Stefan_W's 2013 Pods A-Ripenin'! Glog

I am going to start the new glog for my upcoming growing season on a bit of a personal note. One year ago tomorrow (January 3rd) is the one year anniversary of the day that my daughter was diagnosed with a tumour that is lodged in the middle of her brain. The past year has involved treatments and hospital stays, and there were at least three different points when we were pretty sure she was not going to make it. But she is a fighter, and nothing could keep her down for long.

Sofia has personally planted every pepper and tomato seed that I have started in the past three growing seasons. She beat the odds last year to help me, and once again she is defying what medicine has to say to help me out this year.

We started a jalapeno plant about a week ago just for the sake of watching it grow, because we both love it so much. One of the jalapenos grew to the point that it had its firt couple of leaves, so we transplanted him into a bigger pot. While we were at it I decided to put in some aji lemondrops, partly because they take a long time to fruit up and I wanted to give them a huge head start.

This is the jalapeno plant. I pulled the second one out because we did not need it, and discovered that the roots had grown all of the way down to the bottom of the cell.

My daughter personally doing the transplant.

Her aim is better than mine, and so it turned out perfectly.

Next up was taking out the lemondrop seeds from peppermania.

I need a few extras of this type, so I asked Sofia to plant two seeds in each of the four cells. Two plants will be for us, and whatever else grows will be given away to good friends.

Two of the three tiers in my lighting stand are currently being used as toy shelves, which is cool for now. The lights are adjustable, and moved down to get close to the seedling.

The heating pad works extremely well, and once the cells are covered the top clouds up in no time.

A happy early jalapeno seedling in his new home. I thought I heard "feeeeeed meeeeee" coming from that direction, but I'm not sure.

That's it for today, folks! Welcome to my new glog

 

[Stefan_W]

Everything's looking great Stefan! Hope the Peach Bonnets and Butch T.s do well for you. My Butch T. is starting to color up too... kind of a streaky orange ATM, but it looks like yours are right behind. Cheers!

 
Yeah, I saw the pic of your in your glog and it looks like it is about a week ahead of mine. I'm really looking forward to trying some Butch-Ts, although I may live to regret whatever I do with them

 

[stickman]

 I'm really looking forward to trying some Butch-Ts, although I may live to regret whatever I do with them

 
 
Maybe you can powder some and give it to your wife to make her famous spiced nuts with at Christmas...

 

[Stefan_W]

 
 
Maybe you can powder some and give it to your wife to make her famous spiced nuts with at Christmas...

 
See, it is that kind of outside the box thinking that makes me really appreciate your comments
 
She'll definitely be making the hot candied almonds again, and I'll be sure to send you some.

 

[stickman]

I'd be honored... cheers!

 

[WalkGood]

Wow … I’m loving da color mon and it’s good to read you are enjoying some fresh pods. I agree with what you said about the dip, good ideas for changes … I’m sure once you implement your mods it will be mas to your liking
 
Peach Scotch Bonnet pic looks very cool, I’d like to read your thoughts on the taste when they ripen. Great job on every ting mon and I hope you have a great weekend ^_^

 

[Devv]

Looking good there Stefan!
 
I too want to hear about the Peach Scotch Bonnet.
 
That Butch T should light you up just fine!

 

[Stefan_W]

Wow … I’m loving da color mon and it’s good to read you are enjoying some fresh pods. I agree with what you said about the dip, good ideas for changes … I’m sure once you implement your mods it will be mas to your liking
 
Peach Scotch Bonnet pic looks very cool, I’d like to read your thoughts on the taste when they ripen. Great job on every ting mon and I hope you have a great weekend ^_^

 
I'll definitely write up my impressions on the peach scotch bonnets once they have ripened. They look really cool right now, which is a good thing. Take care!

Looking good there Stefan!
 
I too want to hear about the Peach Scotch Bonnet.
 
That Butch T should light you up just fine!

 
I definitely plan to respect the Butch T, seeing as it is the hottest pepper I have this year. The first couple usually are not as hot as ones picked later, so I will probably stick to tasting it straight up with the first ripe pod and leave it at that. 
I went out to water after supper, and discovered that a couple of the yellow SR 7s are starting to ripen! I was a bit down for a couple of weeks there when everything stalled out, but now that things are changing colour I am definitely a happy camper!
 

 

[Stefan_W]

A very quick update.
 
I stopped some ripening on a bhut. Woohoo! If it works out the same as last year, things will be moving fast now.

 
Luckily the timing is good, because I love garlic based sauces and I pulled my garlic today. I am now letting all 37 heads cure. About 10 or so will be used for re-planting, while the rest will end up in assorted suppers and sauces.

 
Cheers!
 

 

[Devv]

Congrats on the coloring up!
 
Those garlic look great! Mine all spoiled while we were traveling, we had the AC set up higher and I guess it got too hot. Perhaps I didn't cure them properly. So how do you cure your garlic? I left mine outside a few days in the shade, too hot in the sun here...

 

[WalkGood]

Congrats on da pull, pods & pics looking Irie mon! Have a great week ^_^

 

[Stefan_W]

Congrats on the coloring up!
 
Those garlic look great! Mine all spoiled while we were traveling, we had the AC set up higher and I guess it got too hot. Perhaps I didn't cure them properly. So how do you cure your garlic? I left mine outside a few days in the shade, too hot in the sun here...

 
The key to curing garlic is air flow, and removing moisture if you can. If garlic is piled at all or if there is a lack of air moving over all parts of the bulb it could turn brown and spoil. I usually leave it outside for a day after picking so the dirt dries and is easier to remove, then I tie the stems into small bundles and hang it up in my garage to dry. It works really well most of the time, but the garage is a less than ideal place to do it. 

Congrats on da pull, pods & pics looking Irie mon! Have a great week ^_^

 
Thank you, you have a great week too!

 

[Stefan_W]

Interesting. I have been eagerly watching my yellow 7s ripen, and today they took a step toward red. I know the yellow 7s are prone to have a lot of orange in them, but I am wondering if this will become a not yellow 7. It would be cool either way because I have two of the plants, so if one is true and the other is red it is probably a good thing.

 
Tobago treasures are piling up. Today's harvest was pretty good, and it is looking a lot like salsa making time.

 
Thanks for stopping by!

 

[stickman]

That's kind of spooky Stefan... I planted 2 of the large-pod Yellow 7s from Pepperlover's seeds... one is yellow and the other is brown. It makes me wonder if it's an unstable variety. It's gotta feel good to finally have your Chinense varieties coloring up in time for a good harvest. Cheers bro'!

 

[Stefan_W]

That's kind of spooky Stefan... I planted 2 of the large-pod Yellow 7s from Pepperlover's seeds... one is yellow and the other is brown. It makes me wonder if it's an unstable variety. It's gotta feel good to finally have your Chinense varieties coloring up in time for a good harvest. Cheers bro'!

 
Yeah, it is kind of weird. I'm sure your right about being unstable, the yellow must not be a naturally occurring colour. I'm definitely happy seeing at least a little bit of red on most plants now. The Bahamian Goat peppers have a couple of red slivers showing, which is awesome. About a half dozen ghost are going, with more on the way. Life is good right now.

 

[GA Growhead]

Stefan, my two Tobago treasures are both yellow. I really am digging them, good taste with moderate heat. I also have a couple yel 7 larges from pepperlover, but none have changed yet.
Red is dominant, so could show back up in any pepper, just less chance when mostly stable. I'm beginning to see how young most of these super hots are. Crazy you got two miss fires though. But more selection for you, so agreeing that it's not a loss.
Good to see pods ripening.
Take care

 

[Stefan_W]

Stefan, my two Tobago treasures are both yellow. I really am digging them, good taste with moderate heat. I also have a couple yel 7 larges from pepperlover, but none have changed yet.
Red is dominant, so could show back up in any pepper, just less chance when mostly stable. I'm beginning to see how young most of these super hots are. Crazy you got two miss fires though. But more selection for you, so agreeing that it's not a loss.
Good to see pods ripening.
Take care

 
You bring up a good point about red being dominant. I'm sure that has a lot to do with what I am seeing. To be honest, I don't mind so much if the pepper grows true except for colour. I get more annoyed when I buy one type of seed and I get an entirely different type of pepper, which actually happened this year with my firecrackers. I bought more seeds even though I do not care for the seller (I'll just refer to him as PT Barnum to keep from naming him) because I enjoyed my firecrackers in assorted sauces last year. The pods I am getting from the new plant this year are approx 30-40 time bigger (small cone versus very large) and taste nothing like the ones I had last year. It ended up being a complete waste of space. 
 
The treasures have pretty good taste, and I like them even though I do not like hab type flavours much. My wife likes them, which is important. 

 

[Devv]

Very nice on the coloring!
 
And as you mentioned good thing if the wife likes what you're growing.
 
Here's to continued success!

 

[Stefan_W]

Every once in a while the guys get together for a beer tasting night. We gather up an assortment of beers, taste them and give them a rating, and the top three beers are announced at the end of the night. At the end of the year there is an all star beer tasting with only beers that were in the top three during other nights, and the overall winner is crowned. Loads of great beer, and tons of fun.
 
Tomorrow night is the next beer tasting. I set a high bar at about this time last year, because I had ghost pepper salsa made and ready to go. This year the supers are starting to ripen, but they wont be good to go for a little while yet. 
 
No problem. I decided to put together a very cool dish. Tonight I will post part 1 of the pics, and it will all come together tomorrow when I take pics of what it ends up being and post part 2.
 
The first step was to make fresh salsa. I used tobago treasures, four different types of fresh picked tomatoes from my garden, a couple of heads of garlic, and come cilantro. 

 
The next step was to add some kick to a brick of cream cheese. First I put it into a glass container.

 
Then I selected some powder. I picked a very lethal one that was cherrywood smoked, because I love the flavour (a big shout out to Joyner's here!). It is nasty hot though.

 
I added quite a bit. I mixed the powder in and gave it a taste, and the heat was really up there. Then I popped it into the fridge for tomorrow.

 
The salsa was really colourful, and it smelled great when it was cooking. That is always a good sign.

 
It is cooling now, and I am having trouble stopping myself from eating it all right away. Man, this stuff is great! The heat level is reasonable enough that I can eat a pile of it all at once.

 
Stay tuned for tomorrow night, when I post part 2 and show the dish put together.

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

Oh hell yes! I miss that powder so much. I need to learn to keep more for myself...Care if I steal the picture for the FB page?
 
I am going to stay tuned and would love to see final pic!!

 

[Stefan_W]

Oh hell yes! I miss that powder so much. I need to learn to keep more for myself...Care if I steal the picture for the FB page?
 
I am going to stay tuned and would love to see final pic!!

 
Sure thing, feel free to use my pics to spread the word on your powders