Hot and bell Peppers, potatoes, onions and misc. crop Pics

Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:14 pm

The last two weeks here have been very good weather wise, we went through this freakish cool spell that had the tomatoes and peppers at a stand still as far as maturing was concerned..
One day Heirloom tomato harvest, aprox. 80+ pounds:

Criolla de Cocina bell pepper, very tasty!:

A few Mature Bhut Jolokia's:

And some immature Bhut's..(sure hope the Minnesota weather holds up)

Large yellow Habanero's

Corno de Toro pepper, very nice tasting sweet pepper

Half of the onion crop

Close up of their size

The other half of the onions, harvested, and dried for the most part on the 6x12 frame:

Yesterdays potato harvest, 1/4 of the total harvest
The bowl of potatoes is from ONE plant, 7 1/4 pounds

The other 1/4 of total harvest (the other half (approximately 225 pounds) is in the pantry already.

One of the large ones..1 1/2 pounds:

and here's three 1/2 gallon jars of Brined dills we had soaking for 4 weeks...

THANKS FOR VIEWING

...All I have to say is:

BEHOLD THE POWER OF ORGANICS

Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:24 pm

Wow! I have never seen a Habanero that large. Are they a new variety? If so, where did you buy your seeds?

Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:26 pm

What LOVELY, LOVELY harvest!! :clap:

Two questions and a comment"
(1) Do you use the CD as a reflector/scare? Does it work?
(2) You must have an enormous pantry!

Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:00 pm

Wow! I wish I had all those potatoes!

I like the CD reflector scare trick, works pretty well if you have enough cds to use.

Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:58 pm

VERY impressive harvests!

a0c8c wrote:I like the CD reflector scare trick, works pretty well if you have enough cds to use.

Yep, since stringing a few up on my balcony we havenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t had any more Ã¢â‚¬ËœvisitorsÃ¢â‚¬â„¢. Neighbours havenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t complained yet either which is good.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who has a pile of useless PC data CDs laying about their study :lol:

Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:36 am

Beautiful harvest. You did wind up with lots of potatoes.

Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:15 am

Thanks everyone

Stella,
this was the first year we "grew out" the yellow habanero seed, we received the seed from a friend in Texas, a very large scale pepper producer, and a friend/member of my forum, I may have more seed, or can get it..
the seed for the Criolla de Cocina bell pepper also came from him

applestar,
Yes the cd's are for scaring the birds, I accidently knocked the one pictured off it's hanger while pulling the onions so I figured it a good size comparison item, since most folks have a old cd around...
And Yes, they seem to keep the birds off the plants we don't want them on...
Oh, and the Pantry...not nearly big enough...thinking about renting a backhoe and digging a root cellar

Fri Sep 25, 2009 11:02 am

Update, here's the tomatoes we picked two days after the last picking in the photos
thanks for all who commented...we enjoy what we do, it's our only vice...
Stella, if you are interested in the Yellow Hab seed, send me a message and we'll get some to you, my wife does all the seed swapping:lol:

Fri Oct 02, 2009 2:50 am

Phil,

What do you use the Bhut Jolokia's for? I've heard eating one is just another way of committing suicide. The habenero is the hottest I can eat, but they are the best tasting pepper I've ever eaten.

Are your heirloom tomatoes mostly determinate? I plant mostly indeterminate in order to extend the harvest over a longer period. I'm just curious.

Ted

Thu Oct 15, 2009 12:19 pm

tedln wrote:Phil,

What do you use the Bhut Jolokia's for? I've heard eating one is just another way of committing suicide. The habenero is the hottest I can eat, but they are the best tasting pepper I've ever eaten.

Are your heirloom tomatoes mostly determinate? I plant mostly indeterminate in order to extend the harvest over a longer period. I'm just curious.

Ted

Ted
I am extremely sorry, and apologize, Have been very busy, and just back tracked to this post and seen your questions
We use them for seasoning, grind powder out of them, flavor oils...
just like anything new, you need to adjust the amounts..so, if a recipe calls for 1/4 a teaspoon..well, DON'T add a 1/4 tsp. of Bhut's...
No, the majority of heirlooms are indeterminate, on;y a couple are determinate

by the way, the Bhut's have a very pleasant "citrus like taste"
just before the heat hits! :lol:

Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:10 pm

Phil,

The habanero peppers have a taste that I love. You can't simply eat the pepper to enjoy the taste. It has to be applied in small amounts in other dishes. I wish I could find a prepared habanero sauce which retained the taste, but I haven't so far. Most of the sauces try to keep the heat and not worry about the taste. I'm wondering if the Bhut has the same taste. Guess I will grow some next spring.

I did try something new this year with my hot peppers. I dried them on my smoker along with my beef brisket and other things I cooked on the smoker. I would wrap a handful of them in paper towels to keep the smoke soot off of them. It seemed to lower the heat content of the peppers and give them a smokey flavor. They were great for eating or using in dishes.

Ted

Thu Oct 15, 2009 4:22 pm

Great pictures of your magnificent garden harvest.
Lots of good eating there.

Thu Oct 15, 2009 10:30 pm

tedln wrote:Phil,

The habanero peppers have a taste that I love. You can't simply eat the pepper to enjoy the taste. It has to be applied in small amounts in other dishes. I wish I could find a prepared habanero sauce which retained the taste, but I haven't so far. Most of the sauces try to keep the heat and not worry about the taste. I'm wondering if the Bhut has the same taste. Guess I will grow some next spring.

I did try something new this year with my hot peppers. I dried them on my smoker along with my beef brisket and other things I cooked on the smoker. I would wrap a handful of them in paper towels to keep the smoke soot off of them. It seemed to lower the heat content of the peppers and give them a smokey flavor. They were great for eating or using in dishes.

Ted

We smoked a bunch of Poblano's, they were good, I think it depends on the type of pepper if they loose heat or not, I do agree that the Habanero is more palatable though

There's a Texmex restaurant close to here that has a smoked Hab Sauce that Is teriibly hot, but just delicious...I'll try to find a link

Great pictures of your magnificent garden harvest.
Lots of good eating there.

Thanks jal_ut for your kind words, we never have to hit the produce or canned goods isle in the supermarket...and thats a good thing....
My wife has a couple sources for apples and pears, so we round out the pantry fairly well, now IF I could just fatten up a calf, without her making it a pet :lol:

best be careful what I say, she's mentioned joining :lol:

Fri Oct 16, 2009 6:38 am

You can make one hell of a lot of hot sauce. Nice harvest, that is one big potato.

Mon Oct 19, 2009 11:08 am

tomf wrote:You can make one hell of a lot of hot sauce. Nice harvest, that is one big potato.

Yes we can Tom, and have, and will make more!
that potato is a large one; however, about 35% of the total harvest was over a pound!!
I adjusted the Ph where we planted this year, and we added a inch of sand to the soil to loosen it some, this area is known for clay soil, even in this garden where I have added amendments yearly, you get into some clay at about 9 inches, so for potatoes, the sand made quite a difference