SOME LIKE IT HOT, PEPPER WISE....
Scott and I have been gardening together from the beginning of our romance, growing the normal things in a small Southern garden, such as bell peppers, jalapenos, heirloom tomatoes, okra, yellow squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. Since the garden is small we have never really had the room for much more. I so miss not having green beans in my garden.
This is the story of how I made my husband love hot peppers, simply and totally by accident and totally due to my desire for a ghost pepper plant. Four years ago, in the heat of early summer, Scott and I were at the local Farmer's Market browsing around. For some unknown reason, I decided I wanted a Ghost Pepper Plant. As we were looking at various plants I spotted a ghost pepper plant and took it to let Scott see. He was not really impressed. Or at least I did not think so at the time. The price tag was a whopping $5. I am extremely cheap. Well, Scott tells me not to use the word cheap, he says I am a frugal person. With that said, being frugal we always save seeds and start our own plants in January February time frame. So, $5 was a lot to spend on something neither was sure if we would truly use. Scott suggested for us to continue looking for a better price. Let's just say as we continued shopping the price did not go down, instead, it was the opposite, the price tag went up double and triple in price. Scott may say different but I think he thought I would forget it and we would leave. Instead, I was determined to own and add to our garden a Ghost pepper plant. As we were walking towards where we parked, I told him I really wanted the ghost pepper plant. He indulged me and we went back to the first stand and he told me to buy the pepper. Well, the funny this is, I did not have any money. So, I told him I did not have any money that he would need to give me $5. Gertie our ghost pepper plant came home with us that day, yes I named her. This was the beginning of something that has grown and expanded into so many hot peppers. Some have been hit and miss, while others are keepers.
As Scott did more and more research, he became a bit more enthusiastic than me about hot peppers. We found another stand at the Farmer's Market that sold super hot peppers. We bought scorpions, giant habaneros, peach ghost, and a Carolina Reaper. At another place, we bought some Ahi Limon peppers. Our thoughts were by purchasing the peppers, we could save the seeds and hope they would germinate and be true plants.
Some of Scott's research taught us that we could overwinter a pepper plant. With this knowledge, we were able to bring Gertie inside and keep her during the winter hoping that she might grow for many more seasons. The interesting thing about overwintering a pepper plant is how they grow and produce quicker than your new plants. This should have been common sense but I really did not think much about it. Oh also did I say I am a blonde, lol, sometimes we do not have a lot of common sense. Or I like to use the color of my hair on dumb things I sometimes do.
The next season we had Gertie growing along with 2 different types of scorpions, giant habaneros, our Carolina Reaper and the ahi limon peppers along with our normal garden plants. With so many hot peppers we had to figure out what to do with them. We learned to make lacto fermented sriracha, lacto fermented hot sauces, and pepper jellies. I even started throwing a hot pepper into cucumber pickles, pickled okra, and dilly beans. We were constantly on the internet finding new recipes. When canning we try to use safe canning methods. Sometimes we tweak something but keep with in safe canner practices.
Our friends started calling us Chiliheads due to liking super hot peppers. While I will admit Scott likes them more then I do, which has to do with me enjoying tasting the foods I eat versus only tasting burning fires of heat.
Stay tuned for how to overwinter pepper plants, which I plan to post soon.
I hope you will follow my journey into the blogging world. You can follow on the menu button and subscribe under our profile.
Enjoy!!
This is the story of how I made my husband love hot peppers, simply and totally by accident and totally due to my desire for a ghost pepper plant. Four years ago, in the heat of early summer, Scott and I were at the local Farmer's Market browsing around. For some unknown reason, I decided I wanted a Ghost Pepper Plant. As we were looking at various plants I spotted a ghost pepper plant and took it to let Scott see. He was not really impressed. Or at least I did not think so at the time. The price tag was a whopping $5. I am extremely cheap. Well, Scott tells me not to use the word cheap, he says I am a frugal person. With that said, being frugal we always save seeds and start our own plants in January February time frame. So, $5 was a lot to spend on something neither was sure if we would truly use. Scott suggested for us to continue looking for a better price. Let's just say as we continued shopping the price did not go down, instead, it was the opposite, the price tag went up double and triple in price. Scott may say different but I think he thought I would forget it and we would leave. Instead, I was determined to own and add to our garden a Ghost pepper plant. As we were walking towards where we parked, I told him I really wanted the ghost pepper plant. He indulged me and we went back to the first stand and he told me to buy the pepper. Well, the funny this is, I did not have any money. So, I told him I did not have any money that he would need to give me $5. Gertie our ghost pepper plant came home with us that day, yes I named her. This was the beginning of something that has grown and expanded into so many hot peppers. Some have been hit and miss, while others are keepers.
As Scott did more and more research, he became a bit more enthusiastic than me about hot peppers. We found another stand at the Farmer's Market that sold super hot peppers. We bought scorpions, giant habaneros, peach ghost, and a Carolina Reaper. At another place, we bought some Ahi Limon peppers. Our thoughts were by purchasing the peppers, we could save the seeds and hope they would germinate and be true plants.
Some of Scott's research taught us that we could overwinter a pepper plant. With this knowledge, we were able to bring Gertie inside and keep her during the winter hoping that she might grow for many more seasons. The interesting thing about overwintering a pepper plant is how they grow and produce quicker than your new plants. This should have been common sense but I really did not think much about it. Oh also did I say I am a blonde, lol, sometimes we do not have a lot of common sense. Or I like to use the color of my hair on dumb things I sometimes do.
The next season we had Gertie growing along with 2 different types of scorpions, giant habaneros, our Carolina Reaper and the ahi limon peppers along with our normal garden plants. With so many hot peppers we had to figure out what to do with them. We learned to make lacto fermented sriracha, lacto fermented hot sauces, and pepper jellies. I even started throwing a hot pepper into cucumber pickles, pickled okra, and dilly beans. We were constantly on the internet finding new recipes. When canning we try to use safe canning methods. Sometimes we tweak something but keep with in safe canner practices.
Our friends started calling us Chiliheads due to liking super hot peppers. While I will admit Scott likes them more then I do, which has to do with me enjoying tasting the foods I eat versus only tasting burning fires of heat.
Stay tuned for how to overwinter pepper plants, which I plan to post soon.
I hope you will follow my journey into the blogging world. You can follow on the menu button and subscribe under our profile.
Enjoy!!
Comments
Post a Comment