Pickled jalapeno peppers
Oct 3, 2009 jalapeno, peppers, recipe
My jalapeno peppers did great this year. So good I didn’t really know what to do with all of them. After making some salsa and having several mature red ones as snacks in the garden, I still have about two pounds that I didn’t want to go to waste. After a little thought I decided to make some pickled jalapeno peppers.
CVG Picked jalapeno pepper recipe
Directions: Mix ingredients and bring brine to boil. Either slice or leave the pepper whole. If you choose to do whole peppers, be sure to poke them with a toothpick so they won’t collapse. Fill jars with jalapeno peppers and then fill with hot brine up to 1/2 in from the top of jar. Boil for 10 minutes and feel free to pick some pickled peppers as fast and as many times as you want this summer.
Peppers sprouting in grow box (time lapse)
Sep 25, 2009 indoor grow box, peppers
Well slightly more exciting than watching grass grow but for something that takes several weeks to complete is definitely worth a watch. If you watch carefully you can even see the automatic watering in action.
Joining the sprouts is a mature pepper plant which has been flowering and daisy seedling my 7 year old planted hoping it will flower as well.
Saving jalapeno seeds
Sep 7, 2009 jalapeno, peppers, seed saving
I am attempting to grow the best pepper plants I can indoors (grow box) so I started with jalapeno peppers. They grow relatively small 2-3 feet and require 2-3 gallon container for growing. While this is fine for an outdoor garden, though indoors I can only sacrifice 1 gallon container. This summer I grew several jalapeno plants which spent half of their life in the grow box and spent our warm summer outdoors. All of the plants produced but there was definitely a clear winner which had incredible early yields even with its small growing quarters.
I used several immature peppers (green) for salsa this year but allowed several peppers to mature (red) which I will be saving the seeds for planting this winter and next summer for future plants. By hand selecting the best parent plants should be good old natural selection at work.
The process to collect pepper seeds is pretty simple though I must first provide this warning:
WARNING: Peppers are hot, especially the veins. When handling peppers use caution and wash your hands well with dish soap. Under no conditions do not rub your eyes or pick rub your nose before washing your hands or you will be regretting it for a couple hours. Using gloves is also recommended.
That being said slice the peppers lengthwise with a sharp knife.
Use a fork or spoon to gently dislodge the seeds into a small bowl.
If you are lucky enough to have hot sunny weather still (week of rain here) lay they out in the sun for a couple days and store them in a cool dry place until you are ready to plant them. If you are sun challenged like me set them on a windowsill for a few days.
As I have said before saving you own seeds is very easy and free and as an added bonus you can personally pick the best plant to be the donors of seeds for your future plantings. In my case I also have the benefit of a plants that is genetically grown to following my sporadic watering and care patterns.
Black Bean and Corn Salsa Recipe
Jul 25, 2009 corn, peppers, recipe, salsa
My jalapeños peppers have been growing like crazy and I have had to start harvest to prevent the plants from stop producing. Given my tomatoes are still green I have been itching to do something with them, I decided to make some corn salsa. Given I couldn’t find a recipe that matched the ingredients I had on hand I decided to make my own.
CVG Black Bean and Corn Salsa Recipe
- 2 ears of corn (1-1/2 cups frozen corn)
- 1 small onion (chopped)
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/4 cup sliced green onions
- 2-3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 3 T sugar
- 1 chopped seeded jalapeño
- 1 chopped unseeded jalapeño
- 1-1/2 cups black beans (canned)
Directions: Cook corn for 2 minutes in boiling water and submerge in ice cold ice water. This helps stop the corn from cooking any more and also make handling while cutting the kernels a little more pleasant. Cut off kernels and add to bowl. Chop/slice remaining ingredients and add to bowl, stir, and refrigerate and serve chilled.
If you like your salsa a little spicier leave both pepper seeded.
How to fertilize/side dress tomatoes/peppers in your garden
Jul 23, 2009 compost, fertilizer, peppers, tomato
When your fruiting plants are flowering and bearing fruit this is a good time to give them a little extra boost. Though you don’t want to throw any old fertilizer at them at this point. You want them to get the nutrients they need to produce high yields of produce, though you don’t want to shock them with an abundance of nitrogen to stimulate new vegetative growth when you would rather the plant expend its energy making you food.
The solution to this problem is to provide your plants with a low dose of balanced fertilizer. I couple of my favorites are compost and alfalfa pellets applied every couple weeks while the plants are blooming/fruiting. This ensures the plants have all the nutrients they be lacking without throwing the plant into a growth spurt.
If you have a little extra time take the compost and add some water and let it sit in the sun for several hours and water or spray onto the foliage for a great dose of compost tea.
If you forgot to apply a little bone meal when you planted your peppers/tomatoes this is also a good time to sprinkle a handful under your plants and work into the couple inches of soil to provide your plants with a boost of phosphorous and also a little calcium to help prevent blossom end rot.
Hopefully with these tips you can help your green tomatoes turn into bright delicious red tomatoes.
If you want to learn more about the chemistry of organic fertilizers I have a whole post on that subject
Getting rid of aphids on pepper plants
Jun 20, 2009 aphids, brown spots, ladybugs, peppers
First of all I am a little embarrassed that I let the infestation get this bad before noticing. I unfortunately set the grow box to have the sunrise at 1:00am and the lights always were off by the time I got home. Though the cause is not as important as how to get rid of them.
If this plant was outside my local lady bug population would have kept these buggers in check though they seemed to thrive without the vicious predators. For an outdoor plant a quick high pressure spray of water on the the leaves (as well as underside of leaves) would take care of the problem. Though this does not kill the aphids, they will starve to death before they make it anywhere to do any more damage.
This has not been my first battle with aphids, so fortunately I had some insecticidal soap on hand. I sprayed the entire plant from the top and bottom. I removed the major yellowing leaves and did another quick spray. Now if you don’t have any insecticidal soap, or just want to save $5 on buying a bottle here are a couple of proven recipes:
Simple Aphid Killer Spray
- 1 tsp dishwashing soap
- Fill spray bottle with water
Directions: Shake and spray liberally on tops and bottom of leaves ensuring aphids are covered completely.
Complex Aphid Killer Spray
- 1.5 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon Murphy’s Oil Soap
- 1 tablespoon Vegetable Oil
- 1 tablespoon Vinegar
- 1 gallon water
Directions: Pour into spray bottle and spray liberally on tops and bottom of leaves ensuring aphids are covered completely.
Extra Spicy Aphid Killer Spray
- 3 hot peppers chopped finely
- 1 quart of water
Directions: Mix peppers with water and let seep overnight. Strain and pour into spray bottle and spray liberally on tops and bottom of leaves ensuring aphids are covered completely. WARNING: You care not to get this spray in your eyes.
US Department of Agriculture Mix
- 2 tsp dishwashing soap
- 1 cup of vegetable oil
- Fill spray bottle with water
Directions: Shake and spray liberally on tops and bottom of leaves every 9-10 days, ensuring aphids are covered completely.
If none of these solutions work, squish those buggers with your fingers being sure to include a sinister laugh while doing it. Which even if you are squeamish, this is what you will see if you let them have their way.
