Wait for me! I'm always late for Harvest Monday!
don't say it! I know, I know...
Japanese Climbing Cucumber, Mini Yellow Stuffer Bell Pepper, Quadrato d'asti Rosso Bell Pepper, Grapes, Canteloupe (ick), Fish Hot Pepper, Jalapenos, Orange Wellington Tomato
Vegetable Profile: Heirloom Fish Hot Pepper
Currently on the "Watchlist" for endangered varieties, this pepper has a neat history and has been fun to grow this year. It is absolutely beautiful, with it's wide range of colors and variegated foliage, but has a unique taste I have never seen in any other pepper. It's very hot, but a different hot taste completely than a chile pepper, hard to explain!
It is an African-American historic heirloom traditionally grown for use in Baltimore fish houses, where it was used to make sauces, and part of what made our traditional "Chesapeake Crabcakes" famous. It is now considered almost extinct. Seed can be found, however the true fish pepper is hard to save seed from since it can cross pollinate with your other peppers.
I came across a blog that had a nice post about Fish Peppers and a project to reintroduce them to Chesapeake cuisine. These are tiny & prolific and could easily be grown in a container, and with the green foliage splashed with white they are gorgeous! I call them "Koi" since when viewed from above they look like Koi swimming in a pond!
Fish Pepper Foliage
While I was weighing and scribbling, the kids took some neat shots of the veggies:
Weather was great today, 87º that felt cool as a cuke and I got a lot of work done outside, that's another post!
My friend Roger grew fish peppers a few years ago. They were very hot but yes, they were quite tasty. I didn't realize that they could cross pollinate with other peppers. We didn't save any seeds that year (that was the year of the big flood here and the garden drowned :(
ReplyDeleteJudy
Holy heck, that's a lot of peppers! I tasted our jalapenos for the first time and boy is it hot...much more so than the supermarket variety.
ReplyDeleteThe fish peppers are beautiful. What will you do with all of your hot peppers? I need ideas!
Thomas, my jalapenos this year so far are not very hot. They seem to get hotter in August and September and I use those for pickling for winter nachos, and the ones that are coming in now I core and freeze for stuffed jalapenos later. I serve those when I have dinner parties so the less-hot ones are more pleasing to everyone. Of course there's always "that guy" who says "these aren't hot enough!" Then I'll give him some fish peppers LOL. As for the Fish Peppers, I will probably have a few jars of pickled just for random use, use some as a kick in my garlic-pepper dill pickles, maybe dry some? If you are a martini-guy, this might be a fun experiement: my husband infused vodka with hot peppers last year, easy, dropped them in the bottle and let them sit about a month then taste, probably quicker if you cut them. The alcohol will prevent and deterioration of the peppers. Garnish with a skewered onion or pepper and the result is one hot martini!
ReplyDeleteJudy, apparently to be sure, they have to be 500 feet from another open pollinated pepper ( heirloom) yeah, right!
Erin, Those are a lot of peppers! I used 2 jalapeno peppers tonight and wow are they hot! The hottest we have grown by far. Was thinking that it might be the hot weather, but then that would suggest yours would be hot too. It;s puzzling.
ReplyDeleteDon't the peppers get soggy after freezing? Do you stuff them and then freeze? You got me thinking!
Wasn't today sooooo pleasant. I too got a lot done out side. And another sun burn too!
My jalapenos and Hungarian Wax peppers are sweet again this year! I just moved their pots to an area where they will get hot sun and no water. I'll abuse them until they turn hot on my, I swear.
ReplyDeleteThose boys of yours took some really cool pictures! You might have a couple of pro photographers on your hands someday....they're giving Thomas and Dan some competition here.
That was supposed to be "turn hot on ME", LOL.
ReplyDeleteHoly peppers! What do you do with all those beauties?
ReplyDeletemeemsnyc, oops sorry I am replying on the wrong post to your question! I don't pickle the grape leaves for stuffed leaves (we don't use enough of those to justify it) but one or two leaves laid into the bottom of each pickle jar before you fill them with your pickling vegetable and liquid keeps them extra crisp, even a year later! I use the younger leaves for that, then in midsummer I cut back the Japanese Beetle damage (they don't stay long) and then new leaves grow back in time for more pickles!
ReplyDeleteGran, wow even your Hungarian aren't hot?
Lorie, I find my peppers get hotter towards the end of summer. The peppers aren't soggy at all after freezing. You can freeze them whole, or cored and seeded, or stuffed. I do a bit of each, whole especially when I am busy. I have found that it's just as much work to stuff 1 pepper as it is 100 so I do bunches and freeze. With mine, I halve them-raw, no cooking, (so they look like little scoops and lay flat), seed them, fill with cream cheese/sausage/garlic mixture and top with shredded cheddar cheese for extra color. I lay them flat on a cookie sheet and freeze for a few hours, then dump into ziploc bag. When I want some, I take them out, bake at about 375 and when they come out, I top with crushed French Fried Onions for a crunchy topping! Everyone seems to love these at parties, I didn't say they were healthy! At least my "convenience junk food" came from the garden! Grilled would probably be good too! They are always firmer when made fresh, but I have no complaints about the freezer variety since they are so easy
My Hungarians are sweet hot. I can eat them raw, and there is just a tiny bit of heat with sweet overtones. They are actually very good, but the next one I bite into might be muy caliente!
ReplyDeleteThe grape leaves will keep pickles crisp? Well, I'll be!
ReplyDeleteSend grape leaves. ;o)
Mama Pea, yes! I think they have to be fresh, the jarred ones won't work. They help the veggies keep color, too (good for my yellow wax dilly beans)! There is some type of acid or substance secreted by the leaves that does the trick. Hope you are feeling better today!
ReplyDeleteMost of the canning references I've read say that it's the tannins in the grapes leaves that do the trick. OTOH, the National Center for Home Food Preservation says "Grape leaves contain a substance that inhibits the enzymes that make pickles soft. However, removing the blossom ends (the source of undesirable enzymes) will make the addition of grape leaves unnecessary." That "substance" may be the tannins. Maybe someday if I can find fresh grape leaves I'll do a comparison; with & without grape leaves and blossom ends.
ReplyDeleteHi Allison! Yes, tannin is an acid, we sure have alot of it around here with the cypress in the swamps... maybe I could substitute swampwater LOL. I have done with and without and I can tell the difference! Many of the things I pickle aren't cucumbers also, I do alot of carrots, peppers and beans too.
ReplyDeleteEverything looks wonderful, and those "fish" peppers are very unique looking and sounding.
ReplyDeleteI thought of you the other day when I was looking through a canning book (Ball, I think), and came across Pickled Watermelon Rinds... You could always give the insides away, and pickle the rinds for yourself HA!
Momma S, LMAO! "Yeah, I only eat the rind"... :)
ReplyDeleteAlison - Removing the blossom ends . . . does that mean that I should take a little slice off of that end of all my cucs I'm pickling? Then they would stay crisp?
ReplyDeleteErin - I knew a lady who LOVED watermelon rind pickles but didn't like watermelon. In the summer she was constantly trying to foist the watermelon off on people so she could have the rinds to make her pickles!
ReplyDeleteYou had me at endangered peppers! Thanks for sharing the info about fish peppers - I love the variation in the peppers, and the foliage is beautiful, too. Are the seeds hard to come by? I would definitely like to try to grow some next year.
ReplyDeleteThyme, I got my seeds at Baker Creek, although I think there are a few places offering them, you could also try Sustainable Seed Co. I would love to save seed from them but they are smack dab in the middle of a bed of heirloom bells and jalapenos, they would be cross pollinated like crazy! The only way I would be able to save seed was if I grew them indoors in the winter....hmmm, another experiment? LOL
ReplyDeleteErin, thanks for letting me know about your seed source. Growing in them indoors in the wintertime - hey, this could be the perfect experiment subject pepper for our indoor grow box! How big does this pepper plant get?
ReplyDeleteThyme2Garden, mine out in the raised bed are about 2 1/2 ft tall, so I would expect they would be a bit smaller indoors in the winter, it's not out of control or wide, so I think it might grow well in a box, I have a couple in pots on the deck, too
ReplyDeleteMama Pea - that's what I've read. I've got a bunch of different pickle recipes that specify taking a small slice off the blossom end. Also, oak leave will do the same thing as grape leaves for the same reason, for those of us without access to fresh grape vines. I've never pickled whole cukes (DH likes the slices for sandwiches), so I've never kept the blossom ends anyway. I'll have to see whether the NCHFP assertion that removing the blossom ends makes the grape/oak leaves unnecessary is true in practice.
ReplyDelete