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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. :rolleyes:  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!
 
Hi All! I installed the weather-stripping around the access door this morning and also stapled Polypropylene netting onto the drying trays. In lieu of the glazing material (I'm still waiting for,) I stapled down some of the 4 mil sheet poly I use for low row covers in the spring. It's not airtight like the final installation will be, but as of 1pm it was 130 degrees F in the dryer box as per the meat thermometer I installed in the side above the trays. It was still 130 degrees at 3:15 pm... I think this is going to work! :hell:
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I put in 2 trays worth of ripe Thai chiles, a couple of Fatalis, 3 ripe Anaheim chiles and one tray of Bhuts this morning. I'm curious how dry they'll be at the end of today.
 
Devv said:
I'm sure it will do really well.
 
I'm curious as to how it does when the temps drop.
 
Keep on a truckin'
 
Cheers Scott! I'm curious as to how well it'll work later in the season too. When we start getting hard frost the days may be shorter and cooler, but the air is much dryer as well and what sun we do get is more intense, so maybe it'll continue to be useful even though it may take a few days to fully dehydrate what I put into it. That's the hope anyway.
 
Now that I've got the dehydrator nearly complete, I'm beginning to seriously process the peppers that've been piling up on the side. Today I processed 400g of Scotch Bonnets into puree and canned them up into 4 oz ball jars. Seeded peppers in the blender...
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...peppers pureed with salt, agave nectar and white vinegar a la Alabama Jack's recipe...
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Since I only make small batches of puree at a time, it's a lot easier to judge when the puree has cooked down long enough. When I can run a spoon along the bottom of the pot, push the puree to either side and no puree or liquid runs back I'm there.
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Final output, four 4 oz jars for 400g of peppers. I've got them in the hot water bath canner for final processing.
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A big shout out to Giancarlo... thanks for the seeds buddy! They came yesterday all right and tight. We talked about the squashes before, but what are the small black seeds in the unlabeled baggie?
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PeriPeri said:
Hey Buddy, great score on the seeds and that puree looks fantastic! I hope I get some decent Scortch Bonnets this season so I can try that too :)
 
You can do it with any peppers you want to Lourens, but I think my favorites are the orange and yellow chinense peppers. 4 Tablespoons of puree in place of six fresh scotch bonnets when making a batch of Jerk marinade is just about right for my palate. You might like it hotter, or... not. ;)
 
I had to shake the tree to dislodge the glazing material I'd ordered for the dehydrator over a week ago. I called yesterday and found they hadn't shipped yet, but they sent it by UPS overnight delivery so I had it on hand after work to do the finishing touches.
 
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The glazing material is called "Sun-Lite" by Kalwall corp. in Manchester, NH. It's a high temperature, UV stabilized resin with re-enforcing fiberglass embedded in it and 85% transmission of sunlight. It can be cut with a saw, but I used tin shears, cut 3/4 inch x 1/8 inch aluminum bar stock to use as battens, pre-drilled the holes, laid a bead of silicone sealant around the edges of the collector box, laid down the glazing and battens and screwed everything down. Now the collector box is airtight, and should be much more efficient.
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I've just gotta seriously tweak the netting on the drying frames and I'm gonna do some serious drying of chile pods!
 
OCD Chilehead said:
Looks fantastic Rick. I think it'll work great, even when temps drop.

Do you water bathe the purée?

Thanks for sharing Rick. Have a great day.
 
Yup, after making the puree I process the jars in a hot water bath canner so they'll keep all winter without refrigeration or taking up much space.
 
The dehydrator is working fine. The thin-fleshed peppers are drying to the crispy stage in a day or two. At the opposite extreme, I'm also drying 3 whole, ripe Anaheims. It looks like those'll take at least a week. I also had to triple up on the polypro netting I stapled down on the drying frames... one layer was too little support and they were sagging quite a bit. All under control now. Some sun-dried Thai pods I pulled out yesterday...
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A big shout out to brother RandyP! He sent a SFRB with some of his monsker pods, smoked powder and a woozie of his Twister Sauce. Woo Hoo! :woohoo:Unfortunately, the bottle of sauce didn't make it. The package was wrapped in a plastic bag because the sauce was leaking out, but the powder and pods came through perfectly once I washed off the sauce that leaked and the glass shards. In all it was a princely gift, and thank you Randy!
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A better pic of the pods, and these boys are huge! What did you feed them Randy? What schedule? Did the water bottle "funnel" thing play a part?
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Hang on all... friday's coming! :P
 
Very cool project! I am wondering if it works properly in my conditions, i.e. Lower temps and not that many sunshine hours. Could you say how the weather has been during the drying process..?
 
romy6 said:
 loving the solar dehydrator Rick might have you build me one :)  :dance:  :dance:  :dance:
 
And yes RandyP grows some ginormous pods but he keeps his nute regiment a mystery  :shh:
 
Sure Jamie... c'mon up with the materials and you can take it home with you when we're done... ;)
 
If he decides to keep his nute regimen a secret I can understand why... da-yum! those are some good ones!e
 
Donnie said:
Very cool project! I am wondering if it works properly in my conditions, i.e. Lower temps and not that many sunshine hours. Could you say how the weather has been during the drying process..?
 
I don't see why it wouldn't work for you at your latitude Donnie, you'd just have to modify the angle of the collector box to maximize the collection of the sunlight. Here at 42 degrees north latitude I made the angle 122 degrees to be most useful during the growing season. At the end of August we're getting around thirteen hours of sunlight. The days have been hot, with high humidity... say daytime highs of around 30 degrees Celsius and an average humidity of 69 percent. With the 4 mil sheet poly I actually had better light transmission. the temperature for 2 hours at either side of noon was about 54 degrees C. in the dehydrator, and around 49 degrees for 2 hours on either end of that. With the Sun-Lite glazing it's been more like 51 degrees C for three hours on either side of noon, and 49 degrees for an hour on either end of that. That's with one set of sliding vent covers completely closed and the other open about 10cm.
 
If your autumn weather is like ours, it may be cooler, but it's much dryer too humidity-wise... which will help with the drying nearly as much as higher temperatures. It may take a few days longer, but you'll get there in the end, and the dehydrator will still speed up the process.
 
Jeff H said:
Nice dehydrator Rick. Looks like the same design as that one member from Austraila we had here a few years ago made. Did you model yours after his design? I think he swiped his design off of the net somewhere but I don't remember where.

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/28050-mezos-super-hots-glog-including-the-big-solar-dehydrator/
 
Cheers Jeff! Yup, it was Mezo's dehydrator that got me wanting one! Mine is a little different than his, but now that I look at his again, I think I'll borrow his stabilizer for the "wheelbarrow handles" on mine. I've got enough pressure-treated 2x4 scrap to do it I think.
 
I don't know where he got his plans, but I got mine from the Mother Earth News website. They published the plans in the June/July issue last summer (2014) and on their website.   http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/tools/solar-food-dehydrator-plans-zm0z14jjzmar.aspx
 
Sounds like it's doing a great job Rick. On most the pods I dehydrated, I take my kitchen shears and make a slit in them. They dry quicker for me. If I have the time I'll split the pods right in half. Even quicker.

Thanks for sharing and keep up the awesome vibes.

Have a great weekend
 
OCD Chilehead said:
Sounds like it's doing a great job Rick. On most the pods I dehydrated, I take my kitchen shears and make a slit in them. They dry quicker for me. If I have the time I'll split the pods right in half. Even quicker.

Thanks for sharing and keep up the awesome vibes.

Have a great weekend
 
I mostly split my pods lengthways and de-seed them before smoking and/or drying and grinding for powder, but some thin-fleshed varieties I dry whole, without making a cut like you do... mainly because it doesn't take all that much longer for them to dry and I want them to keep as many of the volatile oils inside as possible. That would be the Thais, Gochus, Pequins, and other small wilds. The larger Mexican types like Anchos, Pasillas and Guajillos I just do it because it's traditional and they also keep longer. I need a dehydrator to sun-dry them because the humidity here in New England is so high during the summer that half the pods get moldy inside if I try it without.
 
This morning's load in the dehydrator. Bottom tray Bhuts and Prik Kee Nu pods, second tray Red Thais, third tray ripe Anaheims, fourth tray Leutshauer Paprika, fifth and sixth trays mixed Chinense varieties. The Anaheims, red Thais and Prik Kee Nus will stay whole... the rest will be dried and ground for this year's powder blend.
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