Crushed Red Peppers

Peppery Deliciousness

Months ago I strung up my cayenne peppers to dry in the kitchen window.  I added more and more peppers all summer into the fall as they ripened.  I tried crushing up the dried peppers a variety of ways.  Every knife I used just seemed to spray the peppers everywhere as I chopped them.  I tried putting them in a plastic bag and smashing them, but they just smashed in to very large pieces. 

Then I remembered this beauty:

It's the Microplane Herb Mill.  You can get it here or here or even here for about $20.  I think I even saw it once at Ross for $10.  Basically it has a compartment you can put herbs in and the handle presses the herbs into two very small sets of blades. 

Just watch!

Cut off the stems

Insert 3-4 cayenne peppers

Rotate the handle to grind grind grind.

Store in a totally cute container.

I bought a set of shakers for red pepper and parmesan cheese months ago here. I made the label using my beloved Brother Label Maker. 

Helpful Hints:
- Wear gloves when working with hot peppers.  I scrubbed my hands after working with the peppers and I still burned myself when I touched my eye later.
- The herb mill works best with dried herbs.  It says it works with fresh herbs that have been patted dry, but I find that they just gunk up the blades.


Happy Gardening,

Christine 

Back in the Garden

After a hectic-fabulous wedding and 2 week honeymoon in paradise, I'm back to the garden!  While I was gone with my husband, my father stayed at our house and promised to water the plants.  That's right, the same dad who ran over all of my tomato plants each year with his lawn mower, despite the fact that they were in cages.

It was a leap of faith.

I came back with most of the plants intact.  Unfortunately, a storm raged through our area and snapped two branches off of my cayenne peppers.  These branches were laden with fully grown but unripe peppers- all of which are still green.  Thankfully I was able to salvage every last one and pick a few red ones while at it.

Hot hot hot

When cayenne peppers are green, they aren't as spicy.  I'll be using the green (and mostly green) peppers for salsa and all of the red peppers for crushed red pepper flakes.  We just got a food processor for our wedding, so I'll be able to crush up the dried red peppers.

Since this plant has been so fantastic and they die every year, I'm going to save the seeds of 2-3 peppers and try to replant next year.  If this variety is this successful when I put the plant in the ground 2 months late.. well.. next year I'll be swimming in peppers.

Stay spicy,

Christine

The Peppers of Leggett Farms

California Wonder bell pepper from the craigslist sale in May.

After making me feel like a terrible gardener for months, my pepper plants finally decided it was time to make some peppers.  As you can see above, that bell pepper is well on its way to being on my plate.  The healthy bell pepper plant has 3 peppers growing on it right now, the other two being much smaller than the one pictured above.

Click for more peppers!

Seeing Even More Red

Four. Four cayenne peppers.  So, what do you do when you have 4 freshly picked cayenne peppers?  You string them up and dry them!  Once they're all dried up I'll chop them up super finely and they will be red pepper flakes.  Stringing up the peppers is kind of a no-brainer.  All you need is a needle, thread, clear tape, a sun-facing window, and, well, the peppers. 

How you feeling? HOT HOT HOT

One of these things is not like the others...

My cayenne peppers have started to turn colors, beginning with the very first pepper!

Magic Beans? I Mean Peppers...

I remember being a child and feeling wonder at the small bulb of a burgeoning tomato that, mere days before, was but a flower.   Well, my cayenne peppers are giving all tomatoes ever a run for their money.  Yesterday, I took a picture of the largest of the cayenne peppers.  Voila:

Aww look at the flower aka future pepper in the background.

As you can see from the scale of my fingers since I have no rulers, the pepper is approximately 1.5 fingers wide.  That was yesterday morning.  This afternoon, 28 hours later...

What? I don't even...

Uhhh... it is now approximately 2-2.5 fingers long and beefier in every way.  Go, pepper, go!  There are now 4 peppers on the plant in addition to this one that are the size this pepper was yesterday, so this baby is producin'.  I'm sure that I'm not mixing up peppers because this one is at the very top of the plant and the next pepper down is quite a ways down. 

Between the tomatoes I'm growing, cilantro, and cayenne peppers, I'm going to have the summer of the salsa, it seems.

Stay spicy,

Christine

Leggett Farms

Tiny success.

We've had our first success here at Leggett Farms (which is what I have decided to call my wee vegetable garden. Suck it, spellcheck. No, I do not mean Legged Farms).  Above, you can see my very first cayenne pepper.  The first pepper started popping not too long after I put the plant into the garden bed.  I probably would have had the first growth 2 weeks ago if I had moved the plant sooner.

Protip: big plants don't like living in little Styrofoam cups.

The cayenne plant is about 1.5 ft tall and has a plethora of flowers and buds, all of which have the potential to become chilies like this little guy.  Right now, I'm watering the garden once a day and adding a little Miracle Grow all purpose plant food every 14 days.

Have a spicy day!

Christine