Recipe; Habanero/Garlic/Tomato Salsa

Ingredients

5 or more orange Habaneros (all I had or there would be 8)

5 ripe, medium tomatoes

1 bulb garlic (12-14 cloves)

½ c. fresh lime juice

½ medium onion

3 tbsp. tomato paste

2 tbsp. Gebhardt’s Chili Powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. raw sugar

1-1/2 tsp. black pepper

I used a food processor to chop everything. Don’t overload the processor or you’ll chop everything too fine. I like about ¼” for the tomatoes and onions, and about 1/8” for the Habaneros and garlic (a little smaller won’t hurt).

Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, 2 is better. Cheers.

Harvested My First Orange Habanero Pod

The thing I learned today is that I'm out of shape; I ate 1/4 of the pod with a full placental rib. It was bloody hot! It's been about 8 years since I'd eaten an orange Habanero due to their lack of availability here. I had eaten some fried rice an hour or two earlier but it still hit my stomach fairly hard, but no problem. The flavor was just as I remembered, which is why I like Habaneros so much.
The burn lasted about 6 minutes and set off some endorphens which was nice, very nice. I don't normally eat raw pods by themselves; I usually make a salsa, put them on pizza, or in a dish like chili con carne.
Anyway, it put a big smile on my face; it appears I've got a good crop. 
Here's a pic;

Pods Turning Color on my Orange Habanero

I came home in the early afternoon to a very pleasant surprise; two pods are turning color. This should be the beginning of a steady stream of ripe pods over the next few months. Here's some pics of just where things are at as of today.
To see a larger image; left click on it;

The Thais have a saying: If the thing is not in your hand; you don't have it. Life here has taught me that this is so...

We'll see in a few days and coming weeks how this all plays out. Cheers.

First Jalapeño Pod Today; More to Follow

My two favorite peppers are Habaneros and Jalapenos and not necessarily in that order. It's been almost 8 years since I've had a fresh Jalapeño and 5 months since I harvested the 4 Habaneros (7 years without before that). I'll post some picks here in the next few days.
Update:  All 5 Costa Rica Red Habaneros and all 7 Orange Habaneros have pods. At last count/estimate there are well over 100 pods. I'm expecting the first ripe ones sometime next week.

Update: Emergency Transplant Procedures...

Remember this Costa Rica Habanero? Remember to click the image to see a larger version;

This was 21 days ago. Here is the same plant today;

This Costa Rica Hab hasn't looked this good for over 4 months. I expect it to start producing again sometime next month. 

While the procedure is extreme; it shows that when plants are ailing they can be saved by timely action and the proper treatment. Cheers. 

Dorset Nagas

These sprouted on the 26th & 30th of June respectively, thus their slightly different sizes. This chinense briefly held the worlds hottest pepper title at over 1,000,000 SHU (Scovile heat units).
Remember to click on the image if you'd like to see a larger picture;

This guy is 6" across and 2-1/2" high. Great proportion IMO.

Bhuts & Nagas and Germination...

On June 7th I planted 4 Bhut Jolokias and 4 Dorset Nagas. Nineteen days later 1 Naga sprouted. On the 23rd day one more sprouted. On the 28th day 1 Bhut Jolokia sprouted and on day 29 the 2nd Bhut sprouted. Then on day 34 2 more Nagas sprouted.
That was it until today; 42 days after planting, 1 more Bhut and 1 more Naga sprouted. I had given up and just by chance I checked my mini green-house (Tupperware container) and to my total surprise there they were.

The moral is to not give up and keep the planting medium viable. Bhuts are notoriously slow to germinate, bhut this is ridiculous.  ;)  Happy growing.

Wednesday July 21: Update; day 44 and two more Chocolate Habanero and one more Bhut Jolokia have sprouted for a total of 31 plants.


Wednesday August 4: Update; day 58 and one more Dorset Naga sprouted. I have 2 more Nagas and 4 more Bhuts that have not yet sprouted.   

5 Plants Go In My Raised Bed

For the last couple of months I've been building and grooming a raised bed for 5 of my Habaneros; 2 Costa Rican Red and 3 Orange. I have added composted leaves, grass, kitchen waste (no meat), wood ash, and general yard debris. I also added about 2, 5 gal. buckets of medium coarse coir, to help keep the soil from compacting too much.
Yesterday the Habaneros went in the ground and I top dressed aged, dried cow manure around all of the plants. Last night we had a really good rain, so the plants are looking perky this morning. Here's some photos.
Click picture to see larger image;

Picture Update of the Capsicum I'm Growing

All of the pictures are captioned and if you want to see a bigger shot just click on the picture;

There are 31 30  plants comprising 6 different cultivars of Capsicum; 5 chinense and 1 annum (Early Jalapeño).

Emergency Transplant Procedures...

...for really serious issues regarding soil, roots, over feeding, and general health problems with ones plants.
The original Costa Rica Red Habanero I started with became ill from a collapse of the soil in which it was potted. I transplanted it to the front yard (in the ground) with some potting soil, cow manure, and top dressed in some milled egg shells. That was many months ago and as you can see (pictures below); it's looking pretty pathetic. I fed it everything known to be good nutritionally; nothing helped. Finally, I backed off and have ignored it for more than 2 months. Again, nothing. All it's done is stay alive; that in itself is an accomplishment. Four days ago I decided I'd give it one last try to get it back from the brink. Today I acted and here's the process; from the ground to a pot...
To view a larger picture, just click on it.

This was done yesterday on the 6th of July; I'll update with photos showing the progress of my oldest plant. It produced 4 beautiful and delicious Habaneros before things went downhill; so it's worth saving if I can.

Saturday July 10th 

Update;

This is day 4 after the bare-root transplant. I pruned the plant today to give it a better shape/bushier profile;