Drying jalapenos on the plant

[Taiji]

I wonder if you can let jalapeno peppers dry on the plant like you can with long red cayenne? Last few years have been letting the cayenne plant keep all its peppers on and just pulling them before frost and hanging up the whole plant. They dry great on there and I use them thru the year.

But, jalapenos are thicker walled, more fleshy, wonder if the same method would work with them? Or with any other similar pepper types? I actually do have a dehydrator, but rarely use it. Thought this method might be less work.

[pepperhead212]

It probably wouldn't be a good idea, due to the thick flesh you made note of. In fact, this is probably how chipotles came into being - dehydrating with the smoke was probably the only way to do it in the early days, or thick fleshed peppers would rot before drying.

Even in a dehydrator, it is a good idea to cut jalapeños in half, or at least a slit in them, or they will take a long time to dry. This is why those varieties that get those "cracks" in them are preferred when making chipotles.

[Taiji]

That's really informative. I didn't really know what chipotles were til now, though I've heard the term.

In the store sometimes I will see a long pepper of some kind in a package, red maybe 5 or 6 inches long and flat, maybe an inch wide. What would that be? A big Jim that's been dried? Or maybe an Anaheim?

[pepperhead212]

There are a bunch of different long chiles like you describe - Numex is sort of a generic term, a.k.a. Anaheim or "California" chiles, though there are many kinds, with different flavors and heat levels. I have dried Big Jims before, but I prefer them green, and roasted and peeled, to ripened and dried.

[imafan26]

I just take the red peppers and put them on a paper towel and leave them on the dash on the car parked in the sun. We found this out accidentally when we left peppers in the car and went to work and found them dried coming home.

While some peppers can dry on the bush, it slows pepper production if you let more of them ripen on the bush. Better to dry them off the bush.

[pepperhead212]

Another disadvantage of drying peppers on the plant is that the plants more or less stop flowering. If you pick the peppers from the plants when just getting ripe, then the plants keep flowering, and producing peppers.

[imafan26]

Around here small peppers get eaten up by the birds

[Gary350]

When I lived in Phoenix area and it was 115 degrees during the day I had to water my peppers to keep them alive. I also put up sun shade cloth they struggled in the summer sun and did much better in November when the weather got cooler.

[Taiji]

Yes, I kinda figured if I just let all the peppers stay on, it would slow production. In the case of long red cayenne, that's about as much as I need for a whole year anyway! I have some laying on my dining room table from 2 yrs. ago, and another plant hanging in the laundry room from last year! And this year's plant is starting to fill up with peppers! Guess I need to make more salsa!

I have a cousin who lives down in southeastern AZ. There is a farm nearby that grows lots of Big Jims. They roast them in barrels there and burn the skins off. She buys lots of them and freezes them in bags. They have many wonderful uses all year long. I've always wanted to go down at harvest time for the pepper roasting!

[pepperhead212]

I was shocked when I uncovered my row of "prone" peppers (milder peppers that I grow get pepper maggots, if I don't cover with an ultra light Agribon) on 7-3, and found a bunch of jalapeños and Big Jims. That was still VERY early for peppers in this area. The first batch of Big Jims I roasted and peeled:


I always roast, peel, and deseed them, then cut into strips, freeze loosely on a tray, then vac-seal them in my Foodsaver, in 4 or 8 oz amounts.

[Taiji]

Wow, cool. Er, well, hot!

I think next year I must try some big Jims of my own.