This year’s pepper varieties include; 

• Portugal peppers (60,000 SHU)
  
• Orange habaneros (500,000 SHU)
  
• Long slim cayennes (125,000 SHU)
  
• Thai chilli peppers (225,000 SHU)
  
• Trinidad moruga scorpion (2,009,231 SHU)
  
• Carolina reaper (2,200,000 SHU)
  
• Jwala peppers (1,086,844 SHU)
  

*SHU = Scoville heat unit

Sad dog and seedlings.

To keep us warm over the winter - habanero and tiburon peppers.

Habaneros are still my favourite.

This season starts with mixed feelings.  My plan for starting all my plants from seed was kiboshed by a fungus gnat infestation, but it finally looks like the summer is on its way and I was able to save a few goodies.

Today, I went through the lot, groomed and purged.  I ended up repotting most of the habaneros, a handful of tomatos, the chives, sage, thyme, ground cherries, and a few grand amaranth plants.  

Tummy ache city - pickled habaneros from last year’s haul.

Mid-April (or if you’re in Winnipeg - mid-March) garden update.   With the way things are going, we might be setting up the raised beds in the living room.

This is going to be my most organized year ever. Six for six and no overcrowding.  

The habaneros are starting to sprout!

So far my indoor garden consists of the one habanero plant that didn’t make contact with the aphids.     

Do not crush habaneros with any sort of gusto.  It will ruin your day.

This is the habanero forest.  

At the start of the summer, I ran out of the 8"(W) x 12"(d) pots so my last eight habanero plants all went into a square container that is about  12" (w) x 18"(l) x 12"(d).  It played out pretty well.  The habaneros from the forest are a bit smaller than the others, but the I’ve picked tons of peppers from what took up a very small amount of space.  

I think this is going to lead to some very bad planting habits.

Rubber gloves and habaneros.

Sometimes it feels like the only thing I do in my spare time is make hot sauce - picking habaneros for ‘Peach hot sauce - the sequel’.

Vi shared her Ontario peach hook up with us, so tonight was dedicated to a peach based habanero hot sauce.  The habaneros were from our garden, limes and orange from the supermarket, and honey from Kory’s uncle in Tinker Creek.

Here’s the recipe:

In a pot, combine 12 habanero peppers (chopped, no stems or seeds), 4 cups of peaches (chopped, no skins or stones), ¾ cup fresh lime juice, 1 orange, ½ cup cider vinegar, 4 tsp kosher salt, and 2 tbs honey.  Simmer for 15 minutes.  Purée.  Ladle into sterilized jars and process for 10 minutes.  

*recipe adapted from ‘Canning for a New Generation’ (Liana Kissoff)

We picked our first habanero today.  I (somehow) convinced Lux to eat a slice.  He then had an impromptu snack which included water, club soda, a splash of cream (we were out of milk), and a spoonful of ice cream.  

Late July Garden Update

Holy habaneros!!!

Repotting the habaneros.  What a mess.

Habaneros!

I found an invader while repotting the habaneros.  Sneaky sneaky.