Thread: Sweet chiles

George Shirley wrote:

> Due to drought last year we didn't make much of a sweet chile crop (read
> bell peppers for Yanqui's). Yesterday we bought ten huge sweet chiles in
> orange, yellow, red, and green colors. Sale at the market was ten for
> ten bucks, I think we got our money's worth, each weighed in at over one
> pound.

i get overruled when i want to put up green
peppers in the freezer for making wimpy chili
or sloppy joes. that's about all we use them
for in the winter months, in a salad but those
have to be fresh.

still 10wks away from the warmer weather
planting. i'll sneak some earlier cool
weather seeds in when the ground thaws some
more. should start seeing some spring flowers
peeking up in a few weeks. why i keep planting
so many, i love having that first color when
everything else is so drab.


....
> Ordinarily sweet and hot chiles will produce fruit for at least ten
> months in our climate so we have become used to putting up lots of bags
> of them chopped for later cooking use. Not to mention all the fresh ones
> we eat off the plant and those we use in salads and for cooking fresh.

wow, that's a long season, here that would amount
to about six or seven pickings worth. how tall do
they get?


> I think we may be out of the two-year drought we've been suffering. Last
> week we received over eight inches of rain in two days, the backyard is
> still wet and the grass is growing fast enough we will have to mow
> today, if it doesn't rain again, which Ma Nature is threatening to do.

i'm glad to hear the rains have returned.
been watching out for the harsh weather so far
it is staying south of us. will be windy for
a bit but that isn't unusual. which is why they
are putting wind farms in around here.


> We're in the process of planting the spring garden, green beans, sweet
> chiles, lettuce, okra a little later, Swiss chard (a two-season crop for
> us) and possibly some Tokyo Cross turnips.

never heard of those kind of turnips before.
going to try turnips for the first time here
this spring. just the regular kind.


> Thinking on this end is that
> we will still be here by fall as the housing market is just now starting
> to revive in our area. With several billion dollars in new construction
> due to start in mid-year we should see a boost in housing prices by
> then.

i sure hope the recent increase of
gas prices doesn't shut down the recovery
that seems to be slowly going along... of
course down that ways the higher gas prices
mean more business activity from the oil
industry... so it's good for y'all.


> As it is we're still fixing up this old house. We're seeing two
> things that are making a difference, the house looks a lot better and
> we're both losing weight and gaining some muscle strength back. Today
> I've got to crawl around in the attic and fix some vent stacks,
> particularly the one from the kitchen. The piping has come loose on the
> fan vent over the stove. Drat! Guys that installed it six years ago
> didn't bother to screw the joints together or tape them so that's going
> to be my job for today. I hate crawling around in attics, particularly
> since you can't stand up in ours.

this reminds me of working on one of the
ceiling fans here. wasn't doing much, cleaned
it out, replaced the motor with another one
from the other bathroom just to see if that
made any difference, etc. finally figured
out that when ex-step-dad screwed the pipe
together the screw was so long that it kept
the flap pinned down too... so for 7yrs
they were moving the air around, but not much
actually made it outside... oops.


> I also need to inventory jars, lids, and rings, looks like we may get a
> bumper crop of fruit this year. Hurrah!

friend just dropped off a huge box of jars.
nice friend, i think i'll keep her. says she will
have more for me when she gets further in her
cleaning of her basement. she hasn't been canning
much the past few years and finally admitted that
she didn't want to any more. Ma gave away about
80qts of various things this winter all around so
we are glad to have a replenished supply of give
away type jars that we don't worry so much if we
get back.

hurrah for you and hope you can get a lot of
that put up so you have a supply for when you
move before the new gardens and trees can produce.

might be worth potting up a sprout of that
lemon tree to take with you. sounds like a
nice tree to keep propagating. even if it takes
a while to fruit it will be nice for someone
eventually. wish i could grow 'em here... too
cold.


songbird

On 3/2/2012 2:00 PM, songbird wrote:
> George Shirley wrote:
>
>> Due to drought last year we didn't make much of a sweet chile crop (read
>> bell peppers for Yanqui's). Yesterday we bought ten huge sweet chiles in
>> orange, yellow, red, and green colors. Sale at the market was ten for
>> ten bucks, I think we got our money's worth, each weighed in at over one
>> pound.
>
> i get overruled when i want to put up green
> peppers in the freezer for making wimpy chili
> or sloppy joes. that's about all we use them
> for in the winter months, in a salad but those
> have to be fresh.
>
> still 10wks away from the warmer weather
> planting. i'll sneak some earlier cool
> weather seeds in when the ground thaws some
> more. should start seeing some spring flowers
> peeking up in a few weeks. why i keep planting
> so many, i love having that first color when
> everything else is so drab.
>
>
> ...
>> Ordinarily sweet and hot chiles will produce fruit for at least ten
>> months in our climate so we have become used to putting up lots of bags
>> of them chopped for later cooking use. Not to mention all the fresh ones
>> we eat off the plant and those we use in salads and for cooking fresh.
>
> wow, that's a long season, here that would amount
> to about six or seven pickings worth. how tall do
> they get?
>
>
>> I think we may be out of the two-year drought we've been suffering. Last
>> week we received over eight inches of rain in two days, the backyard is
>> still wet and the grass is growing fast enough we will have to mow
>> today, if it doesn't rain again, which Ma Nature is threatening to do.
>
> i'm glad to hear the rains have returned.
> been watching out for the harsh weather so far
> it is staying south of us. will be windy for
> a bit but that isn't unusual. which is why they
> are putting wind farms in around here.
>
>
>> We're in the process of planting the spring garden, green beans, sweet
>> chiles, lettuce, okra a little later, Swiss chard (a two-season crop for
>> us) and possibly some Tokyo Cross turnips.
>
> never heard of those kind of turnips before.
> going to try turnips for the first time here
> this spring. just the regular kind.
>
>
>> Thinking on this end is that
>> we will still be here by fall as the housing market is just now starting
>> to revive in our area. With several billion dollars in new construction
>> due to start in mid-year we should see a boost in housing prices by
>> then.
>
> i sure hope the recent increase of
> gas prices doesn't shut down the recovery
> that seems to be slowly going along... of
> course down that ways the higher gas prices
> mean more business activity from the oil
> industry... so it's good for y'all.
>
>
>> As it is we're still fixing up this old house. We're seeing two
>> things that are making a difference, the house looks a lot better and
>> we're both losing weight and gaining some muscle strength back. Today
>> I've got to crawl around in the attic and fix some vent stacks,
>> particularly the one from the kitchen. The piping has come loose on the
>> fan vent over the stove. Drat! Guys that installed it six years ago
>> didn't bother to screw the joints together or tape them so that's going
>> to be my job for today. I hate crawling around in attics, particularly
>> since you can't stand up in ours.
>
> this reminds me of working on one of the
> ceiling fans here. wasn't doing much, cleaned
> it out, replaced the motor with another one
> from the other bathroom just to see if that
> made any difference, etc. finally figured
> out that when ex-step-dad screwed the pipe
> together the screw was so long that it kept
> the flap pinned down too... so for 7yrs
> they were moving the air around, but not much
> actually made it outside... oops.
>
>
>> I also need to inventory jars, lids, and rings, looks like we may get a
>> bumper crop of fruit this year. Hurrah!
>
> friend just dropped off a huge box of jars.
> nice friend, i think i'll keep her. says she will
> have more for me when she gets further in her
> cleaning of her basement. she hasn't been canning
> much the past few years and finally admitted that
> she didn't want to any more. Ma gave away about
> 80qts of various things this winter all around so
> we are glad to have a replenished supply of give
> away type jars that we don't worry so much if we
> get back.

Anytime you're gifted with jars it's time to celebrate. Friend used to
use a lot of those Classico Mason jars, unfortunately they changed the
lid a few years ago and they're worthless now.
>
> hurrah for you and hope you can get a lot of
> that put up so you have a supply for when you
> move before the new gardens and trees can produce.
>
> might be worth potting up a sprout of that
> lemon tree to take with you. sounds like a
> nice tree to keep propagating. even if it takes
> a while to fruit it will be nice for someone
> eventually. wish i could grow 'em here... too
> cold.
>
>
> songbird
It is a Ponderosa lemon, a natural cross between a grapefruit and a
lemon, fruit can be as large as three pounds. They sell them very cheap
were we're moving because they are so hardy. The rind is very thick and
the juice is more tart than ordinary lemons, regular lemon juice tastes
weak to us. We will probably buy a six or seven foot lemon tree once we
move and, in our climate, it will grow several feet a year. Our old
Ponderosa had to be pruned back annually by at least six feet in height
and lots of outgrowth also had to be pruned, if you didn't it would get
away from you. I may have mentioned that Ponderosa breeds true from
seeds or root scions. We've probably given away over a hundred of them.