2023 gardens

X2 on the hot peppers

I let mine get red….. making hot sauce this year finally.

Jimmy Jones wrote:

I let mine get red….. making hot sauce this year finally.

I will do the same with the majority. But we also eat them with most our meals. Tonight will be eggs with fresh jalapeños on tortilla shells. My hot sauce game was not good last year. This year I will be changing things up.

If you find yourself with a bunch of hot peppers throw some in the freezer. Next time you’re smoking something toss about 15 peppers in the smoker. After about 20-30min take them out and use them for hot sauce. The soft wet peppers really take in the smoke and make that sauce so much tastier. Char the hell out of 4-5 halved tomatoes and onions when you’re grilling a steak or burgers. The peppers, onions, and tomato can all be frozen again until you’re ready to make hot sauce. Blend it all up and add any kind of vinegar, salt and whatever else you like. I add garlic, cumin, lime juice and cilantro and if it’s like 9 out of 10 spicy add some sugar, honey or a sweet fruit like mango or pineapple.

Pick –
Do you just wash them, put em in a zip lock and into the freezer?

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Pick –
Do you just wash them, put em in a zip lock and into the freezer?

i dont even wash mine and put them in ziploc bags and put them in the freezer. when i want peppers for pizza or anything else i just thaw them out in cold water as needed

picklerick wrote:

If you find yourself with a bunch of hot peppers throw some in the freezer. Next time you’re smoking something toss about 15 peppers in the smoker. After about 20-30min take them out and use them for hot sauce. The soft wet peppers really take in the smoke and make that sauce so much tastier. Char the hell out of 4-5 halved tomatoes and onions when you’re grilling a steak or burgers. The peppers, onions, and tomato can all be frozen again until you’re ready to make hot sauce. Blend it all up and add any kind of vinegar, salt and whatever else you like. I add garlic, cumin, lime juice and cilantro and if it’s like 9 out of 10 spicy add some sugar, honey or a sweet fruit like mango or pineapple.

I will be trying this with smoking the peppers and grilling the tomatoes and onion halves

question for you pepper experts……..my jalepenos are coming in quite regular, i already have what i need for salsa chopped up and froze.

BUT………i wont need any now till this fall for my pickled green tomatoes. can i freeze them and use them when i need them this fall? how will they be?????? i dont want them getting soft or moldy in the fridge!!!!!

They should be fine freezing them until fall

Hot peppers freeze really well, whole, chopped or otherwise.

Apperently the deer got used to my scarecrow. Had 3 baseball sized green tomatos with bites out of them laying on the ground again. Deer tracks all over.

JEREMY wrote:

Apperently the deer got used to my scarecrow. Had 3 baseball sized green tomatos with bites out of them laying on the ground again. Deer tracks all over.

I live in a high density deer area. After getting the garden raided relentlessly we put in a 3d electric fence. A regular 3 wire fence around the garden with a second single wire about 3-4 feet outside the full hight fence. The deer don’t get in the garden anymore. This system has been studied and proven very effective. The sweet corn will be getting the same around it soon with an extra wire close to the ground for raccoons

The new crop of garden raiders are out right now

Thanks Coltraine and Jimmy, just what I wanted to hear!!

My garden has pumpkins, potatoes, sweet corn, and strawberries which have been done for a month. Pears we really won’t touch until late August, apples in September and October. I’m not sure Pepper or tomato guy so I can’t wait until I can start participating in these conversations like I’m actually a part of them haha.

Here’s my one cherry tomato plant, a Super Sweet 100 plant. Right now it’s at 93 inches and growing about 8-9” a day. It gets 5 gallons of water every other day. It’s caged with four of the heavy wire cages that have the legs on the top three bent out so they catch on the largest ring of the cage below it. There’s also a 1” pipe driven down about 4 feet to support the cages. Right now we’re getting about a quart every two days of very sweet tomatoes. In a week we should start to see upwards of an ice cream pail full every other day. The tomatoes are slightly larger than a nickle’s diameter but smaller than a quarter and really finish a salad nicely. We keep a bowl-full on the tv table for evening snacking.

glenn57 wrote:

Thanks Coltraine and Jimmy, just what I wanted to hear!!

If you have access to a food vacuum machine, I’d use it too. Really cuts out the freezer moisture and the threat of burn.

Yea I like that idea. thanks Denny.

we cut up all our peppers and vacuum seal them up and freeze them works out great

Been up north and offline since Thu. I do rinse my peppers and leave the stems on and put in a freezer bag when dry. The pepper skin prevents freezer burn if you don’t pull the stem or cut them. I still have some in my kitchen freezer from 2021 with no sign of freezer burn. We don’t go through the habanero and serrano as quickly as jalapeno. I tend to overplant peppers and tomatoes. I have 18 six gallon grow bags out and most of them have two pepper plants in them.

Figured I’d post some of my progress. This is my two 20′ rows of indeterminates.

Six Spacemaster 80 cucumber plants.

Basil and dill. Going to make some pesto this week.

Some rootbound determinate tomatoes I picked up for $2 a couple weeks ago. They recovered nicely.

Some burpless cucumbers. All but the biggest one were mostly eaten by a small bunny last week. It hasn’t been seen since the following morning for some reason.

Habanero, serrano, jalapeno, and Thai chilis are coming along.

Cauliflower is doing well this year

Those look perfect. I tried broccoli, cauliflower and brussels one and the cabbage worms ate the heck out of them.

I have small garden. Mostly for fresh tomatoes and salsa BUT my 3 hot banana plants are thriving. Got my first two quarts canned yesterday and they were only the first round from ONE plant. I expect to get quite a few more from that one and the other two. I settled in on a recipe last year we love. At least I think I did? I should take better notes.. Talking about less salsa and more stewed tomatoes this year because the stewed are so much more versatile for us.

Glenn- Thawed out peppers will be soft but definitely not moldy. Kind of like they’ve been softened in a skillet or blanched in hot water. Still taste like fresh peppers and have the same level of spice. If you’re just using them to add some heat to the pickled green tomatoes you’ll be fine freezing them.