Garden Update

I decided to not start my Salsa Garden during 2011. Between freelance writing and my small business my gardening time has been greatly curtailed. I'm on the road quite a bit and find that I can't find the time to so much as go to the nursery to buy seedlings, much less tend to a little square foot garden. My posts here on the salsa garden blog will be very much absent this year.

I've allowed the two little garden patches to go "fallow" as it were. I keep the weeds out now and then. I have put all my gardening tools and supplies away in the shed. Strangely enough, my one scotch bonnet chile plant refuses to die. I have not so much as watered the plant and it continues to put out leaves and hang in there. I don't have any harvest-able chiles on it as yet, but perhaps it will surprise me as the summer months continue.

I do miss having a fresh supply of exotic chiles to cook with though. Perhaps next year I will return to my little square foot garden plots and start anew.

Baja Earthquake Cleanup

We've finally got our backyard somewhat cleaned up from the Easter Day Baja Mexico Earthquake. It was a heavy rolling quake that shook our house for a much longer time than most quakes in our area. Normally, we don't notice quakes since here in California you get used to them, but this one went on long enough and strong enough to start our potrack and hanging lamps swaying at an alarming rate.

About 30 seconds after the quake, our neighbor's pool had a little tsnamni and great quanties of water came over the fence and flooded our backyard. It swept mud from our garden to the patio, covering half the backyard. It took lots of sweeping and hose work to get the mud off the patio, but now all my side beds are covered. My gravel pathways are a mess, the beauty bark around the roses was swept away and my gardens lost some of their composted soil. At least we can go out there with tracking dirt back into the house, but I'm at a loss at how long it is going to take to get things back to normal. It is the start of my work's busy season and other than planting a few peppers and herbs, I don't think that I have time to do much more for now.

Still, we are blessed. If this is the worst we suffer from an earthquake of that size, then life is good.

Crazy Winter Weather

Talk about crazy winter weather. Here in Southern California we usually get about six weeks of rain and then the heat returns. This year has been constant waves of rain storms, cold temperatures and even....HAIL. We had to take a photo of the white stuff just to prove to ourselves that it is real.

I seem to have a single chile plant that has survived all the cold, but I'm not taking bets that it is going to make it. My pink jasmine vines are also suffering from the cold. Normally they start to bloom in January. This year they have only now started to bloom and here we are all the way into March. I won't be doing much gardening until later this month due to all the inclement weather. I haven't decided what I will plant this year. My home business is keeping me busy and I've had an offer to teach at a local art studio. So whatever I do in the garden is going to have to be very simple.

Manzano Chiles

I discovered that my local grocery got in a shipment of Manzano Chiles over the holidays and I bought around 15 of them to stow away in my freezer. Manzanos are similar in heat to habaneros, but have a sweet, citrus finish that is very distinctive. You only use one at a time, like the habs, so what I purchased should last me a good year.

I'm planning on using them to make jerk chicken, jamacian spicy lamb and a few other dishes.

Meanwhile, I'm sad to say that I lost all my chile plants this year. It has been a far colder winter than anyone can remember and my overwintering efforts were in vain. In a way though, this is not a bad thing. It will allow me to start from scratch this coming spring. I think that this next year I want to grow more bells, milder chiles and perhaps only one very hot chile that I can dry and powder. I'd also like to grow a few more herbs to flesh out my little salsa garden.

Garden Cleanup

Since it has been too hot to go outside during the day, I waited until 7pm this evening to go out and do my gardening. I pulled out all the dried husks of chile plants, put away the metal cages and pulled out what few weeds there were. A few of my old chile plants have survived. The fatali, the red scotch bonnet, a half dead cherry bomb, my yellow canary bell and what I believe is some sort of jalapeno. I also have the two blushing beauty bells that I purchased this spring. My salsa garden has never been this sparse before, but then again I haven't been putting in the effort into my garden this year as I normally do.

My husband is requesting that I devote more space to herbs since he discovered this year that he enjoys fresh basil leaves in his sandwiches, so that might be something that I look into over the next few weeks. The only herb that I have right now are the chives. Nothing kills those babies.

Why did so many of my plants die? It was because my soaker hose system has broken. One of the hoses has sprung a huge leak and needs to be replaced. I went to look for a replacement at the Home Depot this morning, but I couldn't find the part that I needed. I will try other hardware stores later. The timer also is not working. It probably needs a new battery. Once I get these two things working again, my salsa garden should be back to taking care of itself once again.

Spicy Buttermilk Dressing

I discovered a new chile recipe on a blog called Homesick Texan. I gave it a try with chiles from my garden. I used homemade habanero powder for the cayenne in the recipe and a hot cherry bomb instead of the serrano. It turned out very good. I used it as a dipper for celery sticks and carrots. It is spicy and much better than the hidden ranch dressing I normally use...and far less expensive to make.


Buttermilk dressing, extra spicy
Ingredients:
1/4 cup of mayonnaise
1/2 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1/4 cup of chopped cilantro
1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 serrano pepper, finely diced
1 teaspoon of chopped fresh chives
1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method:
Mix all the ingredients together and let chill for an hour.
Makes 1 cup, keeps for a week in the refrigerator.
Notes: I like my dressing on the thinner side, so if you prefer it thicker use 1/2 cup of mayonnaise. And if you don't want it to be so spicy, feel free to omit the Serrano or substitute a jalapeno pepper instead. Also, you can use parsley instead of cilantro if you're one of those "Cilantro tastes like soap" people, I won't be insulted.

Sunshine Returns!

This has to have been the coldest and wettest June that I can remember. It had been overcast every day and it rained as if I were back in Washington State! It was uncanny. However, that cold front seems to have finally left. The sunshine is back and my roses are blooming with gusto. I was outside watering all the plants this afternoon with my sunhat on, flipflops and shorts. The splash of the water on my feet felt wonderful. Little lizards scurried away and butterflies mingle in the brushes of salvia among the flowers. I'm contemplating a few baskets of flowers and to plant up my central whiskey barrel. Right now, the barrel only has weeds in it. Our annual summer BBQ is only four weeks away and I want our gardens to look up to par.

My pepper plants have not fared as well. The cold weather had stunted their growth and I have lost several of the plants this spring. I am going to have to take a survey of the damage and see what I can do to recover my little vegetable garden. The first task will be to fix the broken watering system. The timer is not working and I've sprung a huge leak in one of the drip hoses. I will need to replace a few things before the hot summer heat arrives in full force.

Memorial Weekend Gardening

I was able to find time this Memorial Day Weekend to do a bit of puttering in my garden. All of the wandering jew plants that have trespassed under the fence from my neighbor's side yard have been removed. The gravel paths are clear and my overwintered chiles are doing fine. I still haven't planted the two blushing beauty pepper plants that I purchased last month, but both plants are alive and well in their little root bound containers. I am hoping to find a little more time this week to continue my efforts in my garden patch now that school is almost over and my Spring work season has come to a close. I lost a few of my chiles this winter, but the majority are still going strong and putting out new chiles. You have to love California weather.

Its going to be so nice to have a bit of extra time this summer to take care of the house and tend to things. I'm looking forward to finishing the garden up and perhaps taking a few photos for the garden blog.

Blushing Beauties

I happened to be at our local feed store when I glanced into their gardening plant section. They had a pair of blushing beauty pepper plants, both of a good healthy size, for sale. I snatched them for my garden. These are the only peppers that I've purchased for the garden this year. I went to my annual Monster Tomato and Pepper Sale at the Fullerton Arboretum this March, but all the peppers had sold out in the first few hours of the sale...all 10K of them! Due to work, I will not be able to go to Greenscene this year either, so I figured that I was not going to be able to buy pepper plants this year.

My garden is a total wreck right now. I did not go out and weed at all this winter and the wandering jew plant has completely overgrown my raised beds. This plant is on my neighbor's property and left unchecked, overruns my property each year. I managed to save most of my pepper plants from last year, we had a mild winter and only two or three of my pepper plants died. So perhaps I don't need to plant all that much this spring. I had lost all of my belle though, so the two ultra sweet and crisp blushing beauties will be a welcome addition to my garden.

I'll post more as my schedule permits! I do intend on gardening again this year as I normally do, although perhaps in a more scaled back fashion since I am back in college and continuing to run my small business. My free time is simply not what it was in past years.

Overwintering

At this time of year, there is not much going on in the garden. My plants are still alive out in the bed, despite our unseasonably cool weather. There are pods ripening on my red scotch bonnet, but I haven't picked them. Due to the cool weather I have a feeling that there is little heat to the chile pods.

I haven't done much to overwinter the chile plants. Since they are located in a protected side yard of my property, they don't have to deal with the cold wind storms that whip through our canyon. The wind is the main danger to the chiles, that and when the temperature dips too low. Sometimes the plants make it, sometimes they do not.

Sometime in the next month I am going to go through my little raised beds and clean them up. Pull out the metal cages, remove the few weeds that have gotten started, but for now I just want to keep out of the rain and the chilly day. There are chiles in the freezer and meals premade with chiles from the garden for me to enjoy at this time of year. That will have to be enough until Spring returns and I can start the process anew.

Wildfire

Its been a scary weekend here at my home. Southern California wildfires got within a scant 2 miles of my home and we were forced to pack and be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice. Fortunately for us, the fire dampened down in the night and the high winds stilled at that time. This caused the fire to shift in a new direction and to travel more slowly. Our home and gardens were spared and we did not have to evacuate our home after all.

I've driven into the area where the fire did consume all in its path and find that the hills are blackened and buildings are closed due to fire damage. It is all very scary since it came so very close to our home.

Now I'm starting the cleanup process. There is a fine layer of ash on the ground and the plants. I've made certain to wash all the leaves of the plants of this ash and to wash it into the soil. The air still smells of smoke, but it is safe to go outside for extended periods of time since the air is clean enough. My chiles are still producing pods, but only a few on each plant. They are starting to go dormant as the nightly temperatures decrease. Soon, it will be time to get them prepared for overwintering.

Fall Chill Arrives

The weather is turning cooler at last after a long, hot summer. My chile plants are still producing pods in their little raised beds, although I am finding that the heat in the chiles is less than it is during the hot months.

I'm hoping to have enough of the cherry bombs to make one more of the chicken/sausage and cherry bomb dinners, but otherwise I'm starting to make plans to let my garden go fallow for the winter. I will cut back the plants, make them as sheltered as possible and get them into overwinter mode. I'd like to save my cherry bombs, the fresnos, the fatali and the scotch bonnet plants, but if the others survive, that is okay too.

There is not much else to say about the garden this time of year. That is the nice thing about gardening. It is a hobby that waits for you and brings you peace....not to mention produce!

Wind Storm

The Santa Ana winds are back here in Southern California. My rose bushes are whipping about like crazy bobblehead dolls and the trees are dropping branches and fronds. Fortunately, my chile garden is in a sheltered place at the side of the house so my chile plants are protected from the fury of our October winds. Most of the plants have plenty of pods on them. In fact, I'm not quite sure what to do with them all! I've made several chile dishes and frozen them away for the winter. I've dehydrated many of them and crushed them into fresh powder to use in cooking.

I've lost many of my chile plants this year due to my heavy work schedule this past spring and summer. Basically, I haven't been watering my chile plants as much as I should and this combined with the hot weather turned many of them into dried up stalks. It is something that I've never seen happen in my garden before. I'm concerned about losing my overwintered plants since they are all producing far more pods this year than they did when they were young first year plants. One of the great things about gardening in Southern California is that chile plants can be perenials if you help them through the frost months. I've spoken with chileheads that have extended the life of their cayenne plants for seven or more years. I'd like to see that happen with my scotch bonnet, fatali and cherry bomb plants.

Jerk Chicken

One of the reasons that I grow scotch bonnets in my garden is that I love to make Jamaican Jerk Chicken on my BBQ. I had found a recipe for this dish in Gourmet Magazine many years ago and found that it was delicious. The recipe calls for 2 to 4 scotch bonnets or habaneros in the marinade. I know that this seems like far too much of the fiery chiles, but trust me, it works out well. You get a good amount of heat, but the citrus overtones of the chiles also come through.

The first time I made Jerk Chicken, I use Manzano Chiles that I happened to find in the supermarket. Manzanos are a form of habanero that have a sweet start and the heat is slow to come on your tounge. I have never found them again, but using them hooked me on the recipe. The next year, I started to grow the scotch bonnets since I wanted an authentic jamacian flavor for this recipe.

This year, I have been converted to once a month cooking methods and I have developed my jerk chicken recipe so that I can make multiples of it and freeze it away for later use. Basically, I make the marinade in my blender featuring chiles from my garden, pour it over the chicken in a ziploc, but instead of putting it in the fridge for 24 hours to marinate, I freeze it. When I take it out on cooking day, it will thaw and marinade in the fridge and be perfect. I decided to use chicken breast this time instead of chicken pieces so that I can make these on the contact grill during the winter and not have to light up the BBQ. I put away several meals of jerk chicken in this manner. A few of the meals have been made with scotch bonnets and a few of them with my fatali chiles. Both will be different, but delicous.

JERK CHICKEN

2 cups scallion, finely chopped
2 whole habañero chilies, seeded and minced (or use scotch bonnets)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
5 teaspoons ground allspice
3 teaspoons dry mustard
2 whole bay leaf, crushed
2 whole garlic clove, chopped
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon cinnamon
5 pounds chicken pieces, wing tips removed
vegetable oil, for grilling

Make the Marinade. In a food processor or blender purée the scallion, the 2 chilies, the soy sauce, the lime juice, the allspice, the mustard, the bay leaves, the garlic, the salt, the sugar, the thyme, and the cinnamon.

Divide the chicken parts between 2 heavy-duty resealable plastic bags and spoon the marinade over them, coating them well. Seal the bags, pressing out the excess air, and let the chicken marinate chilled, turning the bags over several times, for at least 24 hours and up to 2 days. Or you may freeze the chicken at this point for later use. When you are ready to use the frozen jerk chicken, let it defrost in the refridgerator for 24 hours before cooking. It will defrost and marinate at the same time.

On an oiled rack set 4 to 6 inches over glowing coals grill the chicken, in batches if necessary, and cover if possible, for 10 to 15 minutes on each side, or until it is cooked through. Transfer the chicken as it is cooked with tongs to a heated platter; keep it warm, covered loosely with foil, and garnish the platter with the additional chilies.

An alternate method of cooking is to use chicken breasts instead of pieces when you make the dish and then cook the chicken in a contact grill for approximately 10 to 12 minutes.

Scarpariello with Hot Cherry Bombs

My favorite hot chile used to be the Fresno chile. It was a good medium heat, all purpose pepper to use in cooking. I still grow Fresnos and like them, but lately I've been growing very fond of the hot cherry bombs. They are a little sweeter and flavorful than the Fresnos and are easy to stuff due to their small round shape. So not only can I slice them up, but I have snack options with them as well.

Tonight I made the Chicken and Sausage with Hot Cherry Peppers recipe from the Sara Moulton website. I decided to omit the artichoke hearts since my husband doesn't like them, but honestly, I didn't miss it. The chicken breasts turned out tender and moist with her cooking method, the sauce was rich with just enough kick from the four hot cherry bombs that I picked from my garden this afternoon.

I've discovered that this "scarpariello" recipe is actually quite common on the internet. It is a traditional Italian American dish that was developed by a New York City chef many years ago. The common tie of all the recipes are chicken, sausage and hot cherry bomb peppers. The rest seems to vary depending on the chef. I believe that only Sara Moulton put artichoke hearts in her verison. Others put in lemon and rosemary or other vegtable combinations.

Nearly Harvest Time!

This weekend, I managed to get all the weeding done in my little raised beds of chile pepper plants. The grass that overtook one of the beds, something that I've never seen before, had choked off and killed my two overwintered italian pepper plants. So no italian horns to fry up this fall. I still have one yellow bell plant left, so I'm hoping to get something off of it later in the year for dinner.

My chiles are the opposite of the bells. In their sheltered place on the side of the house, they have flourished as always. I have dozens of scotch bonnets ripe and ready to go, a huge crop of fatali chiles, hot cherry bombs and a few of the new chiles that I planted this spring.

It is time to start drying my chiles in order to make fresh powder for my pantry. My dehydrator has been taken out of the garage, but I haven't set up a station outside to do the drying. Thunderstorms are predicted in the next few days and I don't want to leave my machine out to the elements. I will keep an eye on the weather, but I intend to get started with my harvest shortly.

Ripening Chile Pods

The temperature outside has gone into a more normal range, leaving the heatwave behind us. There were thunderstorms in the Los Angeles area last week and while we remained dry, the river nearby is high with runoff waters from the mountain rains.

My garden needs weeding and the gravel paths are full of invasive plants from the neighbor's yard. I've been so busy with work for the past two months that I've had little time to spare for my garden. Fear not, chiles thrive on neglect! All of the chile plants have pods. Sweet yellow italian horn peppers, cherry bombs, fatali, kung pao chiles and a mountain of red scotch bonnets. I harvested a few cherry bombs for my weekend omelettes this week, enjoying that crisp and clean bite of heat with my breakfast. You simply don't get that kind of flavor and texture from supermarket chiles. My only concern with the plants is that my scotch bonnet has fallen over due to the excessive weight of the pods growing on it, but so far the plant seems to be just fine. I haven't lost it. My Carribean Jerk Chicken recipe is safe! I should be able to make up a few packets of the marinated chicken for my freezer and enjoy the perfect grilled dinner later in the fall. The rest I will dehydrate and make into powder that rivals cayenne for heat and flavor.

I saw a new chile recipe on Sara Moulton's new cooking show this morning called "Chicken with Sausage and Hot Cherry Bomb Peppers". It was chicken and italian sausage sprinked with halves of pickled cherry bomb chiles and all simmered in a white wine sauce. It looked simple, but also very tasty. It is giving me incentive to pull out my water bath canner and contemplate pickling cherry bombs...just for this recipe. It was nice to hear Sara Moulton confess that she is a chilehead and that she cooks with hot chiles at home all the time. I guess she is lost like the rest of us! LOL

Heatwave

We are having record high temperatures outside for the past week. 100+ degrees for several days in a row. The weather service people are saying that this is a new high pushing back the last high that was recorded in 1890. Wow. It is scary to think how much hotter things might become in later years here in California. I go out to water my gardens early in the morning before the heat gets too horrible. I put plenty of hose water on my feet to cool them and it feels wonderful.

My roses are simply loving the heat and are sending out lots of new canes. I have been keeping up with their watering as best I can, but frankly they can handle the heat and drought conditions well. Roses have a reputation of being "fussy" or too much work, but I find that once you attune to their needs they are actually quite hardy and are the perfect sub-desert flower. The lavender plants that I put among the roses are also doing well, although their lovely purple blooms are faded and starting to dry. Soon I will need to go out and deadhead the lavender and prepare it for another bloom cycle.

I wish that I had good news about my pepper plants. I lost my chocolate habanero this week. It is nothing but a dry stalk now. Once the heatwave breaks I will go and pull it out and put its cage away. I don't think that this has been a good year for chile plants for me. I've lost so many seedlings and overwintered plants that it is growing to be disappointing. As much as I hate to contemplate it, I might have to settle for california wonders for my bells this year. I don't feel that they have as much flavor as my other favorites, but at this point in the game I don't feel that I have many options left. At least I will find them in the local nursery.

Greenscene

I was back to the Fullerton Arboretum for the annual Greenscene event. I go there mainly to buy exotic chile peppers from the Orange Country Organic Gardeners Society. Usually they have great selections. Not this time. Never have I been so disappointed in new plants. All the peppers and chiles were common garden varieties for the most part. Jalapenos, Serranos, plain habaneros. The main bell pepper that they were selling was California Wonder, a pepper that I have always found to be lackluster in flavor and appearance. I did buy a few chiles: a jalapeno and two serranos. I also picked up a pair of italian stuffing peppers of the belle variety that are supposed to be very sweet. We'll wait and see. I see now that I'm going to have to prowl the retail nurseries for my plants this year...if work allows me the time. I spoke with one of the volunteers about my disappointment and she asked me to write down some of the chiles that I would like to see grown next year. I looked at their list and saw several of my usual favorites already listed by other people. I added Blushing Beauty and Lemondrop to the list. I was given a flyer to go and join the organic gardener's, but due to my work schedule and the distance to the meetings, I'm not sure if I can attend.

On my way out, I also picked up a pink flowering maple bush for my rose garden. I have a few empty spots that I'd like to fill in and I find that the flowering maples are great in the shadier parts of my garden and bloom wonderfully. I currently have a red one, a yellow one and a white one. I'm not certain where I'll put the pink one yet, but I think that it is going to do well.

Overall, I felt that the event was smaller this year with fewer vendors. The admission to enter was $6, which was higher than last year. Still, it was a beautiful day and the people that came to the event seemed to be in high spirits and were buying baskets, pots, plants and hamburgers with abandon.

Garden Shed and the Loss of Pepper Plants

This morning my husband and I put the handles and lock holder onto our new garden shed. It looks very attractive and is going to hold plenty of tools, pots and gardening supplies in a waterproof manner. I still haven't purchased a new padlock for the shed and additional keys for that padlock, but I am hoping to take care of that sometime this weekend. There is still plenty to do with the shed, mainly moving all my tools and supplies from the garage to their new location. I'm very much looking forward to having that additional space available in my garage.

On my way back to the house, I stopped to check on my little pepper seedlings. I was aghast to discover that all but a single cayenne plant had been eaten last night! I'm not sure what is going on. I've placed my pepper seedlings in this location before and they were untouched. What was left of the stems looked gnawed. I don't believe that this is my typical cutworm problem. That only seems to happen when the plants are in the soil of the bed. No, this looks like an animal had come over and eaten the leaves off of the stem and then gnawed the stem. I've moved the last little pepper plant to a place on top of our new BBQ box. I'm not sure if it is going to be safe there or not, but I will have to try. The plant is still too small to put into the bed, even with a cutworm barrier.

I will have one more chance to purchase rare pepper/chile plants this spring. Greenscene, our local plant fair is in a few weeks. A couple of organic plant groups sell plants there. I probably won't find anything super rare, but at least I hope to replace the Blushing Beauties which are my favorite bell peppers. It has been hit or miss with the plants and I haven't been able to harvest a blushing beauty for a long time. I'm hoping that this is the year I get a mature plant...and then can overwinter it into strength.