Weekend/Monday pics

Really excited today. First of all I planted some of the seedlings that were in the glass jars into small pots (3cm this time), and moved almost all of the seedlings in the small greenhouse into the now empty jars (missing one Splendor).

Second of all, I passed by the office (had lecture) to see the seedlings there, and WOW! One weekend of mild sunshine (not even that much. It was cloudy all weekend) and some Chilli Focus made them shoot up quite a bit.

I GOT MY OTHER SEEDS! Hazzah! I ordered them from Peppermania (home of the Aji Queen. I wonder if that makes me her subject?). I ordered some Datil Chillies, Brazilian Starfish, Habanero Pastel Market, Paper Lanterns, Cumari au Passarinho. The Aji Queen threw in some free seeds (Aji Limo Rojo), and her business card had another little bag with a hodge-podge of chilli seeds! YAY! There are some Capsicum pubescens seeds (easy one, pubescens seeds are black), and probably another two types. I'll enjoy growing them to see what they end up being.

Some Chilli Photos

Well, I had promised I'd post some of the photos of the chillies I'm growing, so here they arrrrrr! (the spicy pirate in me).

The top photo is of the ones growing at work. From top to bottom: Cherry Chilli, Chocolate Sweet Pepper X2, and Cayenne Ring of Fire. They are doing absolutely wonderful. They have a nice source of heat next to them in the form of the radiators, a nice glass window on the other side, and plenty of sunlight (south-ish facing window). You can Tell they love it!

The second photo is of the ones at home. They did germinate a few days later than the top ones, so they are a little smaller, but still, the look really nice. From left to right: Rocoto Rojo (worry not. The little pencil stick is just to make sure it grows in the right direction. It's doing wonderful), Esplendor (the tiny one, I think), Stromboli, Etna, and Belpicen. A bit less sunshine than at work, but I might move some of them over to the office as spring progresses.

You can just make out the little glass jars next to the pots. I've got the Habaneros and Nagas in them.

Today I finished off some Lemon Curd, and guess what I did with the jar?

Yep.

Got one of the Fataliis into it.

Watching Saturday Kitchen now. The 'Wine Experts' are such weirdos... gotta love 'em, though.

But they are decidedly weird...

Gotta go finish some Polish Red Cabbage and Apple sauerkraut for lunch.

I need the jar...

Heed the call of the capsicum!

Question time, then:

Why did I decide to heed the call of the capsicum once more?

It's not exactly like Almapaprika and I have the space for it. we've gone from a house with a small garden to a flat with a long but narrow balcony, already occupied by three blueberry bushes, a hybiscus, and two other ones I always forget (Almapaprika will probably tell me what they are at some point when she reads this later).

Well, I guess I have to thank my friends for this (Let's call them Ancho, Poblano, Pasilla, and Jalapeño).

I got a birthday gift from them in winter, which consisted of packs of seeds and a terra-cotta plant pot for strawberries (you know, the ones that are tall and a bit broad, but have openings on the sides, so you can have multiple plants hanging from the pot). The seeds were from the Chile Pepper Company (I still have some issues with them, which is why I don't link them on this blog). The packs contained:

-Belpicen Chillies (an ornamental chilli)
-Esplendor Chillies (another ornamental chilli)
-Numex Suave Orange Chillies (a 'no heat' variety of Habanero)
-Chocolate Sweet Pepper (a sweet pepper...chocolate in colour)
-Ring of Fire (a slightly hotter variety of Cayenne)

So, those five little seed packs set the wheels in motion, so to speak.

Almapaprika and I travelled to 'Aji Chombo Land' for Christmas to see the family and to attend a wedding (not mixing those peppers in this salad.) of two dear pepper friends of mine. I can now kick myself for not having brought back seeds when I returned, because the 'call' grew louder and stronger in my head.

I ended up placing a second order for seeds from a place called World of Chillies (I ordered their collection of the 10 hottest chillies in the World packet):

1. -Naga Morich (Scorching at 1,500,000 SHU from the Asam region in north-eastern India/Bangladesh. That would be Scoville Heat Units. Long story short: how they measure heat via the chemical compound that causes the heat, capsaicin, in a chilli. Pure capsaicin is 16,000,000 units. Police grade pepper spray is around 6,000,000. A Jalapeño pepper has around 30,000. now you can imagine how utterly hot this pepper is)
2. -Red Savina (a type of Habanero from California. Hottest one there is)
3. -Chocolate Habanero (A chocolate...habanero. Smoky in flavour. Imagine that).
4. -Fatalii (yellow chinense variety from Africa. Also really hot. The rest of the chillies in the collection range between 250,000 and 400,000 SHUs, so clearly not for the faint hearted).
5. -Orange Habanero (continuity but variation in colour. I like that)
6. -Scotch Bonnet (a chinense variety that looks like them little scottish hats).
7. -Tepin (Grandaddy of the domesticated capsicums).
8. -African Devil (aka, the Piri-Piri chilli from Nando's famous hot sauces)
9. -Jamaican Hot Pepper (yet another habanero. You begin to get the idea that the chinenses are the ones to fear).
10. -Rocoto Rojo (Capsicum pubescens. The plants are fuzzy and the chillies have black seeds. Oh, and they are really spicy).

There was supposed to be a free pack of Chocolate habaneros for anyone ordering seeds (more chocolate habs? really?), but I cheekily asked the people at World of Chillies if they could instead send me some seeds from another type. Guess they didn't like my cheeky request, because I have yet to see that free pack of seeds.

But does it end there? (Do I really need to ask?)

Nope.

Yours truly goes and makes another purchase from the Chile Pepper Company (this time they come through, but I'm still not convinced by them), this time ordering:

1. -Etna Chillies (ornamentals again. i need something to fill that blasted terra-cotta pot)
2. -Stromboli Chillies (again, ornamental)
3. -Black Cubans (ornamental Tepins, but really cool looking)
4. -White Habaneros (Hey, if I can crossbreed all the colours I've got, I'll try to make a 'rainbow habanero')

Yep, I just can't get enough (Oh, did I forget to mention I still had chillies from Tradewinds Tropical Fruits bought in 2007, as well as Chilipiquin's Chi-Chien chillies?)

:-) More to Follow!