Veggies!

Harvested peppers (Ancho) this evening. Got 1.5 gorcery bags full from my 3 plants. I broke my pruning shears trying to cut through the "trunk" at the base of one of the plants.

Drooooooool

Nice harvest!

Thank you. I have really been looking forward to these. I haven't been able to bring myself to buy them frozen as they generally aren't roasted long enough.

Lookin, good!

And now you will share your roasting procedure, yes????

Please, yes, Dave, as I have a whole bowl full of jalapeños who would love to be roasted.

I turn my gas grille on low, put a buch of peppers on it, let them sit until the skin on the down-side turns mostly blistery and yellow/dark brown. Rotate the peppers so that the whole skin turns blistery and yellow/dark brown, then take them off the grille. Tongs are a useful device for manipulating the peppers. The pepper "meat" will be nice and soft at this point. After the peppers have cooled (locals in NM have variations on what to do during the cooling, such as bagging the peppers to maintain moisture and loosen the skin) put the peppers in a sink of water and remove the skins, stems, and seeds. 90% or better seed removal is acceptable. Put the pepper meat into plastic bags or similar small containers. I like to use quart size freezer bags and squish the peppers down so that the bags are flattish and 1/2 inch thick. Freeze what you aren't going use immediately. Smaller containers mean you can defrost just what you need. The 1/2 inch thickness is thin enough to break or cut pieces off if I want less than a full bag's worth.

The flavor of the peppers will continue to mature over time in the freezer.

Important: When conducting the peepling operation, do NOT touch your eyes or any mucous membranes. If you do you will discover a new kind of pain. If you are processing large volumes of peppers, plastic gloves are appropriate. Moisturizer also helps as a hand cleaning aid as it will float the capsaicin-laden oils from the peppers out of your skin.



This message was edited Oct 27, 2009 3:19 PM

You can bypass the peeling/seeding/stemming part if you want. Fine for Jalapeno poppers, but not as good cooked in eggs.

Thanks for the reminder about the peepling operation dave-who-is-dave. One can never be too careful when peepling.

Beautiful Ancho's Dave. I love them for their flavor -- quite different from New Mexico green. Much meatier. I wasn't aware one could even buy frozen Ancho peppers. If you know of a source, do share it. I always thought the only way to get peeled poblanos ( anchos) was to roast and peel them oneself which I rarely have time to do.
Once you get anchos peeled try them in rajas. See recipe at:

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/rajas.htm

I have cooked this one and can tell you it is superb.

I have a question for the veggie growers -
Can one grow acorn squash trained up a trellis? Or are the squash too heavy for this?
How about yellow summer squash, zucchini, or even cucumbers?

I've never had a veggie garden, but I'd like one. Unfortunately I don't have much space for one. I'm thinking maybe a couple of 4x4 or 3x6 raised beds in the front yard if I ever get my retaining wall built.

Welcome back Pajarito. I wasn't meaning I was tempted to buy frozen Anchos specifically, just regular NM green chiles. I have seen frozen Anchos, just not on a regular basis. I don't remember where. It might have even been the grocery store. Thanks for the rajas link. They look good.

Don't know if the Acorn squash can be trellised DenverJude. They are pretty heavy.

I always grow cucumbers up some kind of trellis. I have tried growing zucchini & yellow squash up trellises with no luck, the plants are too bushy. There are probably some longer vined varieties that you could trellis though. As for the weight of the fruit, when the fruit is still small, put each one in a mesh bag & tie that to the trellis to support the weight as it grows. They do that at DBG with some pretty big stuff & it seems to work fine.

Welcome back from the Deep South, Pajarito! Hope you took pictures for us.

Hey, Paj, welcome back!

Yes, welcome back!

I did take pictures. Theresa and I visited the City Park Botanical Garden in New Orleans and the Longue View Gardens, also in New Orleans. We planted a bed near my back porch with Louisiana Iris and herbs then mulched it deep with pecan shells which we begged from a local feed store that shells pecans for its customers. We first tried buying pecan shells for mulch as we do here in New Mexico, but in spite of having a bumper crop this year, nobody sells pecan shells. They just throw them out in the back 40. We talked one place into saving them for us. They didn't charge me for them. I will be their customer forever now -- though I don't spend that much in Mississippi feed stores.
Will post pictures tomorrow or so.