Monday, May 27, 2013

Chillies Galore

As you all know, Lloyd loves chillies. the hotter and more flavoursome the better. Me, not so much! But, I do love growing them for him. I can appreciate how beautiful they are.
This is another area the greenhouse has really come into its own. The chilli harvest this year has been phenomenal and it's still going strong. So much so, in fact, that we actually took out three plants and harvested everything off them because I was simply running out of room, they'd grown so much.

The ones that get to stay ( for a long time hopefully) are the habaneros and a bhut jolokia cross. I also found a rogue, self seeded plant, in the veggie garden from last year. I rescued it and potted it up. Turns out it's a Sudra, very fortunate as this was a favourite last year. It's now thriving in the greenhouse.

Here's Lloyd harvesting some. You can see how many there are!


These are the Chilli Fires -  I think they're some generic type chilli. Lloyd isn't enormously impressed by them so I won't grow them again. Nice enough flavour, but not much heat.


These, however, are a huge success. They're a mixture of the habaneros ( Lloyd's favourites) and the bhuts. I do think these are the prettiest of chillies,

And these are some of the cayenne and I think there's a couple of Anaheims  in there too. I won't be growing either of them next year. But they are really good for padding out the sauces he makes.


Lloyd has made a lot of sauce already this year so we decided to dry these ones. We've done it 2 different ways. One the good old fashioned string them up way!
To do this you just need a needle and some thread. I thread them near the base of the green stalk, where it's strongest.

And the other way was to put some whole ones in the dehydrator and see what happened. It was a HUGE success!
We filled it up and put it to about 50 degrees. It took 2 days, but we turned it off at night to be safe. The result was perfectly dried, whole chillies. Lloyd is particularly pleased with the habaneros.
It's worked so well that I think we'll do more of the habaneros. So, this years chillies - huge success. Oh how I love the greenhouse!

12 comments:

  1. such a bounty, they'd make lovely gifts too.

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    1. oh! they would! One long chilli garland would be lovely!

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  2. I love the strung up ones, you could make a wreath to hang at your door.

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    1. could do! Mind you it;s so flipping wet right now I think they might go mouldy!

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  3. We have an abundance of chillis at the Little Black Cow Farm. They are so hot that my eyes water as soon as I cut one in half! I love the idea of sewing them together ... i did this many years ago and had forgotten about it. We have had chilli jam, chilli sauce etc. until we really can't eat any more chillis this season!Your chillis in the jar look lovely too. Do you have any favourite chilli recipes that you would recommend?

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    1. Lloyd LOVES them hot hot hot!!! I had to wear those surgical gloves when I was threading them cos I am such a wimp.
      Lloyd makes all the chilli things here - but here's some of the recipes
      http://ourweefarm.blogspot.co.nz/2011/03/chillis-chillis-and-more-chillis.html
      scroll down for this one - its good http://ourweefarm.blogspot.co.nz/2013/03/the-longest-summer.html
      I know there's more chilli recipes here but I can't seem to find them right now!

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  4. I am swooning over all those peppers. My oh my! How many pepper plants do you start with?

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    1. I had 2 habaneros, 1 bhut, 1 cayenne and one chilli fire - thats all!!!

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    2. Wow! What productive plants!

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    3. I know! it's the wonder of the greenhouse!! they're still going strong!

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  5. Anonymous10:59 am

    Beautiful peppers, and I love your dried ones....Thank you for sharing with the Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week; I hope you’ll join us again!


    Cheers,
    Kathy Shea Mormino

    The Chicken Chick

    http://www.The-Chicken-Chick.com

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I love it when you leave me comments, it lets me know there are folk out there reading my ramblings! Thank you, I appreciate them loads and loads
Laura x