Tennessee 2023 Garden

[Gary350]

I finally have all the corn stalks standing straight up after being blown down several times by storms. Storms seen to be over for the moment, now we have rain every day, some times 2 or 3 showers every day. I have never seen this much summer rain in TN. More rain every day forecast for another week. All this rain makes weeds and grass grow, garden is less work with dry desert soil. Corn has tassels & silks too. I give up working on strawberry beds every day let it grow for another week. We have been cooking stir fry every evening 5 days in a row. Today we need to put 1 quart size zip lock bags of tomatoes in the freezer. I weeded several rows yesterday. I made levee both sides of pepper plants to hold in irrigation water rain keeps washing soil levees away. More weeding today and corn needs nitrogen. I want to cut yard grass today but rain forecast for 12 noon and 7 pm. Beans are finally looking good after replanting seeds 3 times. There are too many small melons to count. I will never grow sweet bell peppers again, Carman peppers are the best and they grow lots of peppers in our hot weather. Pepper plants are loaded with about 40 peppers on 4 plants. Thai Basil is growing in several places purple flowers look nice.

[Gary350]

It is a bad year for onions. 85° in Feb then 81° in March made about 150 onions bolt. I saved a lot of seeds. Now if onions are not rotted in the center they are rotted on the outside or both. I trashed about another 100 onions. We tried to salvage the good section of several onions it takes a lot of time to only be able to save 15% to 20% of an onion. We have about 100 good onions left 2½" diameter to 1½ diameter. We will probably have these onion eaten by Aug 15.

-2° killed the garlic and the 2nd late crop was not good either. Lesson learned.

[imafan26]

Climate change and the unpredictable temperature swings are causing worldwide agricultural problems. Added to the wildfires, flood, drought, pests, disease, and shortages of inputs like nitrogen fertilizer, world wide production of most agricultural products are predicted to be lower this year.

We have to be thankful for all that we've got.

[Gary350]

There are no butterflies this year? Last year there was about 70 butterflies at the Zinnia flowers all the time. Today there are 6 yellow finch birds at the Zinnias. If I get closer than 80 feet birds fly away. I think birds have not gotten use to me be near their flowers.

Corn looks good that is amazing after all the storm damage several times. We keep having storms in the forecast every evening but no storms in our yard for 2 days.

I saw a pitch fork & potato fork at a yard sale 2 weeks ago I should have bought them.

Zinnia plants are 6 ft tall they are shading the peppers. I think peppers should have more sun but plants are doing ok they are loaded with peppers.

Tomato plants are loaded again today.

Roma Flat Pod beans think they are pole beans but the runners will not climb up anything. Soon the 2 row bed will be a large pile of plants.

1000 strawberry runners are a nightmare to deal with. If I dig up old plant to make room for runners to grow new plants then I loose runners. If I had about 500 dixie cup size flower pots I could get 500 transplants growing in 2" tall pots.

I picked 27 tomatoes that appeared to be ripe but a few are still a tiny bit green near the stems. There are 37 more red potatoes on the plants that won't be ripe for about 3 days. I am having a strange problem that I never had tomatoes will not pull loose from the stem. Pull and twist hard enough a group of 6 green tomatoes pull off with the ripe tomato. I have been cutting tie stems to release the tomatoes. Tomatoes are extra large this year it must be the rain, we never have rain every day in summer. I like to pick 100% ripe tomatoes for maximum good flavor, 3 days in the house tomatoes loose acid flavor and become very sweet.

Camera is 74° inside the house when I take camera outside lens steams up and pictures look like fog. I wipe lens many times it still looks like fog in this high humidity. Camera needs to be outside about 10 minutes to stop having lens fog. The 1st corn picture looks very fogged.

[imafan26]

It is amazing how quickly your garden recovers from the frequent storms. When tomatoes get too much water, they lose some flavor. But, I did not know that tomatoes will get sweeter if they are left out a few day. I should try that. I pick tomatoes when I am going to eat them and rarely store them unless I am giving them away.

Butterflies are not endangered here. Butterflies in Hawaii do not migrate. So many people are raising butterflies, that they are calling because they don't have enough milkweed to feed them. I have seen monarchs, but also fritillaries, sphinx moths and another butterfly I don't know. They are attracted to the cosmos. I am seeing more of the cabbage white butterfly, but I have fewer cabbages now, so there are only a few. I have my butterfly net handy. Some days I am better at catching them than others.

When I grew Italian beans, I just contained them on the ground. I have other pole flat beans like Poamoho which do climb.

[Gary350]

It is amazing how quickly your garden recovers from the frequent storms. When tomatoes get too much water, they lose some flavor. But, I did not know that tomatoes will get sweeter if they are left out a few day. I should try that. I pick tomatoes when I am going to eat them and rarely store them unless I am giving them away.

Butterflies are not endangered here. Butterflies in Hawaii do not migrate. So many people are raising butterflies, that they are calling because they don't have enough milkweed to feed them. I have seen monarchs, but also fritillaries, sphinx moths and another butterfly I don't know. They are attracted to the cosmos. I am seeing more of the cabbage white butterfly, but I have fewer cabbages now, so there are only a few. I have my butterfly net handy. Some days I am better at catching them than others.

When I grew Italian beans, I just contained them on the ground. I have other pole flat beans like Poamoho which do climb.

How do people raise butterflies? I would do that if I could. I don't see milkweed in TN.

First butterfly pictures of the year. What type butterfly is this?

[applestar]

(Eastern (probably)) Tiger Swallowtail

[imafan26]

Most people here raise monarchs. There are actually butterfly cages that are commercially made. They collect monarch eggs or caterpillars and keep them in the cage and feed them milkweed. Here it is usually crown flower. Monarchs feed exclusively on milkweed. People here think they are doing it to save the monarchs, but the monarchs have never been endangered here. They can endanger milkweeds, when there are too many of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oNBiDw1WgQ

[Gary350]

I have been picking a quart of berries every day. No berries down low I think deer are eating them. Lots of berries up high where I can't reach. So far I have no clue what to do with berries so I freeze them all. Berry patch is loaded full with unripe berries that will be ripe soon. Be careful not to pick ripe berries with wings there is a wasp on the other side that can't be seen yet.

Another bucket of 31 tomatoes picked yesterday. We have this many tomatoes in the kitchen and this many more on the plants that need to be picked. Wife has put 1 gallon of tomatoes in the freezer and made spaghetti sauce & pizza sauce too. Too much rain has been causing BER problems on the same 4 plants. I had to start giving plants more calcium every 3 days instead of every week. I have been giving away tomatoes to my son & the neighbor.

[Vanisle_BC]

Gary, what variety are those tomatoes?

[Gary350]

Gary, what variety are those tomatoes?

I have 12 big beef plants and 4 celebrity plants. Celebrity tomatoes all have pointed ends. 1 of the Celebrity plants has grown no ripe tomatoes yet. Another celebrity has only grow 2 ripe tomatoes. The other 2 celebrity plants are loaded with about 30 tomatoes each plant. Celebrity flavor is good I was curious about celebrity this is what you find in grocery stores. Celebrity is suppose to be a hot weather plant but we may not find that out this year we are not having hot 100°f weather like we typically do. Big Beef has very good flavor slightly better than Celebrity.

Picture, Big Beef left. Celebrity right.

[Gary350]

380 corns. If you grow dill you have butterfly worms.

[Gary350]

60 ripe tomatoes today.

[Gary350]

Tomato plants have been producing about 30 big tomatoes every day. Wife put all she needs for a year in the freezer. We try to eat as many as we can. Too many tomatoes some are starting to go bad. I have been giving tomatoes away and my son came and got another 10 lbs. We still have 118 ripe tomatoes on patio table and about 30 more ripe tomatoes on the plants. Yesterday I sold $130. of tomatoes $2 lb. with AD on Market Place, that paid for the fertilizer I bought in April. Last year 4 tomato plants were too few and this year 16 plants are too many. Tomatoes don't keep well like potatoes.

I should have planted 8 celery plants instead of 4 we have eaten the plants down to only a few stalks. We need to stop eating celery every day to give plants a chance to grow more stalks. Celery makes good chicken salad & potato salad. Plants need to grow faster.

Where did all these 6" long rats come from? We never had rats before. Dog kills rats every night. We never had new subdivisions with 200 new houses before either. Rats don't seem to be a problem in the garden, I'm not sure what they eat.

[greenstubbs]

Where did all these 6" long rats come from? We never had rats before. We never had new subdivisions with 200 new houses before either. Rats don't seem to be a problem in the garden, I'm not sure what they eat.

I'm out in the country and I get the small field/house mouse around here, I trap them in my garden shed and basement. They seem to like the Wally cocktail peanuts for trappin!

[Gary350]

Yesterday I made Blackberry wine. Wine recipe says, 2 gallons of berries and 4 gallons of water. Then 9 lbs of sugar and EC-1118 wine yeast.

Just because the 1 gallon basket is full does not mean is weights 8 lbs. It only weighs 4 lbs. It takes 4 gallon baskets of berries to have 16 lbs = 2 gallons. I substituted 1 quart of honey for 1 quart of sugar. I also added 1 pint of garden strawberries & 1 pint of blueberries.

I sold another $20 worth of tomatoes today.

[Gary350]

Today is the first serious work I have done in the garden in 2 weeks. I trimmed the dead & dying limbs & leaves from the tomato plants then raked it away. There are about 100 tomatoes hiding under those dead leaves.

Pepper plants are loaded again with peppers. We had to slow down eating too much celery so not to kill the plants. Next year I will grow 8 celery instead of 4. Next year I grow 8 Carman peppers instead of 4. Anaheim peppers are getting ripe too slow to make Enchilada sauce we need 8 more plants. I hate paying $4 for grocery store Enchilada sauce its just red water. We probably have 20 green peppers but we need red peppers.

Blue Birds are feeding their 3rd family of birds or maybe it is their 4th.

I am letting strawberry plants do there thing and grow where ever they want and long as they grow EAST.

Water hose exploded and became a water fountain. I tried to patch it but it leaks. I think hoses are designed to go bad so factories can sell more.

[imafan26]

It is hard to find anything manufactured new these days without planned obsolescence.

That is a nice stuffing pepper.

My larger tomatoes are mostly green. The only one with ripe tomatoes is Sun King, but I have to cull it because it has TYLCV.

[Gary350]

Corn before the storm, photo. TV storm warnings all day every 15 minutes, 75 mph wind, lightning, 1" hail, flash floods. Last time storm destroyed corn I wished I had a before & after picture. I hope I don't have to take an after photo today. 2 more weeks until corn harvest. Mud I pushed up around corn stakes 2 weeks ago is dry holding corn up like dry cement, this makes it very hard to fertilize corn. 1:15 pm storm warning radio went off first time today. TV claims 5" of rain with this storm.

7:30 am it was 74° high humidity makes it feel like 100°. I picked another 1/2 gallons of blackberries. Garden needs rain not storms.

[Gary350]

Corn is doing good standing straight up. My rain gauge shows 2" of rain sense 5 pm yesterday = 15 hours of rain. TV say, 9.6" in Mayfield TN.

[Gary350]

I have about 15 Thai Basil plants, I pureed 1 in the food processor. I will ferment this to 14% alcohol so it will be preserved. Alcohol will naturally convert to natural vinegar in about 1 month or so. It should turn out to be, Thai Basil Balsamic Vinegar for cooking. Alcohol should convert to about 7% natural vinegar. I will strain away all the solids and keep the green vinegar in a bottle. That empty PAWS container is too large. Ok for now.

[Gary350]

Several corn silks look dry, test shows corn it not ready yet. Calendars says, 2 more weeks for 90 day corn but I think 1 more week will do it. After pulling back green shucks they need to be tied down to keep bugs out. Sense I had to plant corn 3 times small plants were shaded out and will probably not have good kernels. Weather is so crazy this year, every time I planted seeds it was 80° then next several mornings its 50° and no germination.

[Gary350]

I wrapped corn ear up tight yesterday and bugs got in anyway. I pick this ear to save it from bugs but its is not ready to eat yet, no juice in kernels yet, not sweet yet, we will eat it anyway. I will wait and test kernels again in 3 days.

[Gary350]

Today I picked 138 ears of ripe corn. I tested corn every day for 4 days to learn when kernels are ripe enough eat, today milk is sweet as sugar. Wife & I both pulled shucks off the ears then moved to the kitchen. Wife was putting ears in 2 pans of boiling water for a few minutes then I cut kernels off the ears. 1 pint of kernels went into each 35 bags then into the freezer. It took 1 hr 30 minutes to make 35 pint size bags of corn. 138 / 35 = about 4 ears per pint. This was a bad year for corn most of the 380 seeds did not germinate and I replanted seeds 4 times. Most of the corn plants still in the garden were shaded out by taller corn. If anymore ears grow large enough to eat we will have corn on the cob for dinner.

I also picked peppers. Tomato plants keep producing about 10 lbs every day and I keep selling tomatoes, we have a year supply of tomatoes in the freezer. We had a ripe water melon yesterday. I picked some flat pod beans for stir fry.

I am too tired to pick blackberries today.

[Gary350]

Early this morning I finished picking corn, I found 48 more ears that makes a total of 186 ears. Corn on the cob for dinner tonight & several more nights.

I did the math again, I have 4 rows, 32' each row, 128 ft of corn, seeds spaced 5" apart = 306 plants but about 120 seed never grew.

I cut down all the stalks before it got too hot this morning then I ate the rest of the cold watermelon.

[imafan26]

Corn is not recommended for small gardens because of the amount of space and resources it takes up and the yield per square ft. Whenever I grow corn it takes up most of the main garden. I have found plants I can intercrop with the corn that is not squash. I can't plant much June-August, which is when I would either solarize or cover the garden after harvesting out. So, corn is one of the few things which will grow in the heat, but it requires a lot of expensive water. I can usually plant 47 plants and get 67 ears average. About one and 1-1/3 ear per plant. The corn will make 3 ears but only one or two will be filled. The ears on the perimeter will have fewer filled ears just because of the way pollen falls. I can get better yields if I bag the tassels and hand pollinate. But it does not help the later ears because the pollen does not keep that long. I would have to plant an outer row of corn about a week later with the intention of using it mainly to supply pollen to get more second or third ears to mature. corn spacing matters too. The recommended spacing is 12 inches but I can do 8 inch spacing. Less than that and pollen falls on the leaves instead. A 4x4 block is minimum and for my garden anything less than 40 plants in my space would decrease yield to less than 1 ear per plant, so to maximize yield I need to keep the plants crowded.

[Gary350]

Corn is not recommended for small gardens because of the amount of space and resources it takes up and the yield per square ft. Whenever I grow corn it takes up most of the main garden. I have found plants I can intercrop with the corn that is not squash. I can't plant much June-August, which is when I would either solarize or cover the garden after harvesting out. So, corn is one of the few things which will grow in the heat, but it requires a lot of expensive water. I can usually plant 47 plants and get 67 ears average. About one and 1-1/3 ear per plant. The corn will make 3 ears but only one or two will be filled. The ears on the perimeter will have fewer filled ears just because of the way pollen falls. I can get better yields if I bag the tassels and hand pollinate. But it does not help the later ears because the pollen does not keep that long. I would have to plant an outer row of corn about a week later with the intention of using it mainly to supply pollen to get more second or third ears to mature. corn spacing matters too. The recommended spacing is 12 inches but I can do 8 inch spacing. Less than that and pollen falls on the leaves instead. A 4x4 block is minimum and for my garden anything less than 40 plants in my space would decrease yield to less than 1 ear per plant, so to maximize yield I need to keep the plants crowded.

Corn is self pollinating it does not pollinate well in small crops. In the past I did lots of experiments. At the other house my garden was very small I had excellent luck with corn planted in a 10'x10' square, 10 rows 1 ft apart with 20 seeds in each row = 200 plants. I also had good luck planting 49 seeds in a 3'x3' square, wrap a bed sheet round the plants to hold in the pollen.

This year TN weather was the problem. Weather finally warmed up, forecast was 90° during the day & 65° at night for a week so I planted corn. 3 days later 49° at night 70 during the day and cold rain to cold for corn to germinate but about 65% did. I am planting 4 rows 32' of corn, 32" between rows, 5" between seeds. Square shape crop will have better pollination than Rectangle shape, I have good luck with this.

There is a lot of good scientific info online about field corn but not much about sweet corn. Super sweet corn has poor germination 65% is average. Super sweet corn is 75 day crop, small plants, small ears, small kernels. I switched to sweet corn G90 stalks are 3 ft taller, ears are longer, kernels are larger, 90 day crop.

[imafan26]

I actually only grow super sweet. The UH No 9 and no 10 are tropical corn that was developed for my climate. Corn seeds though are not viable for long, only about 2 years and the germination rate drops in the second year. I just planted UH no. 9, Silver. The germination looks to be > 95%. I did plant 12 backup plants to fill gaps, but I may not need them all. I have not had so many problems with germination as I have had with the seeds being raided by rats and birds. Temperature, day length and drought are issues with different types of corn. I have not gotten hotter than 85 degrees so that is fine for tropical corn. Corn is wind pollinated, so the pollen still has to drop onto the silk. This is where spacing matters. Too close, and the pollen gets caught by the leaves instead. Corn on the perimeter gets less help from other plants, so I need the tightest perimeter possible. There are only a few temperate corn varieties I can grow here Silver Queen, Golden Bantam, Early Sunglow, and Peaches and Cream. Corn needs to be maize mosaic virus resistant and resistant to nematodes. Tropical corn only needs 12 hrs to set. When it is overcast and rains for a week, the reduced sunlight will impact the corn growth and the ears are do not fill to the tip. That is why after I had 3 ft tall corn plants for 5 months that failed to mature in winter, I figured out that while it will grow year round. It won't do a lot of growing if there is not enough light. With 12- 13 hrs 50 min of daylight I will get 8 ft plants. So, the other varieties I can try are Southern varieties. My temperatures are fairly consistent and I water daily, sometimes twice a day. So hours of sunlight and anything that blocks sunlight do cause problems.

[Gary350]

I have about 20 rotten cantaloupe. TV keeps saying, no rain for a week but it rains every evening or night. I gave plants lots of calcium for BER. I usually set green cantaloupe on a flat rock or flat board to keep them out of the mud but I have not been doing that. I finally have the lawn mower running again.

[Gary350]

7:30 am this morning 70° I pulled up 43 Thai Basil plants. I hate to pull these up purple flowers look so nice and butterflies & honey bees like them. Basil is too much shade for melons. I set 13 melons on flat rocks to keep them off the wet mud soil. I put free basil on market place.

I tilled the potato row 4 times then raked it flat. I have 3 rows of seed potatoes, 48 potatoes in each row, 144 total. About 1 hour before dark I will push the seed potatoes into the soil so they are 1" below the surface, it is too hot now. When the time is right they will grow, I hope Sept.

Green beans are ready to pick but wife says she does not want any green beans. My son that usually wants all the beans does not want them either. Neighbor does not want them. Black lady up the street said she does not like this type green beans. Bean AD on market place people say, too hot to pick free beans. Oh well leave them be they will be mulch for the 4 rows of corn.

I used lawn mower to cut up all the corn stalks and blow them into the 4 corn rows. When it dries I will till it into the soil.

Strawberries have turned into a nightmare of 1000s of runners. I am allowing runners to travel 3' west and 4' east. I picked 8 gallons of strawberries this summer from 120 plants there will probably be 60 gallons of strawberries next summer from 1000 plants.

I have picked 38 lbs of blackberries so far. Plants are loaded my target is 40 lbs but I can problem pick 60 lbs if I want to keep picking. I used 20 lbs to make 6 gallons of wine that is finished. I will use the next 20 lbs to make another 6 gallons of wine. If berries continue to be this easy to pick I will make another 6 gallons of wine. Each recipe will be slightly different.

9 am it is 80° and feels like 100+ I am finished until about 7 pm when seed potatoes get pushed down into the soil.

[Gary350]

The boys have eaten about 25% of our new potatoes already so I decided to increase the number of seed potatoes that I am planting to 240. Now we wait to see what grows. I don't expect anything to grow until Sept or later.

Not much happening in the garden. I watered, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, potatoes, that took 15 minutes.

[Gary350]

Bird damage to tomatoes has never been this bad. 50% of the tomatoes have part of 1 side missing. I have about 40 good tomatoes and 40 bad. Tomorrow I cover tomatoes with nets, I never had to do that before.

[Gary350]

65° this morning I picked 1 more quart of easy to reach blackberries. I am not digging deep into the thorns to find berries. I am not standing on a ladder either. This makes a total of 40 lbs of berries plus 1 qt. I used 20 lbs to make wine. Wife wants the other 20 lbs out of the freezer, I need to make another 6 gallons of blackberry wine very soon. Aug 2 and plants are still producing berries but I don't want anymore. I have only been picking very easy to reach berries. If I had tried harder I could have picked another 20 lbs of berries. 3 years ago I picked 14 gallons of berries but I'm not trying hard this year. 1 qt extra is enough to make 1 bottle of pancake syrup.

Yesterday I searched 30 minutes for my 30' net and gave up. I am brain dead I can't remember anything anymore. This morning I accidently found the net stuffed into a cardboard box. I covered up tomato row I hope this stops birds from damaging tomatoes. I need to move the rest of damaged tomatoes to a compose pile or next year there will be a 1000 volunteer tomato plants.

[imafan26]

I don't know about your birds, but unless I seal the netting to the ground or to the stem, my birds will easily go under the netting. I just went out yesterday to harvest one of my cucumbers. It looked funny. It was in a net bag but the top wasn't tied with tie wire. The whole length of the cucumber was stripped by birds. I bagged this cucumber late, so it may have been eaten before I bagged it. I also noticed expecially on the onion bags that they have been damaged by the birds and have small holes in them. So far, the properly bagged fruit have been fine, but the hole won't stop other pests like fruit flies or pickle worms. I have a lot of repairs to make and I may have to find alternatives.

I heard that birds go after tomatoes looking for water and someone suggested putting up a bird bath away from the garden instead to provide them with water so they won't go after the fruit for the water.

Since you attract so many birds, I am surprised that you have so many berries and fruit. You must have more than they can eat.

[Gary350]

I don't know about your birds, but unless I seal the netting to the ground or to the stem, my birds will easily go under the netting. I just went out yesterday to harvest one of my cucumbers. It looked funny. It was in a net bag but the top wasn't tied with tie wire. The whole length of the cucumber was stripped by birds. I bagged this cucumber late, so it may have been eaten before I bagged it. I also noticed expecially on the onion bags that they have been damaged by the birds and have small holes in them. So far, the properly bagged fruit have been fine, but the hole won't stop other pests like fruit flies or pickle worms. I have a lot of repairs to make and I may have to find alternatives.

I heard that birds go after tomatoes looking for water and someone suggested putting up a bird bath away from the garden instead to provide them with water so they won't go after the fruit for the water.

Since you attract so many birds, I am surprised that you have so many berries and fruit. You must have more than they can eat.

I have water in several places but birds seem to like tomato juice better. I was wondering if birds will fly up inside the net. Maybe I should clip net together with clothes pins. I see birds splashing in the water I put out for them I wonder if that cools them off or if they are taking a bath. It has warmed up to 82° at 11:13 am. It feels much hotter than 82.

Lets see birds get in now net is clipped together with clothes pins.

[Gary350]

Aug 4, berry patch freaks me out, north side looks like it stop producing berries while the south side looks like it has more than doubled producing berries. Big storm & more rain 1 hour away so I picked the surface quick then no rain yet so I picked again to get the harder to reach berries. Another 4 lbs of berries. I hope all this rain and less heat helps the strawberry runner grow roots. TV is showing Carroll county flooding and boat rescues. TV said, look out for snakes flooding is making them move to higher ground. I wanted to till soil where corn was very early yesterday morning but it started raining about midnight.

12:40 pm a women came and wanted $40 of tomatoes, that was about 80 tomatoes. She wanted tomatoes professionally wrapped and boxed. I told her I only have used Walmart plastic bags. She acted like that is terrible but took them anyway.

[imafan26]

A nice harvest of berries. We have mulberries at the garden, but they aren't ripe and I will be losing that plot. I can hardly keep the strawberries away from the slugs and birds, and it is the only fruit "berry" I have.

[Gary350]

This morning cantaloupe looked good, this evening ends are split and rotten. I picked 9 melons. I cut off the bad ends 80 to 90% of the melons are good but not sweet enough to eat. I'm not good at growing melons maybe I should have picked them yesterday and kept them inside the house in AC to get riper. Tomorrow I will pull up cantaloupe and leave the 3 watermelons. I need the extra room for strawberry runners to grow.

I picked about 18 peppers, 3 are jalapeno, they are all turning red. Tomorrow they go in the dash of the truck parked in the sun to make, chili power. Anaheim peppers taste like sweet bell peppers with the vanes removed so vanes need to stay.

[Gary350]

Today I dehydrate about 18 Anaheim peppers & 1 Jalapeno pepper for chili powder. It usually takes about 6 to 8 hours with the truck parked in full sun. Once peppers are dry, food processor makes smaller pieces then high speed blender makes chili powder.

About 10 am flash flood storms rain for 2 hours.

About 12:30 pm sunny and nice 3 trays of sliced peppers on the dash of my truck.

2:25 pm very dark clouds I think it will rain again.

[Gary350]

18 Red Anaheim peppers & 2 Red Jalapeno peppers dried in the hot sun about 3 hrs Tues, and about 4 hrs Wed. I put all the peppers on 1 pan stir them around and most of the seed fall on the pan. Curly peppers are easy to pick up in 1 big wad to dump away the seeds. I hand crunched dry peppers several times a few more seeds fell off. Food processor is too slow to make fine powder but it did a nice job of making smaller pieces. High speed kitchen blender made fine powder very easy in 60 seconds. This made 3/4 cup of chili powder. Next we need to cook with chili power to test the hotness. It was interesting to see Jalapeno peppers dehydrated to almost nothing compared to Anaheim, it will be interesting to learn how much hotness comes from the Jalapeno peppers. Top left corner of the rectangle pan is were sliced Jalapeno peppers were, pan looks almost empty in that location. Look at the same rectangle pan in the truck window round slices are Jalapeno top left corner. Dry Jalapeno peppers look like tiny pieces of red Styrofoam.