

Devv said:
The Padron is about half the size of a Poblano, it also has a thinner wall. Heats in the same range. Padrons should do well stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon. We also use them in salads and we're drying some as well. Another use would be diced and cooked with Squash or Asparagus with Garlic; we use a pinch Avocado oil when cooking them.

All those sound tasty. And avocado oil is hands down my favorite oil for high temperature cooking. It has the highest smoke point of the commonly available oils and in RBDW form, has a relatively neutral flavor. Try it for making popcorn sometime.

I'm going to let this first Padron pod ripen for seed, since nothing else was blooming at the time it set, but cheese stuffing and bacon wrap are in the future for some of the others.

DontPanic said:
The Original Ghosts, Mystery Jalapeños, and Fudge arrived Monday.

Thanks for all your generosity and effort on these.

Everything looks like it made it in good condition. I was worried about them sitting in a hot warehouse somewhere, but it looks like they made it just fine.

There's more plants in there than it looks like. I broke these four bundles of pepper seedlings up into 10 pots. I could have broken them out even further, but it is already more than I need at this point in the year.

The fudge is really good. The mixture of heat and sweetness is unique. Did I detect some Orange flavor in that batch? It also tasted alittle like caramel, but maybe that was the vanilla flavoring? The consistency was fine, pretty much exactly what I'd expect for fudge. As an added benefit, you can probably count on the kids leaving it alone.

I know it's late in the year to be working with seedlings, but my first freeze isn't typically until the end of November or beginning of December, so I should still have time to get a harvest in the fall.

Thanks again for everything!

You're welcome. I'm glad the plants made it. They look a little stressed, but less so than I would be if I'd just spent a few days sealed up in an unventilated cardboard box.

Thanks for the feedback on the fudge. There is both orange and vanilla flavoring in it. The caramel flavor could be the vanilla or could come from the processing. It's been a challenge to get the consistency right, but I'm getting close. Working on packaging and labeling now.

Sawyer · Jun 17, 2018

Well, things are moving along slowly here. Finally got some plants in the ground yesterday. Ghosts and and a variety of cherry tomatoes. Back around last Thanksgiving, Walmart had a clear plastic football-shaped package of seven different kinds of cherry tomatoes ranging in color from yellow to dark purple. I figure most are probably hybrids, but it will be interesting to see what grows from them.

My garden is a total disaster, with bamboo encroaching on one end and brambles everywhere else. I have a couple spots almost ready, but in the meantime, I'm turning my front yard into garden space. (Already have blueberries and apple trees there.) The soil there is much poorer than in the garden proper, seems to be mostly sand and clay, enough sand that it has excellent drainage.

The Bocking comfrey I tried to grow there two or three years ago barely survived, so I've moved those that did survive to pots and have put the peppers and tomatoes into the vacated holes. I added a fistful of Azomite to each hole and will water with a low dose of water-soluble fertilizer each time I water.

If I'm going to have any significant production this year, I have to get a 18' x 30' framework set up and covered for some season extension.

As it stands, only the OWs are going to have a decent shot at doing their thing. Papa Dreadie, Bahamian Goat, Padron, Tepin, and a couple I won't know what they are until they start producing. Most of these have been up-potted to their final pots for the year and are starting to grow again.

I'll post some pictures in a day or two, if the damn deer and rabbits don't eat everything first.

PS - Gonna watch the CWS this afternoon. Woo Pig Sooie!

TrentL · Jun 17, 2018

Hopefully things work out for you, tilling up new ground and throwing plants in is always like throwing a hail mary, but as long as the soil is well drained and in the right pH range you can always prop 'em up on liquid nutes!

Sawyer · Jun 25, 2018

TrentL said:
Hopefully things work out for you, tilling up new ground and throwing plants in is always like throwing a hail mary, but as long as the soil is well drained and in the right pH range you can always prop 'em up on liquid nutes!

Thanks, Trent. I'm doing all this by hand with a shovel, posthole digger and a hatchet (for roots from nearby silver maple trees.)

My tiller is wedged into a decaying outbuilding that has black vultures nesting in it. I thought that was pretty cool for the first couple of years, but last year I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of vultures in a field a few miles from here. Guess they aren't as threatened as I thought they were. Once the goofy youngsters fledge, I'll drag out the tiller. And try to demo and start a replacement building before next nesting season.

Anyway, I'm digging holes and have one hugelkultur bed in preparation. Augmenting with Azomite, 10-10-10, kelp meal, whatever else I can find around here. Going to put as many in pots as I have mix for. And I do have plenty of Peters water soluble and some trace elements, forget the brands of those right now.

For all the plants I've started this year, I have a pretty pitiful showing. And these pictures are all OWs; they weren't even started this year.

The plant that is doing the best isn't even on my property, but in a friend's back yard a few miles from here. It's a P. Dreadie from the original seed Gary sent in 2016. I posted some pics of it over in that dedicated thread: http://thehotpepper.com/topic/58705-p-dreadie-memorial-group-grow-2016/?p=1562020

Next up is a Tepin, or Pequin, or something like that. The seed came from Mike (Capsidadburn) two or three years ago. I harvested a bunch of smooth round pea-sized berries off it earlier this year. It's just now starting to show some buds after being repotted:

I'm pretty sure the maybe-Padron is, in fact, a Padron. The one pod it had fell off after getting damaged when I repotted the plant, but it tasted okay, with just a hint of heat. The plant is starting to put on a few more pods now.

Padron pod:

This Bahamian Goat is going to do well, I think, now that it's in its final pot for the year:

BG pod

I don't know what this one is. Whatever it is, it's starting to do it's thing. Guess we'll find out what it is once the pods ripen.

unknown flower

unknown pod

More to follow.

Sawyer · Jun 25, 2018

Just because I have a current picture, here's a flat of Reapers. I don't have much use for these; I started them for someone else, but they took too long to get going. Guess I'll figure out something to do with them. Reapers:

Here are some shots of some nons. Thought about starting a grow log in "others" (because I have a lot of "others"), but I can hardly keep up with this one.

Phlox:

This is my best, biggest turmeric. Finally figured out how to ow them. (Ignore them, they die back in the winter, but pop up in the spring when the time is right. Just never let them freeze.)

Here are some more ow turmeric and ginger:

Here's some new turmeric started from rhizomes purchased fresh at the store this year. It's much easier to propagate from my own rhizomes. They start faster and reach division size more quickly. It takes forever to break dormancy on store-bought stock.

New ginger. Same is true for ginger, though it does start somewhat more easily from store-bought stock than turmeric.

Cardamom is one of my favorites.
It's evergreen, so ignoring it in the winter isn't an option, but it's not extremely demanding.

I'm pretty sure that's ow ginger popping up in the foreground, and maybe turmeric in the back left.

Black pepper is another favorite. A little light, a little water, keep it warm and it just sits there all winter. Together with the cardamom, these are known as the king and queen of spices.

I'm really most passionate about native plants. I rescued a few hundred of these Jack-in-the-pulpit seedlings from a location where they had no chance to survive. (Likewise with some Solomon's seal, but apparently I didn't take any pictures of them today.)

I bought the seeds for this ginseng. This is about all they do (above ground) in the first year.

TrentL · Jun 26, 2018

Those reapers might still produce something this year, might not be much, but some. The trick with "using" those for normal food is to dry and pound them in to flake (I use a couple paper bowls, with the dried slices inbetween, then you can pound on it until they are broken up to the density of your liking). Dilute with something more palatable at like 1:20 (habanero or ??), you'll still get that ultrahot smell, but the resulting flake is not nearly as gut wrenchingly hot. Good on beef jerky.

You'd probably only get a few pods if you grew them out at this point, but .. a little goes a very, very long way with those unless you really like suffering.

Speaking of native plants, out in my backyard I've got a rather robust collection of Jewelweed growing.

This plant is a natural remedy for poison ivy, which we also unfortunately have in abundance.

I plan on transplanting some of it out to our "new old house" when it is getting closer to completion; grows well in shade, and has a natural medicine property that I like.

I discovered it quite by accident when looking for poison ivy to eradicate, as one of my kids got hit real bad with it mowing grass. I'm not allergic to poison ivy so was out pulling it with my bare hands to get it out from under the deck, etc. I didn't recognize those trumpet shaped bright orange flowers, so spent some time researching.

Only to discover it's the remedy for the very plant I was working to eradicate!

I crushed up some stems, leaves, flowers, put it on my daughters arms where she had poison ivy BAD, wrapped the mush with bandages, and by the middle of the next day all signs of poison ivy were gone.

Stuff works great.

Sawyer · Jun 26, 2018

I actually have quite a bit of jewelweed, too. It's not doing nearly as well as yours, though. Early on it got infested with mealybugs. I sprayed with Safer's Insecticidal Soap.

The bugs hopped away and didn't seem too affected, but it almost killed the jewelweed. I dumped it, mixed up a new batch at a lower strength, but also included some liquid Sevin (carbaryl, the real deal), and that got the bugs under control and doesn't seem to increase the damage. The jewelweed is slow to recover, though.

I'm happy to hear another account of the efficacy of jewelweed against poison ivy. I'm not allergic, either, but have had two experiences with those who are, and the results were the same as yours. It's kind of amazing that it is so often found growing near poison ivy, right where it's needed.

It's one of the plants I plan to extract botanicals from when I get an extraction system set up. The extract can be used in an topical treatment or in soap.

Sawyer · Jun 26, 2018

Woo Pig Sooie

Devv · Jun 27, 2018

Very interesting John, I really need to get more into the spices. Retirement is close and once I have the time, I'll see what I can do. Right now we try and grow the stuff that makes up everyday purchases.

You mentioned the tiller. I now use a broadfork I made late last season. The goal is to stop replanting those weed seeds every year

Sawyer · Jul 6, 2018

Devv said:
Very interesting John, I really need to get more into the spices. Retirement is close and once I have the time, I'll see what I can do. Right now we try and grow the stuff that makes up everyday purchases.

Thanks, Scott, I think you'll really enjoy growing spices if/when you get into it. Turmeric is especially fascinating to me. I'm not entirely convinced it lives up to its reputation health-wise, especially when used raw and unprocessed. From what I understand, the traditional method of processing (boiling fresh rhizomes to a certain point, followed by sun drying and grinding) induces chemical reactions that enhance the health benefits. But what really fascinates me is the plants will-to-live. I'll come back to this later, otherwise I won't get my pepper update posted.

I finally have some more plants in the ground, Red Ghosts, Red and Yellow Moruga Scorpions. Many more are newly up-potted to larger pots, PDNXBMJ (or PBJ as I call it in my personal notes - saves space writing), Sulu Adana, a couple of mysteries, and more Scorpions. All of these are getting settled in, but are still pretty camera shy.

The ones that have been potted up for awhile, though, are starting to show some promise. The Padron is coming along:

After losing its first pod, it had a couple more, but I ate one yesterday. The other is just outside the frame to the right in the picture. But it has a lot of buds coming on.

This Bahamian Goat was actually looking a little better yesterday than in this picture from today:

Looking at this before I posted it, I zoomed in to look for pods. (It has some, I swear.) But can you see the evil monster I found? I dropped everything, grabbed some scissors and ran out to dispatch the bastid. It had already eaten one whole growing tip. But it won't be eating anymore.

This mystery plant is doing the best job of all at putting on pods.

The pods look habanero-like, but I don't know. The flowers point downward, but as soon as a fruit sets, it turns to an upright position. Then as the pod puts on weight, it turns to a pendulous position. Maybe that's a common behaviour, but I never noticed it before.

I'm increasingly convinced this one (seed from Mike, aka capsidadburn) is a wild Texas chiltepin:

It had smooth round pea-sized pods on it that persisted all winter. According to Wikipedia, they can get as hot as 2.5 million SHU. I'm skeptical, but the OW pods were definitely hot. I downloaded the paper referenced in the Wikipedia article, but haven't studied it yet. I did notice the 2.5 million number came from a spectrophotometric measurement. HPLC of the same sample yielded "only" 1.6 million SHU.

The wiki article also claims these plants can live up to 50 years. Hmmm...

This last one is another unknown:

I remember sticking a seedling in that pot, er, "temporarily", but don't remember what it is. It took me awhile to remember the tag label, "T&A", stands for turmeric and avocado. (What did you expect?) That's turmeric coming up in the middle. The avocado pits were fairly dried out, so they may not sprout.

Walchit · Jul 6, 2018

TrentL said:
Those reapers might still produce something this year, might not be much, but some. The trick with "using" those for normal food is to dry and pound them in to flake (I use a couple paper bowls, with the dried slices inbetween, then you can pound on it until they are broken up to the density of your liking). Dilute with something more palatable at like 1:20 (habanero or ??), you'll still get that ultrahot smell, but the resulting flake is not nearly as gut wrenchingly hot. Good on beef jerky.

You'd probably only get a few pods if you grew them out at this point, but .. a little goes a very, very long way with those unless you really like suffering.

Speaking of native plants, out in my backyard I've got a rather robust collection of Jewelweed growing.

This plant is a natural remedy for poison ivy, which we also unfortunately have in abundance.

I plan on transplanting some of it out to our "new old house" when it is getting closer to completion; grows well in shade, and has a natural medicine property that I like.
I discovered it quite by accident when looking for poison ivy to eradicate, as one of my kids got hit real bad with it mowing grass. I'm not allergic to poison ivy so was out pulling it with my bare hands to get it out from under the deck, etc. I didn't recognize those trumpet shaped bright orange flowers, so spent some time researching.

Only to discover it's the remedy for the very plant I was working to eradicate!

I crushed up some stems, leaves, flowers, put it on my daughters arms where she had poison ivy BAD, wrapped the mush with bandages, and by the middle of the next day all signs of poison ivy were gone.

Stuff works great.

Got a spare bubble mailer of that jewelweed? I got into the ivy pretty bad the other day lol

Sawyer · Jul 6, 2018

Walchit said:
Got a spare bubble mailer of that jewelweed? I got into the ivy pretty bad the other day lol

Well, not liking that you got a bad case of ivy, but that you seem to have kept a sense of humor about it.

Walchit · Jul 6, 2018

Yeah, this is the worst I've had it in a while. I usually wash really good with technu soap after I'm around anythi g I think might have ivy. I was really busy that day and didn't get washed in time I guess

Devv · Jul 6, 2018

Ohhh, not fun! I hope you feel better...

I usually have to get a steroid pak. So glad that stuff is not around my place...

TrentL · Jul 6, 2018

Walchit said:
Got a spare bubble mailer of that jewelweed? I got into the ivy pretty bad the other day lol

Hell I could send you an envelope of it if you want to give it a try, although I suspect by the time it arrives you'll be on the mend. I've got a ton of it in the woods out back, it grows native here.

Sawyer · Jul 7, 2018

The jewelweed I was trying to grow here on my place never recovered from being sprayed with insecticidal soap, but I know where a lot of it is growing. Need to grab an armload and do some different extractions to see if I can isolate the active component(s). Not sure about intentionally trying to give myself a case of poison ivy in order to test the extracts, though. I don't normally break out just from casual contact, but on occasion I've had a small itchy spot that I think was ivy.

Anyway, as noted above I scissored the head off a hornworm. But apparently there were two. Noticed yesterday that the entire top of the Tepin plant is missing. Big fat green bastard got smashed for its sins.

And the "Tepin" may be a Pequin. It had round pods last winter, but the new ones are more oval. I guess time will tell.

Sawyer · Jul 8, 2018

Papa Dreadie pods are starting to ripen.

These first pods don't have the desired shape, hence the post here instead of the community glog. This plant is well-isolated in a suburban back yard where none of the neighbors have a garden (as far as I can tell). Once the pod shape... shapes up, I'll start saving isolated seed.