The Recall of the Return of the Revenge?

It has taken me close to two years, but I have once again decided to plant chillies.

In the meantime, I imagine quite a few people have grown disenchanted with this particular blog, and I don't blame them. Blogs are supposed to be maintained at the very least semi-regularly.

Truth be told, having a small offspring of mine own (well, I am 50% owner, Almapaprika owns the other 50%) has proven to be a life changing experience.

The little 'un is amazing and fantastic, and I cannot but marvel at every discovery made by this wee person, even the ones that leave both parents screaming 'DON'T TOUCH THAT!!!'

But the chilli bug has been itching for a while.

A few months back, in the thick of a bitter English winter (I know, I know, no such thing as a 'bitter English winter' in The United Kingdom of Mild Britain and Milder Ireland', and yet, the climate would seem to want to make fools of us all), a stranger approached me at work, and said ominously 'are you the guy who grows chillies?'

To be honest, being picked out of the blue from a random stranger as 'chilli growing man X' does not surprise me...well, not anymore. I guess i've been peddling my capsaicin trade long enough to be known by at least one stranger to me or possibly two.

Turns out this chap was an acquaintance of Dr. John (see videos in this blog), who wanted to know a bit about growing chillies.

I ended up giving him a veritable capsicum cornucopia.

And I also ended up having the urge to grow chillies again.

Except the wee one gives me virtually no free time to look after the few plants Almapaprika and I have at the moment. It is a miracle most of them are still alive.

I thought of a list of chillies to plant, wrote it down, went into my black seed box...(Yes, I have a black seed box. It is not exclusively for the keeping of chilli seeds, but it is where all my seeds are kept.)

...and promptly placed that idea in the back burner for the better part of three months.

However, the scorching English summer (I know, it almost sounds like I am writing about some mythical land with proper seasons.) as well as another request by a friend at work has made me rethink this venture, and, armed with renewed vigor and impetus (or possibly hallucinating thanks to the wee one...did I agree on a name...let's call offspring Numero Uno 'Pequin'), yesterday I finally pulled thumb out of respective bodily orifice and proceeded to plant some chillies!!!

In the middle of JULY, I know.

They will be overwintered chillies.

But nonetheless, here's the list of participants:

- 4X Orange Habanero
- 4X Chocolate Habanero
- 4X Black Naga
- 4X Barrackpore 7-Pod/Pot
- 2X Datil
- 2X Scotch Bonnets

I will give my friend at work some of these, probably some of the Chocolate Habaneros and Orange Habaneros, just to make sure I don't end up blamed for some late night experimenting with chillies gone horribly wrong.

But even before all that, a more important question needs be asked:

Will they even germinate?

These are two-plus year old seeds...

The adventure begins anew! :-)
  

Bullet the Blue Sky

Lightning-fast post (work has been keeping me busy these past few weeks):

1. The Maize Morado has FINALLY shown Cob-like growths! These would be either the female tassels, or the fully pollinated corn cobs. There are three at the moment, so WOHOO! Also, I only found this out today, but the Corn has grown so tall, it is growing INTO the office roof!

2. The Datil pods matured, so I now have two Datil pods at home. Photos of them and some of the other ones will be posted soon-ish. I plan to use the pods to make some sort of Tuna steak in Mango and Datil chutney dish... may or may not work. The plant has now gotten two more pod-lings, so more good news.

3. After weeks of having only ONE pod (which is now ripening to a glorious red) The Barrackpore 7-pod has more pods. The same is happening to the Aji Umba Red, which had only two pods, but has now got about six. The two Jamaican Red Hots have also gotten a few pods in them. This means the only plants not to have provided ANY pods so far are the two Fataliis (no surprise there) and the two Black Nagas (noooooooooooo!). The Trinidad Scorpions still has only ONE pod...which is also now ripening.

4. I am a bit confused with some of the pods that have resulted from some of the swaps for seeds. Mind you, this is also part of the fun of seed trading: you never quite know what you'll get! The Habanero Golden pods have just started ripening...to a very ORANGE colour. The Madame Jeannettes have also ripened...to a very ORANGE colour. I thought the first were supposed to ripen to a light yellow/gold colour, and the second ones to a deep red. Ah, well. They all look very good regardless.

5. The Brazilian Starfish and Red Squash peppers have fallen under some form of spider mite attack that has left the two Red Squash plants pretty beaten up. I don't think they will be able to survive this, and I fear I may lose the pods, which is a shame, since they are very interesting and dare I say visually striking pods. I have tried to spray them with SB Plant Invigorator, but the mites seem to be unaffected by the spray.

6. I really should get to work on that web page of mine.

7. Powdering chillies is fun, but cutting them is painful! I discovered that vinyl gloves SHOULD NOT be used for this. They tear too easily and, more alarming, suffer from micro-tears which means they aren't detectable until your fingers start to hurt. I spent three days with my thumb feeling as though it was being bitten by fire ants. And this even after using copious amounts of olive oil to wash the fingers to get the capsaicin washed off properly. I made Chocolate Habanero powder, Orange Habanero powder, and Naga Morich powder.

8. Will post photos soon! :-)

Pods!

Well, as is to be expected, this is the time of the year when pods are starting to show up on the plants.

The Orange Habanero is full of them. So is the Chocolate Habanero.

One of the two Royal Gold Habaneros is being quite prolific. The other is still growing and not flowering (though there are plenty of buds).

The Madame Jeannette has about 10 pods of varying sizes.

The Aji Umba Red has one pod, and though it is supposed to be quasi-related to the MJ, the pods show completely different characteristics. It will be interesting to see the pods fully mature.

Both Black Nagas are producing buds, but no flowers have opened as of yet.

One Fatalii has started flowering. The other is about to.

Both Jamaican Red Hots are flowering, but no pods seem to be forming :-(

The one overwintered Naga Morich has produced four pods so far, and is flowering heavily.

The Datil has produced two pods.

The Ring of Fire Cayenne has about a dozen pods.

The Barrackpore 7 pod has a lot of flowers, but no pods yet.

The Trinidad Scorpion is the same.

The Thai Dragon is growing, and growing, and growing...but not a single bug so far!

The supposed 'Red Squash' has finally produced pods, and they are looking true to form. But the flowers are definitely C. annuun.

The Brazilian Starfish looks about to flower.

The Rocoto Rojo continues to irritate me with its lovely green growth and zero flowers/pods.

The Roselle has flowered lots now, but no good sized flowers (tiny ones), so I may have to overwinter this one.

The Maiz Morado has finally produced on tassel, or male inflorescence. Now I just have to wait for the female ones.

Whew! Long update.

Candied (crystallized) Orange Habanero experiment is still going quite well. I might shorten the number of days from 7 to 5, since it is a very small batch. I will wait until the liquid in the pod segments has been completely replaced by sugar, though. But the syrup so far tastes delicious!

Green houses/Invernaderos

I finally got annoyed enough by our balcony to go out and buy a mini-greenhouse.

I have gotten sick and tired of watching plant after plant simply keel over and die out side of our flat in what can only be described as the sort of place where only Scottish Heather or wind resistant grasses from the Hebrides can grow. Living less than 200 metres from the waters of the Mersey in what effectively is a wind tunnel is frustrating. Nothing you grow seems to be able to settle in. Add to that the fact that thanks to the Hilton brand of hotels and their Hamptons by Hilton we no longer get sun in the mornings, and only a few hours of direct sunlight in the afternoons, and you can have a sort of feeling why I get so miserable when I look at what would ideally be a beautiful wood-decked balcony.

But no more. I just simply couldn't let the nice white climbing Rose wither and die, or watch the Hibiscus try for the fourth year running to have more than just some crappy little leaves.

No sir.

I have just seen my three blueberry bushes wither and die thanks to the new balcony and it vexes me.

So, in comes the new greenhouse.

It is nearly six feet tall, and has four shelves, though I am only using three since the Rose and the Hibiscus are fairly tall twigs.

Looking at them now, the wind is causing considerably less stress on the plants. I even feel confident enough to move the very healthy Mint plant I had in the window outside. I've placed the Lilies Almapaprika bought inside, along with the ones I bought a few months back, and watered everything in the greenhouse.

I might buy some cheap digital thermometers to keep track of whether or not it also makes it more bearable for the plants temperature wise.

I've not been able to update the blog as often as I would like because I've been a little busy at the moment.

I am slowly re-potting all the plants into their final, 8-inch pots. I still have to re-pot the two Fataliis, the two Black Nagas, the two Jamaican Red Hots and one Royal Gold Habanero.

I think I may be seeing the first of the Cayenne Ring of Fire pods next week, as the plant has started to flower now.

I treated all of the overwintered pots to some Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate), which is helpful in replenishing magnesium in plants. Apparently peppers plants are deemed to be 'Magnesium hungry'. I'm hoping this will help the Rocoto Rojo, which has been great at growing, but exceedingly poor at producing pods.

The Royal Gold (the already re-potted one) is doing quite well, and may produce flowers in the next fortnight. The Madame Jeannette, on the other hand, is already weeks ahead of every other plant of this season. The first node of flowers numbers a cluster of 9, which is prolific. No buds have opened yet. Should be doing so next week. The Thai Dragon has split brilliantly into three even main branches, all growing straight and up. Lovely growth, but no flowers yet.

The two Red Squash...grumble grumble...are anything BUT Chinenses. They have started to flower, and are following the traditional Annuum growth pattern of one flower per node, as well as showing all the physical characteristics of an Annuum. If it was my mistake, then the only other possible pepper that could have been mistaken in the labelling were the peppers next to them, Almapaprika peppers (not my wife ;-P). I only had four Annuums growing this season: Cayenne Ring of Fire, Regular Cayenne, Almapaprika, and Thai Dragon.

I only hope it wasn't the seed company's problem, because they are generally a good seed company.

But I will only find out once the first pods set in.

I was planning to make some pie today for dinner, but I've gotten a bit lazy... :-(

Algo no me huele bien...

Yep, something is fishy here.

These are the chillies and plants that are still going strong in this year's crop.

2x Red Squash

3x Maize Morado

1x Cayenne Ring of Fire

1x Thai Dragon

1x Madame Jeannette

1x Aji Umba Red

1x Barrackpore 7-pot/7-pod

1x Brazilian Starfish

2x Jamaican Hot

2x Fatalii

2x Royal Gold

2x Black Naga

1x Trinidad Scorpion

1x Roselle

Plus the overwintered:

1x Orange Habanero

1x Chocolate Habanero

1x Naga Morich

1x Rocoto Rojo

Now, all seems according to plan with all the plants. Some of them (the Fataliis) seem to be growing very, VERY slowly, while others (Madame Jeannette) are growing like there is no tomorrow.

The interesting thing is that two of the peppers don't seem to match their descriptions...

The Brazilian Starfish is supposed to be a Baccatum, and yet the leaves looks strangely like those of a Chinense. It's growing shape is much more elongated and elegant than any of the Chinenses of similar age growing alongside them, but it is nonetheless strange. Still, this is the first Baccatum I have ever grown, so I might be wrong.

Now, the Red Squash on the other hand, doesn't look AT ALL like a Chinense, even though the seed company I bought them from said it was. If anything, the plant so far screams Annuum. It is just starting to produce flower buds, so I shall have to wait and see if it's just me (after all, I could have mislabelled things when I planted seeds originally. Unless they end up looking like nothing I ordered for this season).

No photos this week, as I am in the middle of slowly re-potting all of the seedlings into their final pots (have done so thus far with the Trini Scoprion, the Red Squash, the Brazilian Starfish, Madame Jeannette, Aji Umba Red and the Roselle.

Others will be done next week. I just need to get more containers from Home.

On another note, last weekend I cooked Chocolate Habanero, rum soaked cherries, pecan and ginger brownies.

Man Alive!

Those are some really good brownies!

:-)

Some comparisons

I decided to try to upload some of the photos I've not been able to upload for the past two weeks up, and put them next to one another to compare growth between 1 April 2010 and 9 April 2010:

I'll Start off with the Purple Corn (on all photos, the top one is 1 April, the Bottom one is 9 April)




Not sure it's the best of comparisons, but it gets better, I promise!

These are the Black Nagas.



The Barrackpore 7-Pod



The Trinidad Scorpion



The Ring of Fire Cayenne



And just for goodness sake, here's the progress of the Madame Jeannette (9 April)


And the Aji Umba Red (9 April)


Well, I'm off to be 'domestic' and attempt to try to clean the house a bit, before people start arriving this week for the 'Union of the Peppers' between yours truly and Almapaprika.

;-)

The Ice Cream Bean Cometh!

I spent the better part of a conversation on Easter Sunday attempting to remember the name of a particular fruit eaten in Central America with a friend from that neck of the woods.

After much searching (in our minds), we were unable to actually remember the name of it, to our collective frustration.

This morning, however, I have finally remembered the name of said fruit:

The Guaba.

At least that is the name given to it in Aji Chombo Land. The Scientific name for it is Inga edulis. The English name for it is apparently the Ice Cream Bean, which I find funny, though strangely appropriate.

I remember having some as a child, and what a fantastically strange fruit it was. Imagine if you will a very large tree with pods nearly a foot long by about an inch and a half. Inside these pods are large black seeds wrapped in what looks like dense, white cotton, or cotton candy. The taste is a bit like banana, but sweeter, and with a slightly more fibrous texture.

Good stuff, and the tree apparently helps replenish nutrients into the soil (in a similar fashion to legumes).

Just if any of you are planning to start crops...

Four days away from the plants seems like an eternity.

Four days away from work however, are bliss.

Amazing how quickly stress builds up again, even though there's hardly anything to do thanks to Easter Break.

I think the lack of things to do just piles on even more stress.

Who would ever have though that?

It's either stress from not having much to do AND being in a very publicly exposed location, or the fantastic combination of under staffing, exposure, and high levels of friction caused by inconsistent (highly, HIGHLY inconsistent) customer service policies. Hopefully things will get sorted out soon (since the higher ups have realised just how stressed we are down in the trenches), but odds are I'll be face to face with the Oriental Yeti (Elvis' Pet) before I see any worthwhile changes...

:-(

But I digress.

The Maize Morado is doing very well. Seems to like it's new 'enclosure.' I really am eagerly anticipating the eight foot tall stalks (as are the people in the office I put them in, since they will act as natural shade).

The Roselle is not shooting up like the Maize Morado, but it continues to grow steadily. I imagine this lack of growth has more to do with the low temperatures in this start/stop spring (since it snowed last week). But it looks healthy so I'm going to keep crossing my fingers. I was actually asked about the progress of the Roselle by one of the girls from the Deli Almapaprika and I go to often.

The sub par spring also seems to be affecting the chillies, leading to a lot of uneven growth. One Royal Gold is on it's third set of true leaves, while the other is only just starting the second. And they both germinated on the same day.

The Trinidad Scorpion, the Madame Jeannette, and the Aji Umba Red lead the way for the chinenses, followed closely now by the Barrackpore 7-Pot; while the Ring of Fire Cayenne and the Thai Dragon are doing their usual thing now (growing fast).

Oh, and the Black Nagas are showing their first true leaves!

That last bit of news is absolutely fantastic for me.

It balances out the disaster of the home grown hydroponics...though I may have figured out what went wrong, but it is too late to fix...

Anywho, enough of my babbling.

He Bangs, He Bangs

He moves, he moves.

He apparently comes out of the closet...after everyone has known for nearly a decade.

Still, well done to Ricky Martin, most famous of the members of Menudo (what ever happened to that group, anyways?).

Here are the pics I took last Friday. I've been procrastinating as usual, so posts have been few and far in between.

I should take the moment to say many thanks to Marcio, as the seeds have just arrived today in the post from Brazil.

I am most grateful (and a very happy bunny)

:-)


This is the Chocolate Habanero Pod. All three seem to have slowed down in growth. Little things, but I will still bet my non-existent house they will be hot!


Madame Jeannette (I always misspell this one. Mon Dieu!). It is doing brilliantly.


Booyakasha! The Trinidad Scorpion is looking handsome!


The Barrackpore 7-pod. Slow to grow, but steady.


Aji Umba Red, also a quick off the blocks grower.


The Black Nagas! Yahoo! Two of the three seeds germinated. I just have to make sure they grow strong.


The Purple Corn (Maize Morado) in their new pot. A bit tight a squeezy, but it should hopefully help later on when they have to pollinate to produce ears of corn.

I need to take photos of the hydro peppers...

I am the Angel of Muesli!

Don't ask why I've put that as the title...

...oh, all right!

I can't really remember the song 'Angel of Music' from Phantom of the Opera (if that is the real title of it), so I remember it as 'Angel of Muesli'.

Which I think is only fair, since there is a Catholic patron Saint for Television (actually, there are THREE), so why not have a Guardian Angel for Swiss breakfast cereals?

Speaking of Saints, it is a telling statement of the power of being able to attract top figures from other countries when the English can hire out a Turk to be their patron (George), the Irish can hire out a Welshman (Patrick), and the Scotts can hire out a Jordanian (Andrew).

Only the Welsh have a 100% Welsh Saint (David).

But given the fact that they export saints effectively (see Patrick), Welsh saints must be like Italian Football coaches...

Went to see 'I love you Phillip Morris' with Almapaprika yesterday (yes, a rom-com). I have to admit that while an entertaining film, I was taken aback by the explicit sexual content of the film.

Guess it just means I'm an old (Middle-aged) prude who needs to watch more TV on Fox...

To his credit, though, Ewan McGregor makes for an endearingly innocent and camp gay man.

Jim Carrey...well...different story.

Now, going back to the topical discussion on Chillies:

I've taken new pics today, which I plan on uploading at the weekend. All the little seedlings are going strong.

The C. Annuums are really taking off!

Both the Ring of Fire and the Thai Dragon are starting to distance themselves growth wise from the C. Chinenses.

The Trinidad Scorpion, Madame Jeannette, Royal Gold, Aji Umba Red and Barrackpote 7-pot are doing really well.

And Guess what?

Two of the Black Nagas germinated!

I had put off answering this until such a time as they germinated: Mr. Arboc, as soon as these babies start producing pods, regardless of the colour, I shall send you some seeds. Maybe a pod even, if the post allows it.

Now I've at least got two little seedlings to watch over.

:-)

Good stuff, that!

The Roselle is busting out of the little plastic-bottle greenhouse, and I've had to transplant all of the Maize Morado onto a much larger, 'Final Pot' where all three can grow. It will need extra compost, which I shall buy at the weekend (thinking about Miracle Gro). I shouldn't have any problems with pots this year, as I have a healthy supply of large pots for the plants.

But enough of my mindless babbling.

I'll get the pics up soon.

A New Level of Weird...

A co-worker of mine just pointed a news report from the BBC about a blind dog that has it's own guide-dog to get him around...

...yes.

You read correctly.

A blind dog (Canis lupus familiaris)...

...with it's own guide dog (Canis lupus familiaris).

Personally I would have gone for a guide ferret, or a guide gerbil.

But to each his own...we humans on this planet are reaching new and fantastic levels of unnecessarily weird ('No, Mr. Lapinski, there are no guide dogs left. Lassie XXIII took the last one.')

I tried a spot of gardening (pruning mostly) at the weekend with the blueberries in our balcony. Only two remain from the three I bought. I lasted about 20 minutes before the cold wind forced me back inside. That balcony is good for growing only Scottish Heather or other shrubs that grow in inhospitable terrain.

There goes the climbing rose I bought on Sunday, then...

I also realised an interesting thing from reading other blogs of chilli growers.

Most of them post entries once a month or so. I seem to be the only one who 'waffles on' endlessly about completely unrelated topics (guide dogs, anyone?)

I do hope I don't bore people with non-chilli related filler.

I also attempted to re-create my fantastic Mango, Peach and Naga chutney...only to change it dramatically by using Plums instead of Peaches, forgetting to use the 500g of Tamarind I had NEXT TO THE PAN, and having funky looking frozen Nagas (I have no idea if they were usable, but they looked really mushy and 'icky' when defrosted), which meant I ended up using chilli flakes.

I shall post the recipe and photos later on in the week.

As I predicted, the nice weather at the weekend meant more Chocolate Habanero pods. I counted two more this morning, with possibly another two forming. The Naga Morich is starting to look like it might be producing a pod or two, but I might curtail that to allow it to grow some more after the heavy accidental pruning in winter.

The rest of the seedlings are doing really well, but the Ring of Fire Cayenne is at least one leaf ahead of the rest. Annuums are definitely faster growers than chinenses. The Trinidad Scorpion is also growing at an impressive rate. I've had to tie down a few of the ridiculously leggy seedlings (one of the Royal Gold and one of the Red Squash), but other than that they seem to be OK.

Nothing yet from the Black Nagas...

I'll post some more pics later in the week.

We're scheduled to be in double figures temperature wise this week for the first time since November!

Whoot!

Life, Death, & 'Black Nagas'

It was a mixed day today.

The second Mustard Habanero seedling, as well as one of the two remaining Trinidad Scorpion seedlings and the lone Aji Limo Rojo have all died. The little things were all just limp inside their little plastic bottles.

I thought it might be the bottles themselves, but every other seedling in a bottle is doing fine (in fact, some are doing really well, like the Ring of Fire Cayenne).

Nonetheless, their little plastic bottles were recycled for good use.

I recently 'bit the bullet' (as it were), and purchased untested 'mutant' seeds from a vendor (chillipepperpete), who was selling a rare oddity called:

The Black Naga.

(waits for sporadic 'oooooooh!...aaaaaaaah!')

Apparently a single plant in a Naga Morich field in Nagaland gave a harvest of Black Naga pods, and Mr. CPP was able to get a hold of some the pods and seeds. He sold them on his e-business for £2.00 for 10 seeds, which is about average for the cost of seeds (and cheaper than another seed vendor was selling his 'Mysterious Yellow Bhut Jolokias' for).

They cost exactly the same as his regular Naga Morich seeds, so I surmised, if they end up producing regular pods, at least I did not pay over the odds, and I'd have some more Naga seeds.

I also bought a bottle of his 2012 hot sauce, which has 'Smoked Bih Jolokia', as well as habaneros. I am looking forward to tasting it this evening, and posting a review about it, if anyone is interested (Lutra Lutra, this is the same company that made Dragon's Blood, so this ought to be interesting).

I am anxiously awaiting some seeds from two different parts of Australia and from Brazil, though I fear the Brazil one might have been lost in the post... :-(

Customs officials do not look kindly to seeds being sent in the post, it would seem...