Thursday, 13 October 2011

Peppers - At Last!

October, and my peppers are finally reaching a decent size. Well, some of them. All right, I've eaten a few small ones earlier in the summer, but they were pretty few-and-far-between. Now, at last, I'm counting up to twenty peppers on my 'Doux Tres Long Des Landes' plants, the 'Aji' and 'Kaibi' are a semi-respectable size, and one of my 'King of the North' has even ripened to red - a first! It's the only one, mind, and it's snail damaged and going soft. Doh.


All these pepper plants were sown in late Feb - they really are very slow and steady growers! I might start them even earlier next year...

The King of the North were by far the earliest - I think we ate our first back in July - but we don't tend to get many per plant, and they're extremely irregular in shape and size..


The 'Dedo de Mocha' sweet Aji peppers - smoky flavoured but heat-free, and apparently rather rare - are DELICIOUS and I shall certainly be making sure to grow them again. Might even have to try saving some seeds next year to ensure I can continue to have them. I'm not sure if they're supposed to turn red... but they taste great anyway so I don't care.


The 'Kaibi no 2' sweet red peppers are... still green. And quite small. And there are only two or three per plant. But I'm looking forward to tasting them one of these days...


The 'Doux Tres Long Des Landes' (what a mouthful!) long peppers have been very productive, with around twenty fruits per plant, up to six inches long. We've enjoyed a couple already in salads and a chilli during August and September, but like the others, they're only really coming into their own now. They're supposed to be eaten red or green - but I don't think I'm going to be seeing any red ones this year.


Our chillis have been rather less successful - they only flowered in late August and it looks like this might be the sum total of our harvest!


Doh! I'm considering trying to overwinter this plant indoors to see if it'll give me an early start on some chillis next year.

Until then, I'd better find some recipes to use this little pepper glut well before the frosts get 'em!

Aji, left, and Doux Tres Long des Landes, right. Highly recommended!

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