My favorite kind of peppers to grow are Carmen peppers. They grow well in our climate and they are sweet + tasty. I was unable to get the seedlings from our usual source this year, so I decided to try these spicy peppers along with some more bell shaped sweet peppers. Both plants have done very well + produced a lot of peppers.
We love spicy food, so I was very excited when the first spicy pepper was ready to pick. What I was not anticipating was the painful burns I got on both hands from cutting them. Wow! They kept me awake at night. So, I've been a little afraid of these things ever since. :)
We love spicy food, so I was very excited when the first spicy pepper was ready to pick. What I was not anticipating was the painful burns I got on both hands from cutting them. Wow! They kept me awake at night. So, I've been a little afraid of these things ever since. :)
They have been pouring in from the garden, + I've been avoiding them (other than adding portions to the pickle jars). I thought I'd try drying them and then crushing them into pepper flakes for use throughout the year. The peppers are strung onto some buttonhole thread + will probably take 3-4 weeks to dry. Once they are dry, they will be crushed, kept in a jar for up to a year, + used to season lots of meals.
My favorite + most used spice in the kitchen has to be pepper flakes. I am fortunate enough to be able to buy them quite inexpensively in bulk. Even so, I think it will be rewarding to use our own homegrown pepper flakes...+ I'm guessing they will be a bit more spicy too.
If anyone is looking for a simple food to grow...even on a balcony, or back porch in a pot...I'd recommend trying peppers. A seedling can be found at a nursery or farmer's market in the spring + transplanted into a pot. They don't grow too big (as opposed to a cucumber or tomato plant), resist pests, and like water, sunshine, + heat. :)
Love,
Jane
If anyone is looking for a simple food to grow...even on a balcony, or back porch in a pot...I'd recommend trying peppers. A seedling can be found at a nursery or farmer's market in the spring + transplanted into a pot. They don't grow too big (as opposed to a cucumber or tomato plant), resist pests, and like water, sunshine, + heat. :)
Love,
Jane
P.S. Update 10-28-17 I ended up having to dry the peppers in the oven. They just didn't seem to be drying evenly strung up. I wanted to avoid using power if possible, but the oven worked well to dry them. I cut the tops off + lay them in a single layer on a cookie sheet in the oven at 170F. It took almost an entire day to dry these peppers entirely. Above are our actual pepper flakes from our own garden...completely zero-waste! :)
