Stickman's 2013 Glog - Time To Pull The Plug on 2013

I'm pulling things together to get ready for my next growing season. I bought NuMex variety seeds from Sandia Seed company in New Mexico, Hot Paper Lantern Habaneros and Antohi Romanians from Johnny's Select Seeds in Maine and Korean varieties from Evergreen Seeds in California. Due to the unbelievable generosity of a number of THP members I've also gotten seeds to a wide variety of chiles from around the world. Special thanks to BootsieB, stc3248, romy6, PaulG, SoCalChilehead, joynershotpeppers, highalt, cmpman1974, smokemaster, mygrassisblue, Mister No, chewi, KingDenniz, orrozconleche and most recently and spectacularly, Habanerohead with a great selection of superhots and peppers from Hungary!

There are eleven varieties of Hungarian peppers in here, mostly the early, thick-fleshed, sweet ones that range from white through yellow to purple and red.., plus Aji Lemon Drop, BJ Indian Carbon, Naga Morich, Bishop's Crown and TS CARDI Yellow! Now I just have to go through my seed bank and match the space available to what I want to grow. Thanks Balázs!

 

[georgej]

that criolla is bushy as hell! good god!

 

[Stefan_W]

Very nice looking criolla sella. I wonder if the difference in size is because of it being in the ground, or the plastic overtop that warms the earth up. 

 

[stickman]

Thanks Guys! I've never grown Aji's before, so this is a definite learning experience. They're doing especially well with the cool spring here, so I think I'll try a few new varieties each year to find which ones taste the best to me, and those are gonna be staples.
 
I think the in-ground Criolla Sella is doing better because of the Solar Mulch. The air-pruning pot encourages a dense root ball which is very efficient at extracting nutes from the soil. I added the recommended amount of Happy Frog tomato fertilizer when I potted up, so I think it's getting plenty of nutes. The main difference is the Solar Mulch. If you're going to plant in-ground next year Stefan, you might want to try it.
 
Happy Father's Day all you Dads!

 

[stickman]

Well, it's another overcast, rainy day here with thundershowers predicted for this afternoon, so no fishing.   Rather than waste the whole day, I decided to supplement my dwindling supply of hot sauce.

 
There's 3 pounds of Red Habaneros in this porcelain-coated Dutch Oven along with carrots, celery, sun-dried tomatoes, Spanish onions, a whole head of garlic, ground cumin, Mexican oregano, salt, a little sugar, white vinegar and water. I'll simmer until everything is very soft (probably cueing on the sun-dried tomatoes) and run it through the blender first, then the food mill, and bring it up to bottling temperature and bottle the stuff in whoosies until they run out, and canning jars after that.

Still cooking with gas over here I see! Haha, those Brazilian pods look awesome, can't wait to see how yours turn out and hear the reviews!

Thanks Shane, will do... I'm really curious how those Brazilians turn out too!

 

[HabaneroHead]

Hi Rick,
 
Amazing colour! This year I will start to experiment with sauces, hopefully I will find some nice tips on THP. (I guess I just found one  )Last year I made a Bhut-Naga sauce, for which I used 0.5 liter home-made tomatoe paste, 1 head of garlic, 8 Bhut&Naga, vinegar, sugar, and salt. It was insane...it got in the material of the cooking pot, and when my Mom was making rice in the same pot...the rice became freaking hot...it was barely edible.
 
Balázs

 

[stickman]

The sauce I made today had:
 
#3 Red Habaneros, processed in a food processor
#1.5 Carrots, grated
2 jumbo Spanish Onions, chopped
1 head Garlic, chopped
2 c. shredded sun-dried Tomatoes
4 stalks Celery, chopped
.25 c. salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp ground Cumin
6 c. white vinegar
1.5 c. water
 
at the end I decided to leave out the Oregano... I'm glad I did. Simmered for a couple of hours to get everything nice and soft then ran first through the blender and second through the food mill. Consistency was perfect, but the sauce was a little bit bitter, so to round it all off I added a 10 oz can of coconut milk which ironed out the rough spots nicely.
pH came in at 3.2... Sweet!
http://s1166.photobucket.com/user/heebner/media/2013%20garden/SANY1147_zps49f159fe.mp4.html
 
This sauce will light you up, but not overpowering

 

[Devv]

Your hot sauce sounds and looks really good!

 

[meatfreak]

Good stuff, Rick. Good to see the Urfa Biber starting to bloom

 

[roper2008]

Hot sauce looks good.  I have to make some this year.  It will be a new experience me.

 

[stickman]

Thanks Folks... I appreciate the good vibe!
 

Hot sauce looks good.  I have to make some this year.  It will be a new experience me.

 
Ya gotta try it! Once you get it dialed in to your taste it's a more efficient way to store your pepper harvest long-term than making powder or freezing... barring the time needed to process it and the expense of canning equipment/supplies. Life is trade-offs...
 
Time for Monday's Dawn Patrol report...
 
It looks like we'll get a couple of warm nights before it cools off again. It was 65 degrees under clear skies at 5am. As usual, most of the progress has been in the Annuums and Baccatums, but the Chinense are growing slowly and waiting for things to really warm up.
 
The Omnicolor continues to ripen.

 
Urfa Biber working on those buds

 
Kapias are setting pods

 
Krimzon Lee paprika is still growing

 
Hungarian "coloring" pepper

 
Manzano has set pods... now we need to see if they'll ripen before the end of the season...

 
Holy Mole' Hybrid

 
Vesena Piperka... Fantastic horizontal corking, and the pods should get to at least 8 to 10 inches long.

 
And an Ochsenhorn to finish.

 
Have a great week all!

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

Looking good over here in this thread....you are north of me...wth you feeding those plants up there! How many total plants did you end up with for 2013?

 

[stickman]

Looking good over here in this thread....you are north of me...wth you feeding those plants up there! How many total plants did you end up with for 2013?

Thanks Chris, you're not doing at all shabby yourself! Nothing special in the feed... as a base dressng, I give 'em compost made from our kitchen scraps with some wood ashes added, rock phosphate and Espoma "Tomato-Tone" organic fertilizer. They've been getting diluted fish emulsion every other week, but I think I can lay off of that since they're mostly all blossoming now.   The runts are getting an additional weekly watering of General Organics "Bio Root" and molasses or corn syrup... whichever is cheaper at the time.
 
When it all shook down... I ended up with 68 plants and 39 varieties. A few didn't come up to scratch, but that's OK. Finding room for all of them was a stretch. Cheers!

 

[MisterNo]

Hey Rick.
 
It's great to see Manzano pods coming up, hope they do great. I think it will be enough time for them to ripen.
 
Mine is ready to flower, can't wait to see some pods, never grown Pubescens before 
 
And yes, that Numex Anaheim looks a lot like Vesena.

 

[romy6]

 Man Rick things are really rocking in the great white North. Sauce looks tasty . Plants are budding up like crazy and the corking on that numex 6-4 is really cool!!
 
 Have a great week.

 

[PIC 1]

The annuums are podding up nicely. That must be a fluke thing with the Anaheim. Was that the only pod with no immediate flowers following ?
That's great to see a pod on the Manzano, mine have been dropping flowers...

 

[MGOLD86]

Looking great Rick!  I am loving that hot sauce, talk about filling to the top!!
 
The plants are looking great, gonna be a great summer for ya!

 

[stickman]

Hey Rick.
 
It's great to see Manzano pods coming up, hope they do great. I think it will be enough time for them to ripen.
 
Mine is ready to flower, can't wait to see some pods, never grown Pubescens before 
 
And yes, that Numex Anaheim looks a lot like Vesena.

Hi Robert, It sure is! Good luck with your Manzanos... this is the first year I'm growing them also. Looking forward to it is all I can say.
 
Well guys...I did a little research and went back to look at the pods on what  I had labeled as an Anaheim, and now I think it really is a Vesena. Every pod on that plant that was longer than an inch had the same horizontal corking. Anaheims don't do that, so it must be... Now that I've got the names straight, I see that all the Anaheims turned out to be runts for me at this point of the year. They're healthy plants, but apparently need more warmth to reach their full potential and begin to bloom.

That's great to see a pod on the Manzano, mine have been dropping flowers...

Thanks Greg! I'm sure things will turn around for your Manzano when things warm up a bit more... What a finicky plant! Who knew that they don't like it too cold to blossom either.
 
Thanks for the good vibes Matt and Jamie! I've gotta circle back and check out your glogs tomorrow... not enough hours in a day... Cheers all!

 

[stc3248]

Pods, pods and MORE PODS and better yet MANZANO PODS! They should have plenty of time to ripen for you...

 

[hoibot]

plants look amazing as does your sauce! excellent work!

 

[stickman]

Pods, pods and MORE PODS and better yet MANZANO PODS! They should have plenty of time to ripen for you...

Yeah, every sub-genus I have growing has set pods now except the Chinenses, and the forecasters predict warmer weather for the week ahead, so maybe soon (I hope)...

plants look amazing as does your sauce! excellent work!

Thanks Andrew! And welcome to the zoo...

Hi Rick,
 
Amazing colour! This year I will start to experiment with sauces, hopefully I will find some nice tips on THP. (I guess I just found one  )Last year I made a Bhut-Naga sauce, for which I used 0.5 liter home-made tomatoe paste, 1 head of garlic, 8 Bhut&Naga, vinegar, sugar, and salt. It was insane...it got in the material of the cooking pot, and when my Mom was making rice in the same pot...the rice became freaking hot...it was barely edible.
 
Balázs

Hi Balázs! You'll have lots of fun with it I have no doubt! One of the tips I got from Rocketman was to put carrots in the sauce, both for flavor and consistency. They thickened up the sauce so it was less likely to separate and sweetened it up as well to smooth out the taste.
 
Was the cooking pot you mentioned made of cast iron? I know it's porous material and absorbs flavors. That's why I used a porcelain-coated cast iron pot to make my sauce... much easier to clean thoroughly.