Stickman's 2015 - That's All She Wrote...

Hi All! It's been an incredibly busy winter dealing with one thing and another, and it's only about half over here.   Still, it's time to get on the stick and put my seeds in the dirt in preparation for plant-out in another 12 weeks or so. I have a Manzano over-wintering inside that's going on its third year. It's next to a sliding glass door with a great southern exposure but the light it gets here this time of year is pretty paltry... I expect it'll start to perk up sometime in March. I have a couple of MoA Scotch Bonnets over-wintering at a friend's house because there wasn't space in front of the sliding glass door for them and my wife's indoor plants... the deal is that if they both survive the winter, we'll split the plants. If not, he'll keep the one that lives. That seems fair since he did all the work.
 
The rest of the list is looking like this...

Pubiscens Varieties
Total bust this year... nothing that germinated survived.

Baccatum:
Ditto

Frutascens:
Tabasco
Hawaiian Bird chile
 
Chacoense:
Ditto

Chinense:
7-pot Yellow Turned out to be a red "Not"
MoA Scotch Bonnet
Beni Highlands... Also turned out to be a "Not"... maybe a Mako Akokrosade cross?
Ja Hab
Trinidad Perfume
Zavory

Annuum:
Cabe Rawit (mouse turd pepper, in Singapore where the seeds were collected they're called Cili Padi)
Red Thai
Biggie Chile Anaheim
Poblano Gigantia
Jalapeno Ciclon
Jalapeno Tormenta
Serrano Tampiqueno
Hungarian Hot Wax
Almapaprika
Ethiopian Brown Berbere
 
I'll also be planting a sweet Criolla de Cucina plants and about 20 sweet Kurtovska Kapijas. The Kapijas have the longest growing and ripening times of any Annuum I know, but they're big, meaty sweet peppers that average around a half a pound apiece... just the thing for making that eastern european condiment called Ajvar.
 
Too tired to say more now, but will pick up later... Cheers!

 

[Plantguy76]

Looking good.  They'll fill those square pots before you know it.

Isn't that the truth my Bahamian goats are almost ready for transplant again

 Stickman your doing well your going to have a great year    
Sending a   for Aphids & other pest & warm wishes with the best of luck your way

 

[moruga welder]

 
Cheers Shane... where are you with your scheduled deployment right now?
 
Dang it all... it's snowing again tonight and we needed something to warm us up, so I made some Guisado de Pollo (chicken and potato stew from Tehuantepec, Mexico)  It's got onion, garlic, carrot, potato and red bell pepper, a quartered Jalapeno and a couple of Chipotles en Adobo for the spice, and to give it a bright sweet flavor it also has crushed pineapple, culantro and freshly squeezed lime juice. http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Mexico-Chicken-Potato-Stew   Folks, this stuff is good!
 

sure looks tasty !  i need to make some of that ! 
nice grow my friend ! and good luck with this years grow , cmon summer !       

 

[Devv]

That Pollo looks great Rick!
 
Snow? Still? That's just not right!
 
It won't be much longer though!

 

[stickman]

Rick, I like your little grow tent.  I'm thinking about getting one to put on
our deck and hold overflow plants from the greenhouse in the Spring.  
I think a 100-watt light bulb would keep it warm enough at night.  The
trick will be to keep it from overheating during the day.  Here's the one
I'm looking at.  There are less expensive ones, but this one seems to
have more features, and I need the bigger size.

 
That mini-greenhouse looks like it's the larger version of mine made by the same Chinese manufacturer... one caution... the weight is so low compared to surface area that these things are easily blown down by even a moderate wind. If you have them outside on a windy day they either need to be fastened down somehow or placed in a sheltered spot out of the wind.

 

[PaulG]

Thanks for the tip.  I'll be sure to check that out and find a way to stabilize it.
Maybe some sort of tie-down recessed into a deck joint or something like that.

 

[Rainman]

Just woke up and browsing the glogs... saw your Guisado de Pollo photo and now have to try this, looks so good!

 

[moruga welder]

sure looks tasty !  i need to make some of that ! 

nice grow my friend ! and good luck with this years grow , cmon summer !       

matter of fact i'm gonna make it this weekend , will post pic. unless something happens , hopefully it comes out looking as good as yours my friend !   

 

[Essegi]

Thanks a lot Rick!!!



I really liked that cake! It remembered me some caramel candy, just better! Very sweet, and i like sweet things, with a great flavour! The only downside is that it was so cute that it seemed criminal to eat it!
And thanks too for the seeds, i'll grow them in next season.

Oh, and the package was really well crafted!

PS: i lied about growing next season, or better, i'll grow some but i'm soaking some seeds right now, it's a bit late but i can't help that.

 

[stickman]

Thanks a lot Rick!!!

I really liked that cake! It remembered me some caramel candy, just better! Very sweet, and i like sweet things, with a great flavour! The only downside is that it was so cute that it seemed criminal to eat it!
And thanks too for the seeds, i'll grow them in next season.

Oh, and the package was really well crafted!

PS: i lied about growing next season, or better, i'll grow some but i'm soaking some seeds right now, it's a bit late but i can't help that.

 
Glad you liked the cake of Maple Sugar Giancarlo! On the first weekend in March every year my wife and I meet up with some friends from New Hampshire and go out to eat breakfast at a sugar house nearby. We have Blueberry pancakes and bacon or pork sausage made with apples and sage, and lots of Maple syrup  on the pancakes. After that we share a pan of maple syrup on snow. The pan comes packed with clean snow and we get a little pitcher of syrup that's been cooked a bit longer so it's thicker. When we pour a little syrup on the snow it chills and hardens, and we wind it up on a fork like spaghetti. It also comes with a dish of dill pickle slices to cleanse the palate after each bite so you can enjoy the sweetness longer without getting glutted on it.

 

[PaulG]

That sounds awesome, Rick!

 

[Sawyer]

My mother came from MA, so I remember everything you just said about maple syrup and sugar and snow packs.  I really need to get set up to tap the sugar maple in my front yard.  It's huge.  Some years back I had to trim some of the lower limbs in late winter/early spring in order to get a big truck under it to deliver some equipment.  All the cut limbs dripped copious amounts of sap for many days afterward.

 

[stickman]

Just woke up and browsing the glogs... saw your Guisado de Pollo photo and now have to try this, looks so good!

 

matter of fact i'm gonna make it this weekend , will post pic. unless something happens , hopefully it comes out looking as good as yours my friend !   

 
I don't think you'll be disappointed guys... there's just so many layers of flavor to this stew!
 

My mother came from MA, so I remember everything you just said about maple syrup and sugar and snow packs.  I really need to get set up to tap the sugar maple in my front yard.  It's huge.  Some years back I had to trim some of the lower limbs in late winter/early spring in order to get a big truck under it to deliver some equipment.  All the cut limbs dripped copious amounts of sap for many days afterward.

 
Have you ever been up to visit during sugaring time John? It's a serious boost at this time of year to those of us up here... things are finally starting to wake up outside.   The snow is finally off the raised beds, and mostly off the community garden where I grow most of my peppers and veggies.
 
4x10 foot Superhot chile bed

 
4x4 foot herb bed

 
The front yard is on the north side, so it'll take a little longer, but at the current rate should melt in 2-3 weeks.

 
All of the round one seedlings have at least the start of their first true leaves. Some are starting on their second set but they're all still pretty small. I forgot how long it takes for them to get those first three sets of true leaves so they can begin to really put on some height. Here's a Costa Rican Yellow Pube \

 
Even after putting all the peppers I was gonna keep into new shoes some still keep germinating. This Chacoense plant suddenly found a set of twins in the pot with it...

 
and this Kurtovska Kapija found a sibling in with it too.

 
The herbs are mostly growing pretty slowly, but the Syrian Marjoram is beginning to pick up a head of steam!

 
Busy-ness has picked up quite a bit so I've been shamelessly procrastinating on posting in my glog. I'll try to get something in at least once a week though. April's almost here... can I get a Yee Haw on that!!!

 

[PaulG]

Yee Haw!
 
The pics of the snow made me shiver, Rickster!
 
Good to see your starts putting on some true leaves.

 

[PeriPeri]

Go go go go

 

[Jeff H]

raised beds look like they survived the winter. How about the big garden?

 

[Sawyer]

Things are looking a lot better than I had imagined, Rick.  It'll be plant out day before you know it.
 

Have you ever been up to visit during sugaring time John? It's a serious boost at this time of year to those of us up here... things are finally starting to wake up outside.

 
I have, or at least they were still cooking down the sap.  I was pretty young at the time, so I don't remember too much, but I remember seeing the bubbling vats, smelling the awesome smells, and tasting the little candies, shaped just like the ones you sent to Giancarlo.  I still have a weakness for those.  And we did the boiled syrup on packed snow many times here in Arkansas, sometimes even with non-maple syrup.  The maple is the best.
 
That trip was also the first time I ever had coffee.  We were camping and it was a very chilly morning, with fog rolling around the paper-bark birches.  Coffee had always smelled wonderful to me and, I guess because of the cold, my parents let me have some.  I was not impressed, but it did help warm me up.

 

[stickman]

Yee Haw!
 
The pics of the snow made me shiver, Rickster!
 
Good to see your starts putting on some true leaves.

 
Yup... starting seedlings seems to be a slower process than in other years Paul, but we're slowly making headway. Things'll really take off when it warms up enough to set them outside during the day.

 
 

Go go go go

 
Thanks for the good vibe Lourens! How goes it in SA?
 
 

raised beds look like they survived the winter. How about the big garden?

 
The snow is pretty much off as of today Jeff, but the ground is still frozen hard. I've still got to clean up the garden plot, but that'll wait 'til the ground thaws. I spotted some Red-Winged Blackbirds, Brown-Headed Cowbirds and Grackles in the backyard this morning, and I've been seeing Ducks and Geese heading north for the last week.

 
There are signs of life though... Evergreen Scallions are just beginning to grow out a little.

 
Strawberries look to have survived pretty well.

 
Tansy is already starting to grow out.

 
These are the first Crocus shoots up in my wife's flower bed out front.

 
Spring is definitely in the air here, but will take a few weeks yet to really get the ball rolling.

Things are looking a lot better than I had imagined, Rick.  It'll be plant out day before you know it.
 
 
I have, or at least they were still cooking down the sap.  I was pretty young at the time, so I don't remember too much, but I remember seeing the bubbling vats, smelling the awesome smells, and tasting the little candies, shaped just like the ones you sent to Giancarlo.  I still have a weakness for those.  And we did the boiled syrup on packed snow many times here in Arkansas, sometimes even with non-maple syrup.  The maple is the best.
 
That trip was also the first time I ever had coffee.  We were camping and it was a very chilly morning, with fog rolling around the paper-bark birches.  Coffee had always smelled wonderful to me and, I guess because of the cold, my parents let me have some.  I was not impressed, but it did help warm me up.

 
Great memories John! What kind of springtime rituals do you have where you are now? Picking Ramps and wild greens? Morris Dancing? Canoe races on the rivers in spring flood?

 

[PeriPeri]

All good here in SA buddy. Just way too busy work wise... it's been hectic! I have most of the chillies processed... just have to make the sauce now and bottle the stuff. Never enough time... I will do some more updates soon I hope

 

[Sawyer]

Great memories John! What kind of springtime rituals do you have where you are now? Picking Ramps and wild greens? Morris Dancing? Canoe races on the rivers in spring flood?

 
Morel hunting is one, but not many people do that anymore and those who do keep their favorite spots as secret as a treasured fishing hole.  I found a patch last year, the first I've ever found without being shown.  Sauteed with butter, they are divine.  Some people like to harvest the early shoots of pokeweed for poke salad, scrambled with eggs and, in my dad's case, squirrel brains. Yuk.  It always seemed like more trouble than it was worth to me (even without the brains).  Ramps aren't native here, but if I can get them started, that'll be a good thing.  Never heard of Morris dancing.  There is a Springfest in Fayetteville, but no matter when they schedule it, it always seems to rain on that weekend.  There is a large lake nearby, Beaver Lake, and every spring the white bass make a spawning run up all the tributaries.  They will hit just about any lure or bait you throw at them.  People will line up shoulder to shoulder and pull in fish until their arms get tired.  I like to fish, but don't like crowds, so I skip that one.  One of my favorite spring traditions as a kid was making sassafras tea.  Dig up a few roots, scrub them well, and steep them in boiling hot water for a few minutes.  Sweeten with honey or sugar and it is a fine spring tonic.  I haven't made any in years, though I do have a patch of sassafras on my place.  I think I'll make some this weekend.

 

[PaulG]

Good to see those signs of Spring there, Rick.  
 
Fulll throttle, now, buddy!