WalkGood 2013, 2014 and Beyond

This is my first Glog so excuse what ever mess I may create, lol. Took way to many pictures today (31), so Ill post the first 9 and add more in subsiquent posts but didn't think it a good idea to start out doube or triple posting just for additional pics. I will also be updating the thread over time to show growth, pods and such ... but the first few pics of are of the young ones. While Ive been growing my favorite peppers for around 17 years (guess, lol), I always limited myself to 3 varieties or less. Jamaican peppers/Hab, Jalapeño and Cayenne. When things got too tuff Id milk them till they died off and stop growing for a while and start fresh. Most years I only grew the Jamaicans which are my favorite for cooking, home made sauce and the occasional powder to rub meats with or put into certain recipes.

Current inventory:

• 5 Jalapeño
• 1 Cayenne
• 1 Serrano
• 7 Datil
• 15 Jamaican Habs (3 large around 3 years old and 12 less than year old)
• 12 more to be determined

The young ones below are not that old with the oldest being the JA Habs which are around 3 years old now. I happen to find THP site while looking for advice/knowledge to cure one of my Jalapeños, thanks for all the good info guys/girls! In 2012 I added Datil, Thai hot, Cayenne, Jalapeño and Serrano to the mix, totaling around 41 plants now. Hats off \o_ to those of you who grow many more, dont know how you find the time and patients when things go off. That said, Ive done my fair share of battling aphids, nematodes, snails and white fly to no end over the last 3 years. Fortunately I believe to have things under control for now so Ive decided to add 12 new peppers to the mix from the listed seeds shown below.

Ill select 12 to start near end of December or first week in January from the seeds below and give credit once I get some new ones going

Need to start clearing our yard to grow more & more & more peppers (*WG rollseyes*)

Top left to right: two Thai Hot and one Cayenne. Bottom row all Datil. BTW I don't grow everything in clay pots, just happen to get a good deal on a bunch in yard sale for a few bucks.

Huge live Oak in background, there's 5 of them in front yard so the shades hard to avoid in first few hours of sun rise.

8 Jamaican Habs in ground and cherry tomatoe in the pot, I need to find a good place to plant the tomatoe soon.

Top left Serrano and more Datil, I'm probably going to gift a few Datils for xmass and some of the other peppers

Serrano's first fower

Serrano's different angle

Edit: final list copied to first post from post #40. These seeds were soaked in water on 12/31/12 and planted 1/1/13 \o/

Edit: This list is constantly being updated as new hooks pop. Even though I lost #5 :/ I will not give up as there are 2 other seeds in dat egg mon ....

A few links to some of my better posts

• Ramons Spiked Cooking Sherry & Rum in cooking with fire!
• Green Mango Salsa in cooking with fire!
• Sofrito Starter in cooking with fire!
• Philippine Tomato Salad in cooking with fire!
• Caribbean Island Soy in cooking with fire!
• Adventure before you read the Tres Alarmas Sauce recipe, Click Here
• WalkGood Tres Alarmas Caribbean MoA Sauce (Salsa Picante) a must try IMHO
• White Bhut Jolokia Jerk Sauce

Did you say powder?

• Click Here
• Click Here
• Caribbean Mellow Yellow
• Click Here
• 
  Strawberry Hill Salt
• Click Here
• Peach MoA Pixie Dust
• 
  Tally Mon Powder (MoA & Nana powder)

Did you say MoA?

• Click Here

Black light night shots & horn worms

• Click Here

Reviews and taste impressions in no order

• Jamisons Pecan Smoked Scotch Bonnet Powder Review
• SETEV954 TFM Scotch Bonnet Powder Review
• romy6 Pepper Powder Blend Review
• Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture Scotch Bonnet Review (MoA)
• Chocolate Scorpion Review
• Red Lantern Infused Salt Review
• Trinidad Scorpion Review
• White Bhut taste
• Red Bhut taste impression, possibly a "Not"
• Yellow 7 taste impressions
• Peach Bhut Jolokia Review

 

[stickman]

Hi Ramon, Is this the time of year when you normally start new plants? Boy, what a difference 30 degrees latitude can make...   Good luck with the new varieties! Baby pics of the transpanted seedlings look great. I notice you didn't dampen all of the soil in the pots with the seedlings, just around the plants themselves... is that something you always do?
   I'm curious, what do you plan to do with the dried fruit? Did you really use salt to brine them before putting it in the dehydrator or something else? I've always used vinegar or citrus juice to keep fruit from browning, but I've never dried it like you are in the previous pic.
   Continued success my friend! and have a great Sunday!

 

[WalkGood]

Hi Ramon, Is this the time of year when you normally start new plants? Boy, what a difference 30 degrees latitude can make...   Good luck with the new varieties!

 
Hola back at ya Rick ^_^
We can start plants here any time of year although a cold front can kill dem in the winter as I leave my stuff outside mainly. Last planting I did bring them in during the coldest nights but the next day they were back outside. Not sure if you noticed that the seed planting in the beginning of my glog (page 3) started on January 1, 2013, I did that on purpose so it would be easy for me to say “oh this White Bhut is 10 months old or which ever I started that day.” But January is not a good time to start up, this time or the beginning of summer is best. I feel there are less fungal gnats around this time but they’ll soon emerge :/  Winter starting here also produces very low germ rates from some varieties, plus I freely admit that my method (egg) isn’t as good as yours or others that use heat pads, germ pucks, jiffy pellets, ect. I have nothing against those methods but I feel that if my seeds don’t germ and I force them to that it’s possible the plant may not turn out tuff enough for our bug ridden environment. Heck even my in-ground JA Habs got wiped out by nematodes when I stopped treating the soil cause it became a major PITA, lol. That said, I have no proof of my beliefs but have been going dis route for so long that it would be silly to abandon it now, hope this makes some sense or heck just call me crazy …
 
 

Baby pics of the transpanted seedlings look great. I notice you didn't dampen all of the soil in the pots with the seedlings, just around the plants themselves... is that something you always do?

Thanks for baby kudos brethren, your methods and seedlings looked great to me in you beginning too I had to gentle top water them via spoon because the soil came out super airy and if I had bottom watered them or used too much water they could have just sunk into the soil like the first one that I had to replant. I’m open to different watering methods, figured I would wait till little roots took hold before any major watering or till the soil settled in some.
 
 
 

I'm curious, what do you plan to do with the dried fruit?

 
I use it like the dehydrated and powdered mango back when I showed how to make “Mellow Yellow”. Something you should try … Apple Strawberry JA Hab powder or various other combinations … super tasty and takes the edge off super hot powders or just flavors the less picante ones.
 
 

Did you really use salt to brine them before putting it in the dehydrator or something else? I've always used vinegar or citrus juice to keep fruit from browning, but I've never dried it like you are in the previous pic.

 
I prefer to use ascorbic acid powder, works much better that lemon or lime and I don’t note an aftertaste. My mix ratio is 1 to 1.25 tablespoons of ascorbic acid per 1 quart of water, soak fruits that brown for 4 to 5 minutes in the fridge (using cold water helps).
 
 

Continued success my friend! and have a great Sunday!

 
Thank you and back at ya brethren with having a great day and week ^_^

 

[annie57]

 
Hola back at ya Rick ^_^
[. . .] plus I freely admit that my method (egg) isn’t as good as yours or others that use heat pads, germ pucks, jiffy pellets, ect.
 
Have you lost your mind, querido? I'd love to do it your way! A bunch of heat mats, cold outside, can't go descalzo, all dis gradoux??
 
I use it like the dehydrated and powdered mango back when I showed how to make “Mellow Yellow”. Something you should try … Apple Strawberry JA Hab powder or various other combinations … super tasty and takes the edge off super hot powders or just flavors the less picante ones. +1!
 
I prefer to use ascorbic acid powder +1 again!
 
 
Thank you and back at ya brethren with having a great day and week ^_^ Como se dice en "Epanya"--dang laptop is screwing up my n's--"Tienes gracia." But ya trabajando demasiado o algo asi if you think the huevo method is <. No way!

 

[WalkGood]

Have you lost your mind, querido? I'd love to do it your way! A bunch of heat mats, cold outside, can't go descalzo, all dis gradoux??

 
IIRC you had great percentages and that’s awesome! I love to do it my way but I know it’s not for everyone and it’s not fool proof as I do get low germ rates but I’m not changing my ways. That said, thank you for your kind words ^_^
 
Also thank you for the +1s, you are a sweetie for sure muchacha
 
 
Jamie (romy6) asked for another omelet the other day and I was hungry dis morning so here’s a chicken, white bhut sofrito starter, rice & black bean omelet just for you mon!
 

 

 

[annie57]

Outta likes but Jamie was late for brunch!

 

[Al-from-Chile]

ray,
 
you have:
 
-qual. time w/ the family
-fresh fruit
-peppers
-vitamins...
 
you should team up with Don Francisco and you'd have a great morning show on tv
 
kudos, Al
 
ps: pm your contact info,pls

 

[Devv]

I just love omelets!
 
Any Reaper hooks yet? Some of those took 3 weeks here..

 

[WalkGood]

Outta likes but Jamie was late for brunch!

Tanks for kudos muchacha … he probably forgot what he posted here, post #2068 on the previous page, lol. At least it was tasty
 

 
ray,
 
you have:
 
-qual. time w/ the family
-fresh fruit
-peppers
-vitamins...
 
you should team up with Don Francisco and you'd have a great morning show on tv
 
kudos, Al
 
ps: pm your contact info,pls

I’ve never seen Mario Luis Kreutzberger Blumenfeld or Sábado Gigante, lol … PM sent mon, but don’t send his girlfriend by, mama will get jealous
 

I just love omelets!
 
Any Reaper hooks yet? Some of those took 3 weeks here..

They’re as fun to make as they are to eat, I agree they’re awesome ^_^
Nothing yet but you can bet that I’ll post up a pic giving you kudos as soon as one does. I’m glad you told me about the 3 weeks, I was ready to pull out the reserves … I’ll let them run 4 weeks before I reach for more seeds. That said, last year I grew some Datil plants, 7 IIRC that were eventually all gifted. The first one took almost 2 months to germ in the egg, I was ready to throw them out but learned a valuable lesson. Now I just let them be till hell freezes over

 

[HillBilly Jeff]

Awesome omelet even if it does have beans in it

 

[WalkGood]

Awesome omelet even if it does have beans in it

Tanks, I take it you don't like black beans?

 

[HillBilly Jeff]

That would be correct sir.

 

[Devv]

Never had black beans? Do you buy them dry?
 
How do you cook them?
 
LB makes a killer pot of Pinto beans.
 
Beans, beans, good for your heart...

 

[WalkGood]

That would be correct sir.

More for us, lol ... Black Beans, Rice & Peas JA Style and Pintos rock! I like other beans as well but these are the one's we mainly cook
 

Never had black beans? Do you buy them dry?
 
How do you cook them?
 
LB makes a killer pot of Pinto beans.
 
Beans, beans, good for your heart...

Dry is best with any bean IMHO. We use a home altered recipe but it's similar to this one, although we don't soak beans over night, rather pressure cook dem so you don't have to wait over night. I prefer to use the pressure cooker for all beans, it's much faster. That said, they always taste better the next day after the garlic, onions and peppers have a chance to meld with all the other flavors.
 
I can't recall if I posted a pinto dip recipe I did a while back in the glog but I use bean left overs for dips and I'm sure you know how great they taste. Do you guys do the pintos from scratch too? Do you use a pressure cooker or soak?

 

[PaulG]

Ramon, your yard is simply awesome - love the pepper
plants in every nook and corner!  And new seedlings
going - kudos on getting a great start.  I am going to try
your fruit infused powder trick; that sounds great!

 

[Devv]

More for us, lol ... Black Beans, Rice & Peas JA Style and Pintos rock! I like other beans as well but these are the one's we mainly cook
 
Dry is best with any bean IMHO. We use a home altered recipe but it's similar to this one, although we don't soak beans over night, rather pressure cook dem so you don't have to wait over night. I prefer to use the pressure cooker for all beans, it's much faster. That said, they always taste better the next day after the garlic, onions and peppers have a chance to meld with all the other flavors.
 
I can't recall if I posted a pinto dip recipe I did a while back in the glog but I use bean left overs for dips and I'm sure you know how great they taste. Do you guys do the pintos from scratch too? Do you use a pressure cooker or soak?

I agree starting with dry is better. LB soaks them overnight and then chunks them in the crockpot. She then freezes them in serving sized containers, can't tell them apart from just off the stove either. We use the heck out of them.
 
Gonna put the recipe in my book of recipes we need to try.
 
Have a great week!

 

[romy6]

 Looks like a missed breakfast,brunch,lunch a dinner a few time over   But that omelet shot has me beaming with envy brother Ray 
 

 

[PaulG]

+12   : )  Romy6

 

[WalkGood]

Ramon, your yard is simply awesome - love the pepper
plants in every nook and corner!  And new seedlings
going - kudos on getting a great start.  I am going to try
your fruit infused powder trick; that sounds great!

 
Thanks Paul but other than the pool here I think your back yard has mas beauty, from the pics I've seen your yard rocks mon! As they say the grass pepper is greener on the other side, hehehe.
 
Regarding the fruit, the best I’ve used is mango but the trick is to make the slices to dehydrate super thin. This last batch has run for 5 days and finely I think they’re dry enough to powder, well all except the banana. I’ll be making some infused powder this weekend, can’t wait to taste the different fruits but I think besides the mango I’ve found another winner …
 
 

I agree starting with dry is better. LB soaks them overnight and then chunks them in the crockpot. She then freezes them in serving sized containers, can't tell them apart from just off the stove either. We use the heck out of them.
 
Gonna put the recipe in my book of recipes we need to try.
 
Have a great week!

 
If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you’ve just found a nice next LB gift, lol. The thing I like about them is cuts the long soak time for softening and from there you can go right to the crock pot. I totally agree on the portion size freezing, I did that to avoid cooking every night back when I was single. Pintos rock, you got me thinking of making some this weekend \o/
 
 

Looks like a missed breakfast,brunch,lunch a dinner a few time over    But that omelet shot has me beaming with envy brother Ray

 
Thanks Jamie but I’m sure you make some rocking omelets too at your casa. I love how easy they are to make, their versatility, how well they go with hot peppers and the taco look that you can achieve. Heck powder works with them great too and so does infused salt …
 
 

 
+12   : )  Romy6

 
Thanks Paul ^_^
 
Hope all you guys had a rocking hump day and best wishes for the next two days & weekend … can’t wait!

 

[PaulG]

" I’ll be making some infused powder this weekend, can’t wait to taste the different fruits but I think besides the mango I’ve found another winner …"
 
Just goona keep us in suspense, are ya?  

 

[WalkGood]

" I’ll be making some infused powder this weekend, can’t wait to taste the different fruits but I think besides the mango I’ve found another winner …"
 
Just goona keep us in suspense, are ya?  

lol, I saw that one coming ... Let's just say she's a peach ... I'll have pictures and mas info, trying to keep da gang on their toes, hehehe.