CHARRED & JARRED—CHILE PEPPERS

15 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Canning & Preserving, Growing, Harvest, Peppers

Tags

Anaheim peppers, canned chile peppers, Chile peppers, how to roast chile peppers, marinated peppers, roasting peppers

Ripening Anaheim chiles

OUR LONG, WARM SUMMER TRAIPSED RIGHT INTO OCTOBER. That meant that the Anaheim peppers that rarely ripen around here did so–more than half of them turned red. I ended up with about seven pounds of them to put away for later use. Several years ago when I had a bumper crop, the thought of placing lots of peppers on the gas burners in my kitchen seemed daunting until I had a bit of a brainstorm!

All four pounds roasting on the BBQ.

How about utilizing the gas grill/bbq? I can roast/blister/char all of them at one time, outside instead of in the house, with no smoky odors lingering for hours. To roast all of the peppers this way takes about seven-twelve minutes! On Monday I dispatched 4 1⁄2 pounds of peppers, from roasting to in-the-jar-and-finished in just about two hours.

Make a small slit in the shoulder of the pepper (so the peppers don’t steam from the inside) before roasting.

Once charred, place in a large bowl, cover and rest about 15 minutes.

Easy peeling.

Once the peppers have rested and steamed a bit they are ready to peel. The more mature the pepper, the thicker the flesh and skin; steam is created between the skin and flesh and the skin separates easily. Thinner walled peppers have thinner skins and need scraping in my experience.

Four pounds of peppers ready for canning.

Well Preserved by Eugenia Bone.

In her book Well Preserved, Eugenia Bone has a recipe that she attributes to Michigan State Extension, for Marinated Peppers. She call for red bell peppers but I have found it works just as well for Anaheim and other home grown sweet/hot peppers. (Since I do not have permission to reprint the recipe here I will leave it to you to find it online; like here for example.)

The finished product.

I choose to put up my peppers in half-pint jars as there are only two of us in this household, so more convenient for me. I also add just a bit more garlic than called for, leave the peppers whole (to use for chiles rellenos should the urge strike); using four pounds as called for in the recipe, I usually end up with about half of the brine left over. These are really delicious in the middle of winter, when like tomatoes, the taste of good summer produce is hard to come by. The total yield for seven pounds of peppers was twelve half-pints.

Happy canning!

THE MUSE WENT ON VACATION

04 Saturday Oct 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in At the beach, Camping, Clouds, Ephemera, Flowers, Fun in the Garden, Growing, Photography, Vegetable garden

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

blues festival, Garden seating, hiking, Ice Caves, Musings, vegetables, wildfires

A late summer afternoon walk on the beach.

IT HAS BEEN A GOOD LONG WHILE SINCE MY LAST POST. At some point I felt like I had run out of topics to write about. The muse went on vacation. How many times can I write about the same plants in the same place in my garden with continued enthusiasm? If it is tiresome for me what about you, the reader? Best to take some time off and gather some new experiences, tackle some small projects, do some canning (a bumper crop of snap beans and apples), do a little local traveling and connect with the people and things I love. So here, is a short review in words and pictures.

Big Four Mountain; waterfalls, and snowfield

In July I had a birthday and it was my wish to do the short hike to the Ice Caves at Big Four, about 90 minutes northeast of Seattle, with our grandchildren. The snow slides off of the shear, vertical face of Big Four mountain and piles up at the base over the winter. As summer comes along, the snow at the top of the mountain melts, water cascades down the faces creating numerous waterfalls that undermine the piles of snow. The snow mounds melt from the inside-out creating caves. They are cool to stand in front of on a hot summer day, but notoriously unstable and known to collapse, so going into them is a bad idea.

One of many Winthrop area fires seen from the fesival grounds.

A week later we were off to the Winthrop Blues Festival where we heard great muscic (Charlie Musslewhite; Shemekia Copeland, Homemade Jamz, Too Slim & the Taildraggers) and watched fires burning in the Methow Valley; that part was strange. For a couple of days the only route to and from the area was Hwy 20 through the North Cascades. Scores of people lost their homes and the fire burned up 300,000+ acres.

Fire and smoke influenced the sunsets.

A member of Homemade Jamz playing his Muffler Guitar! (They were great.)

BACK ON THE HOME FRONT…

A quiet spot in the garden to sit and reflect

Back in April I shared a post about the redwood tree rounds that were saved from the cutting of our neighbor’s 60 year old redwood. In August I made a visit to my sister (RedClothespin) in Long Beach, WA and she sewed up the covers for the seat top cushions; she is a whiz with a sewing machine.

Weather resistant Sunbrella fabric. Only one drawback–they are under the canopy of a large pine and susceptible to pitch drips.

The view into the vegetable garden from the redwood seating.

I finished the second of the Steelcase chairs. I haven’t quite decided where in the garden they will take up residence. For now they are mobile.

Steelcase chair #2

Hibiscus hybrid “Cranberry Crush”

Two years ago I purchased a new perennial, this Hibiscus/Rose Mallow. It bloomed in August for the first time. It was spectacular. I was SO excited, I ran into the house to get the groundskeeper!

Too bad the flower lasts only one day. However, there were a total of five blooms. I am hoping for more next year. The plant should reach 3-4 feet in height at maturity; currently is it at about 24 inches.

The fall planting of snow and snap peas.

A late blooming poppy.

Lady’s Eardrops, hardy fucshia.

Dahlia “Awe Shucks”

Akane apples.

The muse is slowly returning. More later.

GROWING AGAINST CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

01 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Collections, Growing, Plant Crazy

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Aechmea fasciata, agave, cactus, coldframe, cotyledon, echeveria, hardy banana, musa, opuntia, Pacific NW micro climate, Plant collections, Plant collector, prickly pear

Aechmea fasicata

PEOPLE AROUND HERE ARE CONTINUALLY PUSHING THE ZONE LIMITS OF PLANTS. It must be a secret wish of gardeners here to have California type warmth without having to actually live there. We read about our temperate northwest climate being similar to the Mediterranean with dry summers and cool winters. There are plenty of micro-climates west of the Cascade range that convince us we can grow tropical plants, cacti, and other hot weather lovers. The problem is that in addition to cool, we have plenty of wet, which many of those coveted plants don’t like. I am part of the club.

I have had the plant pictured above (and below) for about 15 years. It goes outside in May and comes in, in November. It has been sending out an infloresence every year for the past ten. It spends the winter in our unheated bedroom under an open window and seems to thrive.

I think this belongs in the cereus family.

This cactus started from a piece broken off of a multi-armed one that I have had for about 35 years (only the last ten in the coldframe). This start has spent the past two winters outside in a sheltered spot on our deck and has grown more than eight inches since I poked the piece in a pot two years ago; I didn’t expect it to survive.

About a half mile from my house is this splendid opuntia/prickly pear specimen.

There are a number of people nearby who grow some pretty exotic tropicals: bananas (the Japanese musa varieties) bundled up for the winter with insulation; tender cotyledons, aloes, echeverias, and agaves covered with upside down aquariums and glass globes.

This agave in a nearby garden stays comfy in an upside down aqaurium over the winter

I flirt with disaster every winter by putting cactus, echeverias and other tender succulents in an unheated cold frame.

My 15 year old coldframe

The tender collection (that cactus in the upper right corner is the parent of the cereus photo above)

Around mid-November I add the insulation with the hope of keeping my tender plants from freezing. I think our coldest overnight temperature so far this winter was about 22°-23°. So far, so good.

What kind of irrational plant collecting are you involved with?

BEAUTIFUL BRUSSELS SPROUTS

18 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Growing, Inspriation, Ornamentals, Vegetable garden, Winter

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

brussels sprouts, Brussels Sprouts Bubbles, Brussels Sprouts Rubine, cabbage

AROUND THIS TIME OF YEAR, Brussels sprout plants want to complete their journey to flower and set seed. The crown of the plant begins to open up and resembles a cabbage of sorts. I find them incredibly beautiful in both form and color, especially in the light of late afternoon sun. The varieties shown here are Rubine and Bubbles.

Bubbles

Rubine # 2

Rubine #1

FROM SNOW TO TULIPS

12 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Flowers, Growing, Nature, SNOW! COLD!, Spring bulbs

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

cold, hamamelis, snow, tulips, witch-hazel

ON SATURDAY NIGHT IT SNOWED HERE. Of course it was forecast to snow south of Seattle, but I kept wishing for a little snow and my wish came true. By Sunday afternoon it was beginning to melt away as the temperature climbed above 35°F. I have no complaints about our little cold-snap when I consider the deep-freeze everyone east of the Rockies is suffering through—repeatedly.

Hamamelis–Witch-hazel

Monday it rained and the snow was gone. It rained like crazy last night and then the wind blew away all of the rain clouds and left us with brilliant sunshine, blue skies and…

The first tulips of the season and the earliest of the ones planted around here.

Although it was cold enough all of last week to wilt most everything trying to sprout for spring, nature’s schedule will not be deterred and here we are with tulips are blooming just three days after snowfall.