What to do with that bounty of peppers in the garden and how to preserve your harvest

3 years ago 466

Late summertime and aboriginal autumn are the hottest months of the twelvemonth successful Southern California. The utmost vigor (often implicit 100 degrees) is pugnacious to plot in, but bully for some doorbell and blistery peppers.

Every outpouring we benignant of spell brainsick with planting blistery peppers and each autumn we are inundated with hundreds of fruit. We’ve grown serrano, Anaheim, poblano, jalapeño, habanero, ghost, Carolina reaper and scorpion chilis, to sanction a few. They truly thrive successful the vigor if they are watered regularly, and they are comparatively resistant to pest damage. One notable objection is the tomato hornworm, truthful we effort to spray regularly with B.T. (caterpillar slayer oregon Bacillus thuringiensis).

What tin you bash with truthful galore blistery peppers? You tin springiness them away, of course, but astir radical volition lone privation a handful. You tin fto your teenage lad and his friends amuse themselves by daring each different to devour them. You tin besides usage them successful immoderate of your favourite recipes, but you volition inactive person a batch of peppers near over.

Probably the champion mode to sphere chilis is to adust (either successful the prima oregon successful the oven) and past frost them. They tin besides beryllium frozen undried. If you privation to tin them, they tin beryllium pickled oregon utilized successful immoderate tested and approved salsa recipe.

One summer, I had truthful galore habaneros and reaper chilis that I substituted 3 cups of chopped chilis for 3 cups of chopped doorbell peppers successful a tested salsa recipe. Most approved canning recipes volition specify that blistery and saccharine peppers are interchangeable if the full measurement of peppers remains the same. For instance, if the look calls for 3 cups of doorbell peppers you tin substitute with 1 cupful of blistery peppers and 2 cups of doorbell peppers. (Always travel the look instructions, including the directions regarding however finely the ingredients should beryllium chopped.) When I added the chopped blistery peppers to the already simmering herb substance I was astir knocked implicit by the fumes. I knew I had thing good!

My kids grew up with blistery peppers, truthful they person a precise precocious tolerance for spicy food. They perfectly loved my “Breaking Bad” salsa and stock it with their much adventurous friends. It was truthful blistery that I could hardly basal it. One day I recovered my 13-year-old girl sitting astatine the room array with a container of chips, a small crockery of salsa, and a container of Kleenex. She alternated betwixt eating a salsa-dipped spot and wiping tears from her eyes. I stopped successful my tracks, and she looked up astatine maine and said, “It hurts, but I conscionable can’t halt eating it.” Such is the strangely addictive quality of capsaicin.

Remember to deterioration gloves erstwhile handling blistery peppers since the burning sensation volition linger if you interaction the seeds oregon their membranes.

If you devour a capsicum and observe that it’s excessively blistery for you, instrumentality a spoon of chromatic and rotation it astir your rima to calm the burning sensation.

Here’s a speedy look astatine methods to sphere fruits and veggies from the garden:

	Freezing	Drying
Apples	Not recommended	Yes
Apricots	Yes	Yes
Bell peppers	Yes	Yes
Berries	Yes	Yes
Carrots	Yes	Yes
Cauliflower	Yes	No
Cherries	Yes	Yes
Chili peppers	Yes	Yes
Citrus	Juice only	No
Corn	Yes	Yes
Figs	Not recommended	Yes
Green beans	Yes	Yes
Greens	Yes	Yes
Peaches	Yes	Yes
Plums	Yes	Yes
Pears	Not recommended	Yes
Squash (Summer)	Not recommended	Yes
Squash (Winter)	Yes	Not recommended
Tomatoes	Yes	Yes