Peppers of all sizes

Sweet peppers
Sweet peppers, one of our other regulars: In gravy, in soup, in a meatball, mashed potato…. anywhere you might imagine and a couple of other places as well. For some years I’ve been growing them. Outdoors wasn’t the biggest success, in the greenhouse they tend to feel much happier.

The standard red one, I bought as a producing plant. The yellow, orange and purple one I have were grown from seed. These last three did not grow much in the first year. I can imagine the plants might have like either a richer soil or more space. Knowing that pepper plants are not annuals, I decided to pot them up and bring them indoors last autumn. After Ice Saints, the plants were returned to the greenhouse. They have been producing peppers rather happily since 🙂

Cherry Chocolate pepper
Sweet peppers are only one part of the spectrum. A total zero on the Scoville scale. The first “hot” pepper I tried was the Cherry Chocolate pepper. Could you guess I’m a girl?? This one is actually a little bit like playing Russian Roulette. The Scoville scaling for it is different depending on the website/ grower you ask. The lowest I’ve seen was about 500, not much more than the sweet pepper, up to 5,000! When harvesting my produce, I experienced just that. Some were just fine, others I could feel the burn in my nailbeds – maybe you should consider wearing gloves, when working with them? I’ve sown a couple more this year and my 2014 plant underwent the same treatment as my sweet peppers and is in it’s second year of producing. It’s great for Chilli sauce and in a pepper relish.

The 2015 pepper selection was further extended to include “Jalapeño”, “Czechoslovakian Black” and “Royal Black” peppers. In the spur of the moment, at a garden centre, a “Madame Jeanette” was added to the collection as well.
The Jalapeño is known for it’s use within our western view of the Mexican kitchen. It’s one of those condiments I like as a sort of snack as well. The Czechoslovakian Black was therefore a logical choice, as it is described as a black Jalapeño; try them together and see if it’s true?
Let me tell you: It’s true somehow during the planting the two groups of plants got a bit mixed up and it’s really hard to tell my two varieties apart, even when they started blossoming and growing peppers! I’ve just used them on the go in f.e. Salsa Verde and Kimchi.

The Royal Black has dark leaves as well as fruits. Considering they will be in the windowsill during the winter again, this was a nice option for a sharper pepper. At 5,000-30,000 Scoville it could be as the mildest of Thai peppers. That combined with it’s tiny fruit size would make it great for the occasional stir-fry. The colour of the leaves of this plant are a bit shy of the Dark Opal Basil colour; more a dark green with a deep purple haze. The stems are however nearly black. Truly ornamental. I’m definately going to enjoy it as an ornamental during the winter. While writing this I still have to test the distinct flavour using my chilli sauce recipe. I’ve planned to just substitute the peppers and leave the recipe otherwise unaltered.

The added Madame Jeanette, clearly bumped the Royal Black of it’s throne, where hotness is concerned. The amount of pepper still in the freezer, of the Madame Jeanette could, if you ask me, still last us some years. This one is in most instances a bit too sharp, and not often used in my cooking. I could tell a fun story of how my dad thought to  have found a nice box of sweet peppers though…. In the chilli sauce it however becomes a nice hot condiment.

With all these peppers I know one thing: My west facing windowsill is going to be a bit crowded this winter! Who wants a guest for theirs??