[HoosierBrew]

Man, I love chiles! Those look great.

[morticaixavier]

Those look fantastic Amanda. I'm so envious of all y'all with garden space right now. I probably won't get much going till the summer after next as my garden space to be is still covered in forest. This year we're mostly focused on preserving some of the local produce others have grown.

I started a batch of lacto fermented pepper sauce with some cayenne, and cascabel (or something that looks similar) and a first experiement with lacto fermented daikon pickles.

My wife has been freezing up a storm in her new freezer so we've strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries by the gallon and greens are starting to take over. some of which go straight in the freezer, some I make into mixed green pesto. mustard green pesto is yummy and spicey.

[AmandaK]

I started a batch of lacto fermented pepper sauce with some cayenne, and cascabel (or something that looks similar) and a first experiment with lacto fermented daikon pickles.

What is your procedure here? I've been looking at fermented hot sauce recipes all over the internet and have gotten so many different techniques that I'm about tired of looking. I'm leaning towards the 'whir up peppers and garlic in the food processor, add a touch of yogurt whey, ferment until later, then blend with vinegar and other flavors and bottle in little woozy bottles' thing. But I have no idea if that works well or poorly.

mustard green pesto is yummy and spicy.

We've made spinach pesto here a lot and I love it. Speaking of, I should plant some more spinach.

[morticaixavier]

I started a batch of lacto fermented pepper sauce with some cayenne, and cascabel (or something that looks similar) and a first experiment with lacto fermented daikon pickles.

What is your procedure here? I've been looking at fermented hot sauce recipes all over the internet and have gotten so many different techniques that I'm about tired of looking. I'm leaning towards the 'whir up peppers and garlic in the food processor, add a touch of yogurt whey, ferment until later, then blend with vinegar and other flavors and bottle in little woozy bottles' thing. But I have no idea if that works well or poorly.

that's more or less it except don't forget the salt, about 1/2 tbls per pint. I think the original idea came from here actually. I know keith has been making it a lot. I've only done it a couple times the first time no whey and just let it go and it worked just fine but didn't really get good for at least a couple weeks. This time I added the whey, just 1/2 tsp or so per pint, and it was working and really smelling nice after a day or two. I also added about a tbls of maple syrup to this batch and it adds a nice sweetness and richness that wasn't there is my last attempt.

[Slowbrew]

Bell peppers are finicky as heck to grow. I grow a few different pepper varieties and most either do not flower during the hottest part of the summer or the blossoms drop off because it's too hot (much like tomatoes). I've tried growing them off and on for a few years. I finally found a plant that seems to tolerate the heat here but like most of my pepper plants they only develop fruit in the late spring and fall.

One thing I learned about peppers is that you will have problems with them flowering and fruiting if the temp gets below 50. Around here that means not planting until June and still covering them once or twice.

I also didn't plant until it was about 65-75+, which really allowed them to take off once they got outside.

But... I have real problems with pepper diseases, which is why I switched to drip irrigation. Too bad it rained and rained and rained and rained here, so I lost a couple plants/fruits to a bacteria spot. The hot peppers didn't seem to mind, my one large bell pepper plant nearly died (Red Beauty), and my little lunchbox sized bell peppers did quite well despite the disease they had early on in life. I'll be saving seeds after this year from the ones that did well and trying out another variety or two of bell peppers. We make a bell pepper soup that is freakin' awesome, so I have to figure out a way to grow more peppers! 

Thanks for the info on the bells.  We've always grown bells and jalapenos along with many other things when we had garden space.  Now that we are trying to do container gardening I'm having to completely relearn how to grow plants.

Our yard doesn't have any spot in it where we get enough sun for a garden anymore as the trees have gotten too big We have 5 - 45+ year old maple trees on a 1/2 acre lot (I didn't plant them they were here when we bought the place).  The grass struggle too.

The one spot that gets some sun also flip flops from a swamp to a desert 10 or 15 times a year so it didn't work too well either.  We decided to plant a tool shed and try containers.  Last year worked pretty well but the abnormal weather in Iowa this year confused everyone's gardens.  Tomatoes were small and subject to more blight than normal.  Peppers would blossom and then a blast of heat would knock them off before the set fruit.  Even the flowers didn't grow normally.

The largest tree also has some serious rot going on since a storm 14 years ago tore it up pretty badly.  My wife and keep looking at it dreading the price of having to take it down.  The bright side would be that we could probably make a garden again.  The dark side is we would have to grow our own food to afford the tree removal.   

Oh well, there's always next year!

Paul

[kmccaf]

A guy from the ag program at the university gave me some Carolina Reapers. Allegedly the hottest peppers in the world. A seed goes for $2. Currently, I am drying them out, and will probably put one in a rub, and the other in some hot sauce. I mostly want the seeds to plant as ornimentals though. Really beautiful twisted looking peppers.

Otherwise, I am going to start on some hot sauce. Plenty of Habeneros and jalapeños still on the vine. Haven't made a fermented sauce before, but you all have inspired me, so I am looking forward to that.

Also, my blackberries and raspberries have produced a nice little crop in the last week. We ate a few pints worth.

Sadly, the corn has been harvested around me, and now I think I can spot a neighbor in the distance.

[HoosierBrew]

A guy from the ag program at the university gave me some Carolina Reapers. Allegedly the hottest peppers in the world. A seed goes for $2. Currently, I am drying them out, and will probably put one in a rub, and the other in some hot sauce. I mostly want the seeds to plant as ornimentals though. Really beautiful twisted looking peppers.

Otherwise, I am going to start on some hot sauce. Plenty of Habeneros and jalapeños still on the vine. Haven't made a fermented sauce before, but you all have inspired me, so I am looking forward to that.

Also, my blackberries and raspberries have produced a nice little crop in the last week. We ate a few pints worth.

Sadly, the corn has been harvested around me, and now I think I can spot a neighbor in the distance.

Man, I'm a chile head and I'm scared of those things .  I can't imagine chiles hotter than the Ghost and I know they're out there.

[kmccaf]

A guy from the ag program at the university gave me some Carolina Reapers. Allegedly the hottest peppers in the world. A seed goes for $2. Currently, I am drying them out, and will probably put one in a rub, and the other in some hot sauce. I mostly want the seeds to plant as ornimentals though. Really beautiful twisted looking peppers.

Otherwise, I am going to start on some hot sauce. Plenty of Habeneros and jalapeños still on the vine. Haven't made a fermented sauce before, but you all have inspired me, so I am looking forward to that.

Also, my blackberries and raspberries have produced a nice little crop in the last week. We ate a few pints worth.

Sadly, the corn has been harvested around me, and now I think I can spot a neighbor in the distance.

Man, I'm a chile head and I'm scared of those things .  I can't imagine chiles hotter than the Ghost and I know they're out there.

I hear yah. Someone game me a bottle of dried ghost pepper three years ago, and I still have about a quarter of that left.

[1vertical]

going to hafta put these together with some type of yeast...

AND....into secondary they go....kinda dry sweet mead yeast musta liked this sugar...

[pinnah]

Whooee Whyomin!
That'll get you thru the long winter.


Sorry I missed Amandas tree form poblanos - mine are turning red now.
We have had an amazing prolonged indian summer. Last night the first time I could see steam off the compost pile!

Still picking raspberries; wow is that a job...every other day, but we have a ton frozen by now.
Processed 25 pounds of cabbage this morning into a crock to saur....I dang near got a blister cutting that stuff up. sheesh.

That lactofermented hot sauce is next on my list. 

Any tips on how best to store beets for the winter?

[pete b]

Whooee Whyomin!
That'll get you thru the long winter.


Sorry I missed Amandas tree form poblanos - mine are turning red now.
We have had an amazing prolonged indian summer. Last night the first time I could see steam off the compost pile!

Still picking raspberries; wow is that a job...every other day, but we have a ton frozen by now.
Processed 25 pounds of cabbage this morning into a crock to saur....I dang near got a blister cutting that stuff up. sheesh.

That lactofermented hot sauce is next on my list. 

Any tips on how best to store beets for the winter?

I store beets in a plastic bucket in my root cellar. Root crops like it cold, moist, and dark. They stay fresh until March when it warms up a bit and they sprout and soften, but there's only a few left at that point and they go in the compost.

[kmccaf]

Whooee Whyomin!
That'll get you thru the long winter.


Sorry I missed Amandas tree form poblanos - mine are turning red now.
We have had an amazing prolonged indian summer. Last night the first time I could see steam off the compost pile!

Still picking raspberries; wow is that a job...every other day, but we have a ton frozen by now.
Processed 25 pounds of cabbage this morning into a crock to saur....I dang near got a blister cutting that stuff up. sheesh.

That lactofermented hot sauce is next on my list. 

Any tips on how best to store beets for the winter?

I store beets in a plastic bucket in my root cellar. Root crops like it cold, moist, and dark. They stay fresh until March when it warms up a bit and they sprout and soften, but there's only a few left at that point and they go in the compost.

Do you put sand in the plastic buckets Pete? I have heard that storing root veggies in sand will extend the usefulness through the winter. I'm starting to think about building a root cellar, and was looking at putting some boxes with sand in it.

[1vertical]

Last night the first time I could see steam off the compost pile!

quote Casper Star Tribune "A Natrona County wildfire that destroyed 12 homes, killed countless livestock and pets and displaced more than 1,300 people began Saturday in a woodchip pile at the Casper landfill."

http://trib.com/news/local/casper/details-emerge-on-cole-creek-fire-s-beginnings/article_563db84b-e6db-52db-91c5-c7812000b320.html

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!

The city burned half the county their steamy pile of compost got outta hand.

We got evacuated and spent three long days displaced in a motel not knowing if we still had a house....
We were fortunate and the fire got within 100 feet and did NOT consume us..

[pete b]

Whooee Whyomin!
That'll get you thru the long winter.


Sorry I missed Amandas tree form poblanos - mine are turning red now.
We have had an amazing prolonged indian summer. Last night the first time I could see steam off the compost pile!

Still picking raspberries; wow is that a job...every other day, but we have a ton frozen by now.
Processed 25 pounds of cabbage this morning into a crock to saur....I dang near got a blister cutting that stuff up. sheesh.

That lactofermented hot sauce is next on my list. 

Any tips on how best to store beets for the winter?

I store beets in a plastic bucket in my root cellar. Root crops like it cold, moist, and dark. They stay fresh until March when it warms up a bit and they sprout and soften, but there's only a few left at that point and they go in the compost.

Do you put sand in the plastic buckets Pete? I have heard that storing root veggies in sand will extend the usefulness through the winter. I'm starting to think about building a root cellar, and was looking at putting some boxes with sand in it.

I used sand the first year I built my root cellar. I found that buckets with no sand kept the root vegetables just as well but kept out mice and bugs plus there was no sand to wash off. I tried moist sand in buckets with lids but they started rotting sooner that way.

[AmandaK]

Well, pepper season is drawing to a close here. Just trimmed up the last producing plants to get them to ripen what is on them.

Our harvest so far:


I've probably gotten my $2 worth out of this plant, just by taunting my friends. The ghost pepper:


Myles' preparing some death sauce:


I helped make the green ones, but I can't be near the two on the right. Fermented one is poblanos (no seeds/pith) and mild-jallys. Next green one is poblanos, real jallys, and serranos. Red one is red jallys, red sorranos, and a few habenaros. Orange one is habenaros and 3 ghost peppers.


Next year I'm going to grow some "mild hots", or versions of super hots that have only the flavor and a very mild heat. I found a mild habenaro "NuMex Sauve Orange" and a few peppers from Trinidad that supposedly aren't hot. I'm looking at Shis***os as well. Maybe next year I can get in on this hot sauce fun.