Ciao all-
For me, I agree with AJ's wife..I REALLY fell in love with the Billy Biker Jalapenos made into bacon-wrapped poppers this summer. I never expected to like those as much as I did, but Duane's agreed to grow 4 pots next year to make sure we have enough (we didn't). I also agree with Derek about the NuMex chilies. Fresno is definitely at the top of my list for making any sort of TexMex dish, but for stuffed rellenos, I'd have to go with Big Jim or Joe E Parker. Cubanelles and Anaheims are machines for the vegetative part of any salsa. Since I'm the cook and Duane's the grower, a lot of what he grows gets run past me first. He simply doesn't have enough free time to "dapple" much with the scary stuff. I don't touch those, I don't even let him prep them inside the house because of my sensitivity to capsacin. He's made enough of AJ's pastes now to last him MANY years and also tons of dehydrated ones for making into powders, so I think next year, he's going to concentrate more on the ones we use the most, the NuMex types. I also really liked Orange Thai this year. They came in handy with all of the stuff I grew in the new Asian garden. For dried powders, the ones I use the most are Hot Paper Lantern and Lemon Drop. I also use Golden Cayenne quite a bit. The big surprise for me was the Peach Habanero. I made several batches of Peach Habanero/Golden Raspberry Jelly and that was a huge hit. I intended to make tapas with the Padrones, but they didn't ripen more than 1 or 2 at a time and then I got busy with other stuff. Maybe an additional plant would help with that. Pepperoncini, both Greek and Italian, Sport, Peppadew, and Sweet Pickle are other mainstays for pickling. Bishop's Crown was another nice surprise for me. I love the shape, but was expecting a hot one I couldn't eat like Brazilian Starfish. This one has a lovely sweet crunch to it, so that's definitely a keeper. Pimienta de Neyde is a gorgeous plant, but I haven't used it enough in cooking to be able to tell you whether the flavour is good enough to re-grow it. Lastly, Alma Paprika was another nice surprise so that gets a nod to re-grow as well. As you can see, my taste for peppers is fairly tame. I love to see all of D's Chinenses growing, but I don't get closer than a zoom lens to them. D also grew Chimayo but he has yet to grind the dry ones for powder, so I can't give a review, but I have high hopes for that one.