By the end of May, my mistake has fully set in.  maybe 10 percent of the plants I put outside at the beginning of the month will make it.  the rest are gonners.  quite withered, and leaveless.  it is really kind of sad.

I realized this about a week after I planted and already started seeds again for everything I had extra.  the good news is that of those I can already see some good growth, and although they will be a little later than I hoped for, at least I will have something.

Meanwhile I am eating some Peperoni Made from the Deer I got last hunting season and spiced with the dried and ground peppers from my Garden Last Year.  those plants were all bought as plants, not seed.  my mouth is warm and my tummy is Happy and there will be more gardening another day.

Matt

It was not too long, middle of april or so, before I was needing to stake some of my peppers still in their 3″ pots because they were getting so tall.  I could already see evidence of many of them having roots growing through the sides and bottom of the pots that they were in.

I was getting ancy.  Knowing it was not warm enough outside yet, and knowing I was not about to transplant to bigger pots I think I got ahead of my self.

the 5th of May came along and it was 80 deg. outside… I knew the reports were not calling for the warm weather to stick around and that it was going to get cold again, but I planted them anyway.  some of them had as much as a foot of root growing out the bottom of the pot and I knew I needed to get them in the ground.

it was a good day in the garden, I got a sunburn, and all the plants seemed to be happy.  It was the comming cold weather that would change their outlook.

Matt

it was not too far into march, although I can’t remember exactly when, that my pepperlings were needing bigger homes.

I transplanted every one of them to 3″ pots, the kind that you can plant… I think they are made out of recycled paper or something like that.

after about a week of watering them every day, I got tired of that and built a green house from scratch.

I started with 2″x2″ lumber and made a rectangular box that was about 6′ long 2′deep and 2.5′ high.  I also made a lid for the box.  I wraped the sides and bottom of the box in 2mil clear plastic using one continuious peice and stapeling it to the wood.  it was a fun project considering nothing had to be exact and it did not need to look pretty.

I then wrapped the lid in plastic, and although some of the wood was warped a bit, it seemed to close tight enought to keep the moisture in with the plants inside.  the lights were still on their timer and located above the greenhouse, not inside it.

although this solved my problem of needing to water constantly, it was not too long before it started some other problems.

something was growing on some of my plants… fuzzy, some kind of fungus or another.  I ended up buying some seaweed stuff that seemed to take care of the problem.  Furthermore, I really solved the problem when I bought a $9 desk fan and stuck it inside the greenhouse and plugged it into the same timer that the lights were on.  that little bit of air circulation solved a lot of problems.  Next year, I will be so much better at this whole project.  it has been a real learning experience.

Matt

wow, it is may… somehow since my last post, a lot has happened. 

The First week in Feb, I started my seeds.  I used those seed starting green houses with the little pucks of dirt that expand when you add water.  they worked great.  I had two seeds in each puck, and 12 pucks per type of pepper with 10 different types of peppers.

It was not long before I was clipping off the weaker of the two plants in each pod.

I should mention that I had the set up in the basement with 4 4′ flaurescent grow bulbs, and 2 150watt spot light grow bulbs on a timer that turned on at 7am and off at 8 pm.

for a brief moment I wondered how many people had a similar setup in their basement to grow something illegal>?>?

having learned the hard way, I should have waited until the first week in March to start my peppers… but you can read about that another day.

Matt.

I am hoping and praying all these seeds take, and I can go nuts harvesting with rubber gloves this summer.  But here is the Lineup for my 2008 garden: NuMex Mirasol De Arbol Chile Pepper, Mesilla Cayenne, NuMex Pinata, Serrano, NuMex Sandia, NuMex Espanoia Improved, Tabasco, Omnicolor, Aji Limon, Orange Habanero, and Last but not Least the “Bhut Jolokia” (supposedly the hottest chile in the World)

Here I am, many years later, much out of practice as far as my ability to eat something hot.  But even more entrigued and in desire of regaining all those talents and abilities.
Last year, I planted my first Garden, in which I had a 3’wide by 15’ long raised bed of several kinds of peppers.  It was practice.

This year, I am hoping to completely blow my brains out.  I found a source of seeds online, and now have some, what I am hoping will be, nuclear peppers.  I think what I grew last year would have made weapons grade pepper spray.  This year, I am hoping to completely top that.

My dad was an electrical engineer, he worked with electrical engineers.  It is my opinion that engineers (in a stereotypical world) all think alike.  Anyway, he and his co-workers began growing their own peppers at the office.  Numbering plants and branches, and then grafting hotter branches to hotter plants… I’m sure it was all very scientific.  But in the end they learned that the hotter the dirt, the hotter the pepper… Give some engineers a little knowledge like that and away they go.  They grew some very Hot Jalapeno’s.  And I think a couple wives are still missing their heating pads…

A few years after the Mustard beginnings, when I was in High School, my dad began bringing home Jalapeno peppers.  We sliced them up, and ate them on Waverly Wafers with sharp cheddar cheese. 

I think it was something about where we lived, but the Jalapeno’s we got from our grocery store were much hotter than the average Jalapeno.  We got to where we could tell which peppers would be hottest by looking at them, and thus and so, we began to build our tolerance levels to the pins and needles affect these peppers did to our tongues.

When I was younger, maybe 10 or 11 years old, my dad gave me some mustard on a piece of pork at a Chinese Restaurant.  It was clear your sinuses hot mustard and I had a difficult time maintaining my composure.  However, when the meal was over, I still had not finished my glass of water and although I did not go back for more mustard that day, I was mysteriously drawn to spicy food from that point on.  My curiosity had been spurned, and my desire to eat spicy hot foods was born.

Here’s a great white chili recipe that cooks up right in your crockpot. Add a few of your own homegrown chilies in the mix before you start cooking it.

Slow Cooker White Bean Chili

Ingredients:

2 pounds white meat chicken, cut into small pieces
8 cups great northern beans
1 16-ounce jar of chunky salsa
1 cup Mexican cheese blend
2 teaspoons ground cumin
Salt, to taste
White pepper, to taste

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and simmer on low in a large slow cooker until chicken is done; about four hours. Add water if mixture becomes too thick. Serve warm tortillas or cornbread. We also like this over cooked rice.