Is This a Peck?
August 24th, 2009Maybe it’s a Hin
I am going to have to get a canner. I don’t know what else to do. I have read up on storing peppers, and while I think it’s okay to put them in vinegar and salt and refrigerate them for a few weeks, I can’t trust them for months or years. I just picked maybe a gallon of Tobago seasoning peppers off my tiny bush, and I left maybe 25% of the crop behind. I haven’t gone near the Trinidad Scorpions or Habanero Golds.
I never know whether to capitalize the names of fruit and vegetable varieties, so instead of taking three seconds to check, I have decided to capitalize randomly.
With any luck, I’ll also have lychees before too long, and I know they can be canned. And then there’s mango chutney.
Geez. Thank God you don’t have to can limes.
In a comment, Heather complimented me on my new gardening “abilities,” and Andrea Harris (no link due to impossibility of finding her blog) said she couldn’t believe I grew herbs in Miami. Hey, don’t fool yourselves. I have no idea what I’m doing.
I’m just glad I realized you don’t have to cut a whole bunch of bananas at once. These days I’m cutting off one hand at a time, so the rest stay fresh on the tree instead of all ripening within the same three-hour period.
Here are the Tobago peppers. Canning tips appreciated.
August 24th, 2009 at 3:35 PM
Thanks for the prayer lists note. My friend Sharon had her first chemo Thursday and as of last night had not even been nauseated. She was feeling fine, planning a trip to the grocery store. God is good.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:11 PM
My parents would pick the birds-eye peppers from the bushes in the yard, wash them, and put them in a bottle with a shaker top (generally an empty Regina® Red Wine Vinegar bottle) & fill it with white vinegar. I don’t remember any of the resulting sauce spoiling. Whether the vinegar was boiled beforehand I can’t say – I was a wee nipper at the time, more interested in the best ways to climb a tree than the culinary arts.
August 24th, 2009 at 4:12 PM
BTW, Andrea Harris can be found here: http://spleenville.com/v2/index.php
August 24th, 2009 at 7:53 PM
I have only canned peppers by pickling them (jalapenos and serranos), but I have frozen many, many jalapenos, serranos, cayennes and habaneros. As long as you plan to cook with them, freezing works great. Just wash and dry them, put them in freezer bags, and throw them in the freezer. Are your habaneros as hot as ours? We love hot peppers and we can hardly use them! One slice chopped up in a salsa or pico de gallo is about all we can take! Our jalapenos are wonderful this year – hot and flavorful, perfect for just about anything.
August 24th, 2009 at 8:14 PM
I have four varieties that are so hot I can’t figure out what to do with them.
August 24th, 2009 at 8:49 PM
Serranos made the best pickled beets, which were a hit at the lunch you, Moxie and I had at Magic Carpet. Three weeks in the vinegar and saltwater brine with serranos was what worked for me.
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Owner of MC retired and it closed.
August 24th, 2009 at 9:01 PM
The link in my info is to my main spleenville page; the blog link is on the side menu, thus: “Spleenville v. 2.0 – The current blog, life, opinions, frivolity, the cat.”
Nothing there about growing things these days, though, as I’m not living in my own place yet.
You don’t have to link, I’m not greedy. <– This is not a passive-aggressive way of asking you to link. I don't do that.
August 24th, 2009 at 10:24 PM
Would smoking the hot ones reduce the megatonnage?
August 25th, 2009 at 3:56 AM
I’m thinking you’ll need a full haz-mat suit to harvest the Trinidad Scorpions. Maybe you could throw them at burglers when you run out of ammo.
August 25th, 2009 at 7:22 AM
Lime curd can be canned. Probably lime marmalade too.
August 25th, 2009 at 9:11 AM
Congrats on your harvest–they look great. Here’s the way I learned to do it: Get some quart and/or pint mason jars, flats and rings. Wash and cut off the ends of your peppers. For your round ones, maybe cut them in half. Pack them in the jars so that air bubbles won’t be too problematic and top with about 1 tsp/pint of salt. Heat to near boiling apple cider vinegar mixed with 0 – 33% water and boil your lids and rings in a little water. Doing only one or two jars at a time, fill with the hot vinegar up to the outer lip (you may need to top it off as air bubbles up) and put on the flats and rings. Push them together on the counter to conserve heat and in 15 minutes or so, you will hear them start sealing. If one doesn’t seal after an hour or two, just eat/drink that one first. I’ve basically never seen a spoilt jar, even after a couple of years.
August 25th, 2009 at 9:26 AM
“This is not a passive-aggressive way of asking you to link. I don’t do that.”
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Unless you’re being passive-aggressive by denying being passive-aggressive!
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Wait…now my head hurts.