Treasures from the Nursery

The sun was shining and the birds were singing. I felt the call of the garden and ended up gardening for most of the day. Due to the heavy rains last week, all the soil was loose and I was able to dig easily. So I moved two of my semi-dormant roses into better positions in my backyard. I had two lavender roses side by side, now one of them is next to a red rose. I also moved one rose over by a foot and this created a planting space for the rose I moved across the yard. I have spaces for three new roses this year and I managed to find three bareroot roses at the nurserys this afternoon...not an easy feat for this time of year. They are all in cardboard pots waiting to be placed in the earth.

I picked up another pink jasmine vine at the nursery today and planted it beside the trellis that I had placed next to the a/c unit last summer. As the vine grows and fills in on the iron trellis, it will create a natural living wall and block my view of the a/c unit. I want to put in another of those trellis on the other side and put in another pink jasmine. The jasmine blooms when my roses are dormant, which gives my garden a little brightness and scent during these winter days.


While at the nursery, I also picked up a few new herbs for my patio herb garden. Lemon Thyme, French Thyme, Chervil, Marjarom and Garlic Chives. They should fill one of my patio pots and it will go next to my kitchen door as usual. I have missed having fresh herbs for my kitchen, so I'm greatly looking forward to having my little patio herb garden back.

I still have peppers growing in my raised beds, amazingly enough. Two red beauty bells are ripe and ready for harvest and I still have more habaneros, piquins and tepins ripening. I believe that I will keep a few of them in pots for next year, but if I have the time next week, I will clear out my plot and start getting it ready for spring planting. There will be no pepper plants available for at least another month, but when the time comes, I want things to be ready.

Wildfire

A wildfire broke out near my home and is still burning around 5 to 10 miles away. The air has been filled with smoke and your eyes burn if you go outside for any length of time. The light has a strange red cast to it, as if the entire day is that moment at sunset when the sky changes color. I've been worried for my home, but it seems that the wind has shifted and the wildfire is now headed away from where I live. The 1500 people that were evacuated from their homes have now returned. We are safe this time. Wildfires are a norm here in California, but usually they don't break out near my house!

All my roses have been pruned back to give them a dormant period. Most of my chiles are removed from their beds, except for a few that I have chosen to overwinter. There is a little color from the chinese flowering maples that I have planted, but for the most part, things are very brown and colorless.

A Final Chile Harvest for 2005

Although the sky was overcast, I decided to pick the last seven pods of cayenne chiles out in my garden and put them into the dehydrator to dry. A few hours later, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. So the chiles are now properly dried and the machine is back in the garage. A good thing too, we are due for heavy rains starting tomorrow and this storm front should last several days.

I was able to show off my chile operation to a guest. My plummer was here to on fix our backyard hose bib. The new bib had to be soldered onto the copper pipe. He noticed my little dehydrator running on top of my cooler next to the kitchen door and smiled. He had to take a look at my chile garden and then told me how his mother grows chiles from seeds that she had brought from Mexico. He says that they are the most flavorful and hot chiles he has ever eaten. From what he described, they sounded like fresnos or jalapeños. Chile growing is such a pleasant hobby. It is nice to hear of others that also grow them.

Weather Delays

I was planning on harvesting more of the cayenne pods today and starting them in the dehydrator, but something made me suspious of the sky. Sure enough, around noon it started to rain. I'm glad that I didn't put the machine outside after all.

So I gathered in my dog and settled her on the couch and we are in for the day. One good thing about the rain: I won't have to do any watering this week. Always a plus!

Cayenne Powder Makin'

I removed the cayenne pods from my dehydrator that I dried before Christmas. Fortunately, I remembered to remove the machine from its place outside before the rain fell on Monday! I could have ruined my little $15 machine since I doubt it is waterproof.

I took these cayenne pods and the few pods that I had saved from this fall and made my first real batch of cayenne powder for the year. Some of the pods had gotten leathery. I was forced to pull out my old electric mill to do the initial grinding and then put the results into my marble mortor and pedstle for hand processing. The final product is a smooth powder of an earthen red hue that should be excellent for my cooking this winter and spring.

I have another half dozen of cayenne pods just turning red outside. There is more rain predicted, but I think that I have a few clear days that I could possibly dry more pods! I just might risk the rain tomorrow...and get a few more cayennes for my spice jar.

I also have more habaneros ripening out in my little raised bed. It is amazing to see them flourishing after Christmas has passed. I also have a few red beauty bells forming. They are all still green, but I will wait and see if they ripen to red. If they do, it will be the first bells that I will have harvested from these plants. Talk about slow starters! It will be a pleasure to enjoy them in a salad this winter if they make it.

Winter Cleanup Begins

It is a bright, sunny day outside, atypical for this time of year. The temperatures are warm and it seems to be a shame to stay indoors working. Now that the Christmas rush is over for my business, I am finding my way back outside into the gardens. There is a certain pleasure to be out tending my plants and garden spaces during a time when most of the United States is dealing with storms and snow. It is one of the reasons that I love Southern California.

My pepper plants have faired well despite my seasonal neglect. The fall rains have kept the soil moist and the shelter the plants receive at the side of the house have protected them from the wind storms that have blown through our area on and off during this December. I pulled many of the pepper plants from my garden and began my winter cleanup. Mainly the bell peppers. They are still producing, but I've been so disappointed with the flavor and quality of this year's crop, that I don't want to waste more time on them. I'm leaving in the chiles since I'd like to harvest more cayenne pods and would like to overwinter a few of the more unusual chiles. Particularly, the piquin pepper. I'm debating if I want to grow the red caribbean habaneros again. They are certainly hot and make a good powder, but the flavor is not quite what I like for my cooking. I'm finding that I am missing my more familiar cayennes this year instead. I ended up giving most of my later habanero harvest to one of my neighbors. So at least the pods didn't go to waste.

I did manage to harvest a dozen cayenne pods this morning and they are busy drying in the dehydrator outside. The weather will be with me and my machine should remain dry from the elements throughout the day. I might have enough cayennes to grind up a small pot of powder for my kitchen. Next year, I will plant four cayenne plants instead of merely two.

The final step was to pull any weeds from the chile garden. There were not many, but I don't want to allow the vines to overtake my plot again. I'm still paying for that year when I neglected my gardens and let them get a foothold. Now they pop up no matter what I do.

Merry Christmas fellow Chileheads!

A Small Harvest

I have not been doing much with my gardens this fall, but I suppose that is to be expected. Between being gone due to work and the weather, I tend to not worry about my gardens at this time of year. The rain provides them with moisture and my raised beds seldom have weeds, so all is usually well even with my neglect. I managed to harvest a handful of piquin peppers, three or four habaneros and one red gypsy pepper this morning. I'm going to pop the chiles onto the dehydrator this afternoon to dry overnight while the weather is clear. The gypy pepper will go into my lunch.

One of the nice things about Southern California is that your growing season is long. I can usually harvest peppers all the way until Christmas. However, I'm so busy with work that I'm considering pulling out some of the peppers early and getting my raised bed ready for its winter fallow period. I'm trying to decide if I want to overwinter a few of my pepper plants this year so that I have an early harvest of pods next spring...and don't have to worry about finding the same pepper next season. Overwintered peppers tend to not produce quite as well the second year as the first, but in the case of a few of my chiles, I think that it might be worth the effort.