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

 

[Sanarda]

Great update Stefan.  Pods are picture perfect.  That is some awesome pixie dust Sofia has.   

 

[Stefan_W]

Sweet update! Pods are everwhere!

 
Thank you very much! Definitely loads of pods ripening now. 

Great update Stefan.  Pods are picture perfect.  That is some awesome pixie dust Sofia has.   

 
Yup, she definitely has the magic touch. Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Devv]

Wonderful updates!
 
I had my 4 G-kids visit this weekend and fell behind.
 
The jelly looks great! as well as the plant pics and the harvest!
 
Glad to see it's all coming together for you! It's been a tough year with crazy weather for sure!
 
Have a great week!

 

[Stefan_W]

Wonderful updates!
 
I had my 4 G-kids visit this weekend and fell behind.
 
The jelly looks great! as well as the plant pics and the harvest!
 
Glad to see it's all coming together for you! It's been a tough year with crazy weather for sure!
 
Have a great week!

 
Thanks a lot! I hope your visit with your grandkids went great. 
 
Yeah, the weather was tough but I managed. We all face our challenges depending on where we are, and no grow ever goes perfect (or even as planned). That is part of the fun of it all. I learned this year that I can grow pretty much any pepper, even the ones we are not supposed to be able to grow way up here

 

[Stefan_W]

Sofia and I had what was easily our best harvest of the year this evening. We picked well over 100 pods. It took me a week to get to 40 aji lemondrops to make the pepper jelly on the weekend, and tonight alone we picked another 45 ripe lemondrops. It was fantastic!

 
The 7 pods are huge producers, and I am getting quite a few per day between my two plants. I filled a large basket already, and there are too many to use right away so I plan to freeze them soon.

 
We picked another couple of Madame Jeanettes. It took me months to track down seeds, and I have been patiently waiting for the better part of a year now to taste these lovely ladies. I decided to sample them and make a bit of sauce.

 
When I cut open the pepper I was a bit disappointed to find the basic type of hab scent. Not that it is terrible, it is just that after a while that type of smell gets boring. I cut a piece lengthwise and popped it into my mouth. There was nothing boring about the taste, which was fruity and very pleasant without any hint of harshness. This is the best tasting hot pepper I have ever tried. Wow. It was so good I asked our house guest to try it out as well. She is not into very hot peppers, and the first thing she noticed was the heat. But after a few seconds she said putting it into a sauce is wasting it, and it should be served raw on a plate. That is a pretty huge compliment coming from a non-chilihead. 

 
Because it tasted so good I went for my most basic sauce. I cut the three pods that I had, put them in a pot with a whole head of garlic from my garden, added vinegar until it barely covered the stuff in the pot, put in a dash of sea salt, and brought it to a boil for a few minutes. 

 
The sauce was very cool looking. The picture does not completely do it justice, but it was an off white sort of like an eggshell colour.

 
Easily the most addictive sauce I have ever made. The heat was medium, which meant we could all dig in. We polished off a big bowl of it by dunking in plain unsalted taco chips while watching TV. I wish I had the words to describe how good this stuff is. 

 
This is the type of harvest I would expect at the end of July or early Aug, so we are still a few weeks behind. But things are completely ramped up, and there are no more worried about having anything to harvest.
 
Thanks for stopping in and having a look!

 

[WalkGood]

Congrats on a bumper harvest \o/
 
Sauce looks great and the pepper sounds delish ^_^

 

[PeriPeri]

Ok now I need to add those chillies to my grow list - Sold... That sauce looks wicked Stefan, clearly no problems with Vampires in your house lol! Super Awesome my friend!

Wow, what a variation... bumper crop you have going there. And the creative use... jelly - man - Stefan, that is da bomb!

 

[stickman]

Hi Stefan,
   Great news that your chile production is ramped up and kickin' out the pods! Don't you love experimenting with new things in the kitchen... that sauce you made with the Madame Jeanette pods made me think of Corn chowder for some reason... Cheers!

 

[meatfreak]

Sofia and I had what was easily our best harvest of the year this evening. We picked well over 100 pods. It took me a week to get to 40 aji lemondrops to make the pepper jelly on the weekend, and tonight alone we picked another 45 ripe lemondrops. It was fantastic!

IMG_4222.JPG
 
The 7 pods are huge producers, and I am getting quite a few per day between my two plants. I filled a large basket already, and there are too many to use right away so I plan to freeze them soon.

IMG_4225.JPG
 
We picked another couple of Madame Jeanettes. It took me months to track down seeds, and I have been patiently waiting for the better part of a year now to taste these lovely ladies. I decided to sample them and make a bit of sauce.

IMG_4234.JPG
 
When I cut open the pepper I was a bit disappointed to find the basic type of hab scent. Not that it is terrible, it is just that after a while that type of smell gets boring. I cut a piece lengthwise and popped it into my mouth. There was nothing boring about the taste, which was fruity and very pleasant without any hint of harshness. This is the best tasting hot pepper I have ever tried. Wow. It was so good I asked our house guest to try it out as well. She is not into very hot peppers, and the first thing she noticed was the heat. But after a few seconds she said putting it into a sauce is wasting it, and it should be served raw on a plate. That is a pretty huge compliment coming from a non-chilihead. 

IMG_4257.JPG
 
Because it tasted so good I went for my most basic sauce. I cut the three pods that I had, put them in a pot with a whole head of garlic from my garden, added vinegar until it barely covered the stuff in the pot, put in a dash of sea salt, and brought it to a boil for a few minutes. 

IMG_4264.JPG
 
The sauce was very cool looking. The picture does not completely do it justice, but it was an off white sort of like an eggshell colour.

IMG_4266.JPG
 
Easily the most addictive sauce I have ever made. The heat was medium, which meant we could all dig in. We polished off a big bowl of it by dunking in plain unsalted taco chips while watching TV. I wish I had the words to describe how good this stuff is. 

IMG_4268.JPG
 
This is the type of harvest I would expect at the end of July or early Aug, so we are still a few weeks behind. But things are completely ramped up, and there are no more worried about having anything to harvest.
 
Thanks for stopping in and having a look!

Sorry to say but those "Madam Jeanettes" look more like Orange Habs to me. The Madam Jeanette is wrinkly and elongated with a nice yellow color. Like on the picture below, it looks a lot like the Cili Goronong but bigger.
 

 

[Stefan_W]

Sorry to say but those "Madam Jeanettes" look more like Orange Habs to me. The Madam Jeanette is wrinkly and elongated with a nice yellow color. Like on the picture below, it looks a lot like the Cili Goronong but bigger.
 

 
I am at work so I can't take long to post something (I will respond to other comments later), but this picture is absolutely not a Madame Jeanette. MJ pods look a lot like smaller versions of mini-bells. The picture you posted is probably actually a goronong, which is longish with some gnarl, rather than a MJ. I will post more tonight about pod shape and what my MJs actually are, but I wanted to respond to this because I do not want anyone stumbling across this glog looking for information on MJs to see this pic and assume ithis is what they look like.

 

[meatfreak]

 
I am at work so I can't take long to post something (I will respond to other comments later), but this picture is absolutely not a Madame Jeanette. MJ pods look a lot like smaller versions of mini-bells. The picture you posted is probably actually a goronong, which is longish with some gnarl, rather than a MJ. I will post more tonight about pod shape and what my MJs actually are, but I wanted to respond to this because I do not want anyone stumbling across this glog looking for information on MJs to see this pic and assume ithis is what they look like.

With all respect, I don't know where you found your information on how a MJ should look like but that is completely wrong. I've taken this picture from a dutch commercial grower who sells the MJ. They sell them here in the stores as well with the same pod shape, sometimes they sell Aji Umba's like MJ's so that's how confusing all this MJ matter is. Windchicken and PIC1 are growing the MJ as well, you should check their glog to see how their podshape looks like.

 

[Stefan_W]

Congrats on a bumper harvest \o/
 
Sauce looks great and the pepper sounds delish ^_^

 
Thank you very much! The harvest is still rolling in tonight, with another 100+ pods coming in later this evening.

Ok now I need to add those chillies to my grow list - Sold... That sauce looks wicked Stefan, clearly no problems with Vampires in your house lol! Super Awesome my friend!

Wow, what a variation... bumper crop you have going there. And the creative use... jelly - man - Stefan, that is da bomb!

 
I highly recommend adding them to your grow list. I will be posting the link for where I got them a bit further down. 
 
Hahaha, I love the vampire comment. I do go nuts with garlic, but the result is that my sauces are strangely addictive.

Hi Stefan,
   Great news that your chile production is ramped up and kickin' out the pods! Don't you love experimenting with new things in the kitchen... that sauce you made with the Madame Jeanette pods made me think of Corn chowder for some reason... Cheers!

 
I can totally see it. My first thought when I saw the sauce after blending was a huge WTF? But then I tasted it, and it was amazing. I brought some in to work today, and everyone was raving about how good it is.

With all respect, I don't know where you found your information on how a MJ should look like but that is completely wrong. I've taken this picture from a dutch commercial grower who sells the MJ. They sell them here in the stores as well with the same pod shape, sometimes they sell Aji Umba's like MJ's so that's how confusing all this MJ matter is. Windchicken and PIC1 are growing the MJ as well, you should check their glog to see how their podshape looks like.

 
Yeah, things can get confusing with all sorts of crossing happening that are natural, unintentional, and intentional. If you want a good link that shows what the pods look like when they grow true, go to:

I had a devil of a time tracking down for this plant. I found only one seller who had them. The seller's description of the plant was correct (like a small and elongated mini bell), but the picture seemed a bit off. In fact, the picture looks exactly like the couple of pods in my pictures above:
http://junglerain.com.au/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=208&category_id=17&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=71
 
The first pod I picked a few days ago had the classic shape but was a bit small, and the two I picked last night had the same shape as in the photo from the seller. I knew it was a gamble buying these seeds, because the shape is not traditional for MJ. However, I was very happy to find the taste was true. It is still in the hab family so some of that taste was still there, but it is much richer. To give you a sense of just how different the taste is, after trying an orange hab in the spring I gave away all of my hab plants that I had started. I really hate hab flavour. When I tried the pod straight up last night I thought, and still believe, that it is the best tasting hot pepper I have ever tried. 
 
So is what I am growing a true MJ? About half the pods are true shape, while the others are more of a hab shape. But the taste is really good, so I don't really care about the label all that much. And the taste is definitely not an all out orange hab taste, so I am not tacking "not" onto the front  of the name unless I know for sure that the flavour is not true. I love this plant so much I will try saving some seeds and hope they didn't cross with other stuff near it in the garden. 

 

[Devv]

Nice haul Stefan!
 
Glad you liked the MJ too!
 
Keep hanging in there!

 

[PeriPeri]

Stefan, Chilli and Garlic - that is just illegal man. Call this helpline 0800-GARLIC, there are people there that can help you    I also love garlic, sounds like an awesome dip my friend!

 

[Stefan_W]

Stefan, Chilli and Garlic - that is just illegal man. Call this helpline 0800-GARLIC, there are people there that can help you    I also love garlic, sounds like an awesome dip my friend!

 
My name is Stefan, and I am a garlic-oholic...

 

[PeriPeri]

 
My name is Stefan, and I am a garlic-oholic...

Hi Stefan   lol
 
Sofia must have been in her element helping dad pick the pods. I know my girls love picking the pods!

 

[Stefan_W]

Had another good night picking peppers with Sofia. It is getting clear that I have to start processing the ones that are piling up.
 
We picked another few Butch-Ts. Six of them were spot on, and the other two had less pronounced tails. They hurt you just the same though.

 
One of the yellow 7 pods was enormous. It looks like a mini pumpkin.

 
The red and yellow 7s, plus the lemondrops, are really piling up. This is today's harvest, which is a normal sized harvest for these types. As of tonight I have picked 152 lemondrops off of that plant, and there are still loads waiting to ripen. I can just imagine what this plant would have done in a decent growing year.

 
The red and yellow 7s were put into a large freezer bag for storage. I had to really squeeze them in to get them to fit. These will come in handy come January.

 
We picked a few Madame Jeanettes, including the one that I think has the truest shape out of all of the pods on the plant.

 
This type of bottom reflects all of the credible MJ pod descriptions I have seen.

 
Picked a pile of peach scotch bonnets, and a single peach ghost which is not shown in this picture.

 
The paprikas were really piling up, so I decided to dehydrate these ones for powder.

 
They easily filled four large trays in my dehydrator. These pods are interesting because they are the Leutschauer variety which has thin walls and a bit of heat. My paprika plants are getting attacked by something, which I have not bothered to deal with because my growing season is almost over. But the end result is that the heat of the paprikas is really ramped up from their stress response.

 
That is it for this quicky update. If any of my friends here wants some of the paprika seeds please let me know. 

 

[stickman]

Great pull, and good on ya for getting your Paprika production underway Stefan!

 

[WalkGood]

Great Harvests you are having and you were so worried before, it's great to see things work out. Love the pics, pods & colors mon, keep it up!

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

Very nice pulls sir! It is crazy how fast one can get behind on processing...I am feeling that all too well! I am out of room in the freezer and hunting season is a month away.