New way with Chilli Peppers.

[ed dibbles]

Last july/august I took pity on a couple of scotch pepper plants starved in their small pots in a garden centre for 25p each. after potting them on they grew a bit but bore only one rather small pepper pod between them.

Rather than throw them out I moved them under grow lights in November where they ticked over well before moving them onto a warm window cill in February. With the warmth and increasing day length they began growing strongly, forming flower buds soon after, many months earlier than spring sown plants. They were planted in the greenhouse border a few weeks ago and already one plant has set its first fruit.

I've got seed of Trinidad Scorpion and Carolina Reaper (the current world record holder for heat 2 million scovilles ). Since these need high temperatures to germinate I intend to wait for the few days above 25C we tend to experience in july  then sow them with a view to getting sturdy young plants for overwintering under lights like the scotch bonnet plants overwintered this year.

If successful the plants could produce a really heavy crop of scorchingly hot chillies as the fruiting season will be months longer.

Quite what I will do with them all is another matter. 

[ed dibbles]

[galina]

Congratulations on overwintering them, Ed. 

I had a glut of hot peppers from a second year plant.  Halved and deseeded them, then packed into the freezer, at first frozen individually on a tray, than bagged.  So easy to fetch out a half pepper for a dish or a whole pepper, depending on how lethal they are. 

I find peppers from the freezer nicer than dried, although I have dried as well.   

[BarriedaleNick]

I usually make a load of chili sauce with mine - keeps well, makes nice little gifts and you can add as much as you need to a dish with no waste.

[ed dibbles]

I have seen some of those "weapons grade" hot chilli sauces. You need a dropper to apply the concoction drip by drip Someone bought me a bottle as a present once,.

Like Galina I tend to freeze them, they come out as hot as they went in.

One bonus is that when cutting they do not spread capsaicin over your hands in the same way as fresh ones with the attendant risks of the more tender parts of the body having an uncomfortably "warm" feeling for a while.

(We of course know capsaicin doesn't "burn", there are no blisters for example, it just tricks the brain by affecting pain sensors, The chilli's chemical warfare.)

Strangely one of the ones I found overpoweringly hot is the rocoto pepper (Capsicum pubescens). A different capsaicin profile possibly. The scotch bonnet kinds have a wonderful flavour as well as heat but my favourite is the humble jalapeno, again for the flavour.

For the very hottest I tend to cut them up on the chopping board with a knife and fork, whether fresh or frozen, in an effort to keep capsaicin off my hands.