Sawyer's 2013 Glog - Last Harvest/First Sauce

Sawyer · Dec 9, 2013

I had some horseradish for a couple of years, several years ago, but it died out, too. I never did anything with it, but have been thinking of trying to get some re-established.

Penny · Dec 9, 2013

I was told to start it in a large pot though, that it takes over everything.

Sawyer · Dec 9, 2013

Horseradish? Yeah, the patch I had got pretty big. Never did figure out why it died. May have needed thinning.

Penny · Dec 9, 2013

That could be, I've read that you do have to thin it out. You have a PM too...

Devv · Dec 9, 2013

Sawyer said:
I've been inconsistent with my winter (cover-)cropping, but I'm a big believer and proselytizer. A long time ago, I mentioned my various winter grains projects, several varieties each of rye, oat, wheat, barley, along with vetch, canola, flax, and several root crops I've selected for cold tolerance. I've long since missed optimal planting time for these, but I think I'll start some indoors now for plant-out when/if we get a warm spell in a few weeks.

Reading up some more on hairy vetch, I find the optimum germination temperature to be between about 60ºF and 70ºF. Turns out, though, planting now is a thing, called "dormant planting". The idea is that the seeds remain dormant until the ground warms in the spring, then germinate and grow even if the ground is too wet to work. That's often the case here, so maybe I didn't waste the seed.

Heck yeah, DJ, PM to follow shortly. That White Fatalii sounds interesting. And, yeah, a balanced diet and proper exercise are the key to a healthy metabolism. Not that I'm aces on either.

Okay, I've made possibly the last batch of marmalade for awhile, a Scorpion Lemon Ginger Marmalade. Here's some of what I started with:

John,

I planted crimson clover between the cold spells after I pulled the last plants out of the garden, watered a few days and it came up in the cold nasty weather we've been having. I already had the rest of the garden planted. So I'm thinking you'll be OK with the vetch, just need a few warmer days.

Loving the Marmalade recipes, need to give that a whirl. Perhaps next weekend.

Stay warm!

PaulG · Dec 9, 2013

Hail to the Marmalade King! I have an intense desire for toast all of a sudden.
Thanks for posting those, John - duly bookmarked for further reference!

Cool snow pix, BTW.

Sawyer · Dec 12, 2013

Thanks, guys. The marmalade is good. I'm thinking one more batch, or maybe a batch of straight jam or jelly, then time to try some sauces.

The snow fell last Thursday night through Friday day, basically a week ago. This is what my garden looked like yesterday:

It's somewhat unusual for us to get this much snow here, and rarer still for it to stick around this long. It got up to 40ºF today for the first time in a week and yesterday was the first day above freezing. You can see the remnants of this year's in-ground grow, starting in the center middle ground and going off to the left, stopping a few rows short of the white-tipped t-post in the far left distance. Everything else has been fallow for at least a year, but except for two patches, is now mowed, tilled, and planted to rye and vetch. Not all of that "new" space will go to peppers next year, but quite a bit will. And the garden actually extends a bit to the left and right of the field of view in the photo.

The tree a little to the right of that far left t-post is mulberry that is, for now, providing shade in the garden. The clump in front and to the right of the mulberry is a blackberry patch that has been expanding a bit every year. It's big enough now that before spring I'll cut a path into the center of it and have access both inside and out this next season. The tree in the center background is a catalpa that is just outside the far NW corner, diagonal from where I'm standing in the SE corner. The patch in front of it is weeds growing and brush piled inside an old out building stone foundation. I'll burn that before spring and plant possibly tobacco there next year (for insecticidal purposes). It doesn't show well in this photo, but there is room between the far end of the foundation and the catalpa for a good four or five north-south rows.

I've been trading some seeds and got this in return from Paul (PaulG):

A nice, reasonable exchange, I thought. (Note to self: buy eggs to scramble with powder.)

Then I got this from Jason (GA Growhead):

Now granted, I sent Jason more seeds than Paul, but holy cow, talk about throwing a wrench in my 2014 grow list! Though in this case, it's wrench I'm happy to have.

Thanks, guys!

PaulG · Dec 12, 2013

you got a complete grow from Jason, including dried pods!

Glad the little package made it there. Gotta love USPS. Scramble
sounds great!

Pinoy83 · Dec 12, 2013

nice package...your grow list is gonna be big this coming 2014 :dance:

Devv · Dec 12, 2013

Nice scores John!

I'm in the same boat, more seeds, means more room needed!

It's a good place to be, gotta love the love here!

Penny · Dec 13, 2013

Great trades indeed, and your package is on the way, I hope it arrives before Christmas :dance:

Sawyer · Dec 31, 2013

Had my last harvest for the year a couple of days ago. These pods set before bringing the plants in for the winter are from plants in the front room where they get enough light to go ahead an ripen. The Jigsaw, 7P Brown, BJ Brown, and the "nots" are from larger plants. Everything else came from plants in 3.5" square pots that never got potted up.

Clockwise from the lower left: A couple of orange BJs (cut off in the frame), 4 orange Habaneros, some red TS, a bunch of White Bullet Habs, a single yellow 7P, some brown 7P, yellow TS, a bunch of two different kinds of "nots" on the far right, then some Jigsaws, and finally some brown BJ. For some reason my camera does a very poor job rendering the Jigsaw.

I'll probably have a few more things to say here about the 2013 grow, but for the most part, I'll be moving on to the 2014 log. Thanks to all for stopping by now and again. I look forward seeing how everyone's efforts pay off in 2014. Happy New Year!

Sawyer · Jan 2, 2014

I'll retire this thread soon but since this post relates to the disposition of last year's harvest and references the picture above, this seems a more appropriate place for it than the 2014 thread.

I finished my first sauce (as opposed to purée) yesterday. Not feeling particularly creative in the naming department, I'm calling it Brown Sauce #1.

Total amount was about 5 bottles, but some is in a jar in the fridge and I took one bottle to the bar for sampling (more about that in a moment). The peppers are 6 each of the Brown Ghost and Brown 7 Pot peppers shown in the picture in the previous post. That works out to more than two peppers per bottle, and the heat level is commensurate, but not overwhelming. Other ingredients include red onion, raisins, quince purée, water, apple cider vinegar, garlic, cinnamon, liquid smoke (couldn't get it together to fire up the grill for a real smoke), lime juice, coffee, bourbon, and salt to taste.

This was just an experiment, so there will be recipes #2, #3, #4, etc., but this one turned out much better than I could have hoped for. It's savory-sweet (more savory) and about as hot as a typical Habanero sauce, I think, maybe a little hotter. I kept tasting and adding ingredients, all the while wondering what it would go well with. Well, during all this, on an adjacent burner I was cooking some black-eye peas. (I wasn't going to do anything this year, but then I remembered I didn't last year, either, and considering how bad the market was to me last year, I decided I better cook some peas.) I thought, well, heck, let's give it a try. Unfortunately, I only made enough peas for one large bowl. I started with somewhat less than a tablespoon of sauce (knowing it was going to kick), tasted, added another spoonful and wolfed down the bowl. The stuff is addictive. I may have to cook some more peas. My nose was running and eyes tearing, but I couldn't stop eating it.

As I said, I took a bottle of it to the local bar last night for sampling along with a box of saltines. The bottle was empty and the crackers gone by the time I left. Everyone that tasted it, loved it, and I'm pretty sure they weren't just being polite. I could have sold a case of bottles on the spot at $5 a pop. One guy is opening a new chicken-themed restaurant and wants to offer my sauces there. (I think a white sauce I'm thinking about will be better for chicken.) Another guy is planning a neighborhood market near the University (why no one has thought of that before is a mystery) and wants to stock the sauce there. Guess I'd better plant more browns. Hope this wasn't just beginner's luck.

capsidadburn · Jan 2, 2014

Looks great John!

I know it's a nice feeling when the accolades are sincere and not forced. Empty bottle's speak well too! I love making the small batch sauces to give to friends, family, and, coworkers. I'm not sure I am the kind of person that could do it for a living. I'm not quite sure if I need to even contemplate that though. It's fun now and thats all that matters to me.

Good luck with the sauces! The more under your belt the more confidant you'll be.

Mike

JJJessee · Jan 2, 2014

That recipe with the coffee and boubon sounds like a winning combo.
Call it Razorback Drool on the label with a sprinting razorback and flames coming out the corner his mouth

Congrats on a successful 2013 season.

Penny · Jan 3, 2014

Nice looking sauce and bottles. :dance:

Sawyer · Jan 3, 2014

capsidadburn said:
Looks great John!

I know it's a nice feeling when the accolades are sincere and not forced. Empty bottle's speak well too! I love making the small batch sauces to give to friends, family, and, coworkers. I'm not sure I am the kind of person that could do it for a living. I'm not quite sure if I need to even contemplate that though. It's fun now and thats all that matters to me.

Good luck with the sauces! The more under your belt the more confidant you'll be.

Mike

Thanks, Mike. I also took a jar of the sweet pickled jalapeno rings and a couple of jars of the marmalades. It was all well-received (and mostly consumed).

I wouldn't want to do it for a living long term. I'm more of a project-oriented person. I could see getting things set up and running and then handing the operation over to someone more so inclined. In any case, the direct processing of peppers into food products is just one aspect of a larger vision that's been developing over the last couple of years. Stayed tuned for more on that in the coming season(s).

JJJessee said:
That recipe with the coffee and boubon sounds like a winning combo.
Call it Razorback Drool on the label with a sprinting razorback and flames coming out the corner his mouth
Congrats on a successful 2013 season.

Thanks, JJJ. Coffee is the "secret" ingredient in a lot of tasty recipes. (I put some in my brownie recipe, too.) The bourbon just added that little extra "something" I was looking for. Naming and labeling was an amusing topic of discussion the other night. A lot of booze-inspired suggestions were made, not all bearing repeating. I don't know about the Razorback idea, though. The University plays hardball with their brand; I'd have to look into what the licensing fees are. Funny you bring it up, though. I forgot to mention yesterday, but one of the guys at the tasting manages the sky-boxes for the football games and was really interested in getting some goodies for game day spreads.

Penny said:
Nice looking sauce and bottles.

Thanks, Penny. I recycle all the bottles I can get my hands on. For a while I had several friends and acquaintances saving their empties for me, but that's slacked off recently. Guess I need to entice a renewed effort with gifts of full bottles.

It's chilly here this morning, 12ºF at Drake Field, the old airport.

annie57 · Jan 4, 2014

Wow, sauce looks nice. Very similar to what I did with Bevo/Squealer except fermented. (Need to get you on the ferment bug, John--set and forget with good starter and airlocks. Fermenting helps ya unload more peppers in a sauce with a "call me mellow yellow, brown, red" whatever, feel.) Coffee, bourbon, raisins, and those particular peppers work! Nice sauce! No; they weren't playing with ya: people tend to be brutal when it comes to hot sauce, which I like. Congrats!! :clap:

Marmalade: yum!

Sawyer · Jan 5, 2014

Thanks for the kudos, Annie. I keep planning to try some ferments; I've got starter, airlocks and containers. I guess it will have to wait for the new season's harvest, although, I had left a couple of sample jars of purée, one red, one yellow, at the local bar for them to experiment with making drinks. I brought the red one back home when it popped upon opening and gave off a little puff of vapor. Still smells okay, but it's definitely doing some sort of fermenting.

I've got more color-coordinated sauces coming up, but I'll probably post those in the 2014 log.

Devv · Jan 5, 2014

John I have to concur with the above compliments, especially when the bottle has been emptied!. Sounds like you did it right!