Sweet chilies

[George Shirley]

Despite a couple of light freezes we picked about 20 Gypsy chilies today. Will harvest the first broccoli head this weekend and the lone cauliflower is heading. Swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, and other greens are doing well so we're eating fresh greens daily.

Temps in the low sixties today, feels almost like spring, a little rain would help. Discovered a few earthworms whilst digging in the raised beds today. Seems the seeding we did back in early spring is somewhat of a success.

Harvested most of the kumquats early in the week and made four pints of marmalade. Do wish the tree would grow faster. We did put up eighteen pints of fig jam over the summer and the tree isn't over five feet tall yet.

[Boron Elgar]

I have a kumquat sitting in my kitchen. Darn thing is at most- 2 feet tall and covered with kumquats. Dunno how many or even IF any of them will ripen, but it sure is fun to watch the darn things grow.

[George Shirley]

Ours is about four feet tall right now. The one we had where we lived before was seven feet tall and about nine feet in diameter. It was about ten years old when we moved away. Used to harvest a couple of five gallon buckets of fruit annually from it. Lots of good marmalade plus we deseeded many and ran them through the food sieve to make cakes and pies. I do miss our 22 year old garden we had there but it is better here, no more three hour drives to see our children, grandchildren, and great grands for a day. Now the little demons are here all the time.

I like kumquats right off the tree, my folks had one eons ago and we mostly ate the fruit fresh and had contests on who could spit the seeds the farthest.

[T]

Kumquats, raw:

I wonder what they mean by "without refuse"?

[Boron Elgar]

The seed spitting is one of the fruit's major advantages.

[George Shirley]

Most likely referring to the stem and seeds. We always wash our fruit to get the bug saliva off of them.

[George Shirley]

You get extra points for putting a seed in someone's ear.

[T]

Hi George,

Okay, not that I can grow a sweet chili for my life, or any other pepper for that manner, but the ones at the store all taste like bell peppers.

What do your taste like?

Usually home grown always taste far better, except for turnips, which, tongue under the faucet, taste worse.

-T

[George Shirley]

Depends on the variety and the soil it is grown in. We like Gypsy, a greenish yellow chile, for it's large crops and the nice, not real sweet taste. We also grow bells but, of course, they don't get as big and beautiful as the ones at the market. Of course those chiles grow in a hydroponics lab and are force grown.

Over the years we have tried many sweet and hot chiles. Marconi is a keeper as is Longhorn. Others have been total duds but we keep trying different ones. We use a lot of sweet chiles in our menu and, consequently, grow a lot. Most are chopped, frozen on a bun tray, then vacuum bagged for later use in cooking. Actually chiles are easy to grown in our USDA 8B zone. We need to pick again today as the temperatures are going to be in the low seventies again. We've grown chiles from seed and from plants bought at the plant shops. Many years ago, prior to 9-11, I traded chile seeds all over the world by mail and crossed several varieties for taste and heat. Alas, Ma Nature has changed my stomach so that only sweet chiles can be eaten.

George