Dawn
Do you happen to know anything about the Fooled You jalapenos or the Tam jalapenos? I have some of each but they seem to be moving slowly here.

Charlie

A few, huh????

10 pounds, 2 oz is a little more than a few. That's probably more than I will harvest all year. Of course, we won't discuss sweet peppers and pablanos. LOL

How many plants does it take to get that many peppers in June? Mine have peppers but they are about a half inch long.

My peppers are just now blooming!! They're container grown, but should be happier...hmmm...I'm fighting off jealousy :)

Sharon

Charlie,

I haven't grown Fooled You but it is supposed to be very similar to Delicias, but that one is also new to me. Delicias is a smaller plant than the others, but it may eventually catch up. All the plants are smaller than I would have expected they'd be at this point in time, but they have been carrying a very heavy fruit load, so that probably has impacted their ability to get much taller or wider. Now that the pepper load is greatly reduced, they'll probably have a growth spurt.

I've grown TAM many times over the years and it is very reliable but not the heaviest producer nor does it have the largest peppers.

The best producers of all the jalapenos I've grown, both in terms of size of the fruit and number of fruit per plant, are Mucho Nacho, Mammoth, Grande' and Biker Billy. Of those, Mucho Nacho and Biker Billy tend to produce the hottest peppers. I tried to grow Goliath this year so I could compare them to Mucho Nacho, Mammoth and Grande', but I had a crop failure--in fact, I had a total germination failure.

I expect your peppers are moving slowly there in Tahlequah because y'all have been both a little cooler and a little rainier than we have been here. My peppers never kick into high gear until it is really hot. The peppers I am picking now are from flowers that set fruit in April. We got really hot in mid-May and I think the heat pushed the peppers to size up and mature at a quicker rate....more like what I normally see in late July or early August.

Carol, Hold on. I have to run outside and count jalapeno pepper plants, but I'm guessing 15 to 20. I'll be right back.....

I'm back. I have 27 jalapeno plants. Only 2 are the no-heat Delicias. If I like them, I'll plant more next year. There are a few other hots, and then about a dozen or so sweets, and a couple dozen ornamental peppers, mostly in containers.

Sharon, Don't forget that I can plant a good 2 to 4 weeks earlier than y'all most springs. I did not necessarily get these into the ground that early because we'd had a late freeze the last two years, so I held them back for a while and actually set them out late....the first week of May after our last frost earlier that week. So, that's 3 years in a row with a frost the first week in May despite my March 27th 'average last frost date'. When I sat them out, they were either in bloom or about to bloom. When it got insanely hot in the last half of May, I was worried the plants were too small to carry their heavy fruit load in that heat, but they did fine.

Y'all know what I meant by referring to this as a 'few'. After last year's '1800 pepper harvest' gave me buckets and bags of peppers sitting all over creation while I tried frantically to process them before they spoiled, I think any pepper harvest will seem like only a 'few' by comparison.

This year I got smart and planted only 2 habanero plants, because when I had that big harvest, I must have picked 100-150 habs off each of the 4 habanero plants I had. I really would have preferred to have only 1 hab plant this year, but knew if it died, then I'd have no hab plants, so planted a second as insurance. I think I have enough pre-chopped, frozen habs, bells and onions (enough in each ziplock bag for 1 big batch of habanero gold) to make 6 batches of habanero gold, so could have skipped habs entirely but didn't want to.

Don't worry, y'all, your peppers will grow real fast now that the heat is here and you'll be harvesting before you know it. With all the moisture you've had, you should have great plant growth, fruit set and fruit sizes.

And, speaking of fruit, I've been picking and picking and picking plums....and, also, picking, picking and picking more plums. I'm tired of picking plums and I'm not finished yet. So far this evening, I've picked two 5-gallon buckets full. Isn't that just crazy? That's from a tree that's already produced 37 pounds of plums prior to today's harvest. I need to get back out there and finish. I came in to cool off, and now that I'm all cool and comfortable, I don't want to go back out into the heat...but I must.

I'll be back later, though maybe not until tomorrow, to tell you how many lbs. of plums I ended up picking today.

The rest of this week will be all about processing the plum harvest.

Dawn

I love plums. When I was young my Mom would pick the small sour plums that grew everywhere in fence rows and ditches along side the road and make jelly. She made one batch a year just for me because I like it to remain tart and cooked a little too long so it is really firm. I haven't had any like that for a lot of years but I still remember how good it was. I have never known the name of those plums, but I'm sure you do.

We also had a plum tree that had huge purple plums on it that my mother had planted when I was in grade school. A few years ago, my Mom and I went down that street and stopped in front. There is a new house there and almost nothing looks the same, except that beautiful plum tree is still there.

Carol,

There are several native wild plums that grow along fencelines and in pastures here in this part of the country. I know their proper names but I'm too tired to think of them right now. We call the ones that form fairly circular thickets Thicket Plums and the ones along fencelines either hog plums, sand plums or Chickasaw plums. They're all fairly small trees. Some produce red plums, some produce yellow ones. We have another plum tree that grows in pastures and woodland areas here, but it will get very large. It is called Mexican Plum. Our largest Mexican Plum in our woodland area is about 25' or 30' tall, probably because it is stretching for light. Out in the open area where they can spread out properly and aren't shaded by anything, the Mexican plums have a lovely broad canopy.

I have seen people out along the fencelines picking wild plums for a couple of weeks now. Since most bar ditches and fencelines here are not well-maintained, the Johnson grass and other weeds are at least hip high around those fenceline plum trees and the grass is full of all sorts of critters, including snakes, ticks and chiggers. You won't catch me walking into high brush like that to pick plums!

I picked plums until it was almost dark and, by the time I was done for the night, I had picked a total of 3 5-gallon buckets and a wire-harvest basket that held about 1 additional gallon, so that's 16 gallons for today. I'll weigh them tomorrow and then I'll start working on processing all those plums.

I think it is likely that everyone who works with Tim will get plum jelly, plum jam or plum sauce for Christmas. It is possible we'll have enough jars of plum 'stuff' to give every resident of southern Oklahoma a jar of plum 'stuff'. I'm not complaining though. The trees bloom early and freeze out about 3 years out of every 5 or 6 years, so a year like this with a bumper crop is a real treat.

Ilove that the plum tree is still there. Often, they are not that long-lived, although they live longer for me than peach trees do.

Dawn

All this sounds like so much fun. I wish my wife would get into canning, freezing,etc.

I retired a few years ago and moved bact to the old home place. For four years I grew a garden between 3000 and 4000 sq. ft. and tried to learn a little about preserving food. I was much better at growing it than preserving it.
I was single at that time and one man just can not eat that much food.

After I got married my wife thought it was too much of a mess so we dont put up a lot of food now, but I still like to grow it.
My wife left for Keene Tx. this morning and took a bag or two of squash, peppers and cucumbers with her for her daughter and friends. The daughter she went with wanted to take a picture of the garden to show the daugther they were going to visit, she was amazed at the Tendertreat corn being 10' tall, and the tomatoes being about sholder high.

I would love for my wife to enjoy the garden and what it produces as much as I do, but at 71 I dont think she will change a lot. Now that I have come to think about it, things are better the way they are, because we would fight about the garden, and I hate getting whipped.

Dawn, I know you enjoy your garden, keep up the good work.

Larry

Great timing with this post. I just ate 2 jalapenos from my garden and was going to comment on them.

I have harvested about 10 Mammoths in the last week, but only a couple of them had any heat even though they were all very large and appeared mature. Tonight I got in just after dark and was making a couple of sandwiches, so I decided to go out a find a few peppers to cook and put on them. I got two jalapenos and one Anaheim. After cooking them, my wife and I could not stop coughing from the "flavor" in the air. When I bit in, it was HOT and I actually had to remove most of it from the sandwich. I looked it up on my notes of where everything was planted, and Grande Jalapeno was the really hot one (it was corking a lot) and the other was Chichimeca. In the dark I just felt around until I found big ones.

Last year Mammoth was not hot at first just like this year. I have never grown Grande and Chichimeca until this year. I am looking forward to how they do in the next month. I am such a huge fan of Mammoth that I would be really surprised if I find a better one.

Dawn and others, I would really like to hear from you if you are growing Mammoth along with others and already have experience with how they compare in previous years or this year.

Charlie,
I grow both the Fooled You and TAM Jalapeno about every year and have both of them growing in the garden now.

Fooled you for me is a large Jalapeno with no heat. My BIL and his brother both like them. That is why I grow them. They have a good flavor here. Just remember flavor here in my deep sand and the dry weather we've had t he last few years can be a lot different than that in an area with more rainfall.

Dawn desribed TAM very well. It is always reliable here. And flavor is good. Mid range on the heat level. I would call it an average producer. Have never had any disease issues with it. I always grow 1-2 plants of it for insurance.
Grande is bigger and can be a heavier producer in a good year. Not as reliable here in our conditions as TAM. I also grow Purple Jalapeno most years. Senorita is another I like. Jay

Larry, One of my neighbors was over tonight and Al and I were both in the backyard. I was staking up peppers that had fallen over in yesterday's wind and heavy rain, so he had to come ask what I was doing. I then took him over to see the tomato on steroids and he said, "You are going to have so many tomatoes that you won't know what to do with them." I said "No". He just looked at me like I was a little crazy, but I don't think there is such a thing as too many tomatoes. At least, I have never experienced that at my house. LOL Now, too many squash I can relate too.

He might get a few tomatoes since he is a good neighbor, and always offers to feed the cats if I am gone. He always gives me catfish, but I think we are buying a boat so I guess we will be catching our own soon.

Most of my corn is on the ground and some of it is broken. Next year I will plant it along the fence and maybe that will help a little. Yesterday I had a Black Cherry tomato that was 7 feet tall, and today it was five feet tall. Everything above the support just folded over. I had one pepper plant that broke in half, but most were still OK after I picked them back up and staked them. I had already staked all of the big ones, but had to do more today. I am about to run out of stakes, so I guess I will be buying some more of those cheap bamboo ones to finish up. I have used a full pack of those green bamboo stakes, 10 or 11 of the green metal ones with the circle thing on top, a couple dozen cheap tomato cages, and the 'legs' from all of the cheap tomato cages that have already broken, and probably a dozen metal stakes that one of my neighbors gave me a few years ago. Do you think I planted too many peppers?

Larry,

We always canned when I was a child, but it was my dad and not my mom who did the canning. My mom hated being in the kitchen one second longer than she absolutely had to, so she'd help him but she wouldn't do it on her own. I had a lot of relatives who canned, so I just thought everyone did it. I didn't have a large garden or can when my son was small, but once he was high school-aged and we'd moved here, I had the space for a bigger garden and the time to can and put up more food. Some years I can a little, some years I can a lot, depending on what the garden and fruit trees do.

I noticed that our local Wal-Mart has looked like a hurricane hit the canning aisle the last couple of weeks, so everyone's fruit trees must be bearing heavily. Our Wal-Mart is completely out of all pectin, except for freezer jam pectin, but I have a few on hand and just went online and ordered a dozen more boxes. That way, I have what I need for the next 2 or 3 weeks if the local stores don't get more in very quickly.

One of our dear friends still gardens and he is 88 years old, but this year his wife told him not to plant a big garden because she's "through" with canning and doesn't intend to do it any more. He planted a big garden anyway, but I'm not sure if she'll can anything or if they'll freeze all they want and give away the rest. I enjoy canning. I put up a little over 300 jars of stuff last year and about 80% of it is gone. We give a lot of it away as gifts to my husband's coworkers and to our family members. This year everyone's getting plum jam.

Scott, When early pepper harvests are lacking in heat, it is because they've grown in cooler weather and with lots and lots of rainfall. As the summer goes on, the hotter and drier it gets, the hotter the peppers get---up to whatever their natural highest heat would be. In a really bad drought year, my peppers get amazingly hot.

This is my first year to grow Mammoth, and they certainly are huge peppers but I haven't tasted one yet. The Mammoth plant had the fewest fruit per plant though--Much Nacho and Grande' both had a lot more. When we're able to eat and compare the peppers from Mammoth, Mucho Nacho and Grande', I'll tell you how they compare for us. Right now we're bogged down in plums...buried in plums, sinking in a sea of plums and just plumb tired of picking plums so there's no time for peppers today.

Jay, I grew the purple jalapeno for a couple of years and it just did not produce well for me. Does it produce well for you?

Carol, No, no, no. You did not plant too many peppers. It is impossible to plant too many peppers. If you have "too many" and don't want to eat them, can them, dry them, freeze them or jelly them, then string them on fishing line and make wreaths and ristras!

About the plums: I started my day with peppers yesterday and ended it with plums. Today I started my day with plums and still have more to pick.....so far, from yesterday's big picking, which was 16 gallons, we have 76 lbs. and 13 oz. That is in addition to the 20-something lbs. picked earlier in the week. This plum tree so far has produced about 113 lbs. of plums and it still has a couple of pounds of green ones on it. For the first few weeks, it ripened about as many plums per day as we could eat or give away and I kept watching it, knowing that one day all the rest would start turning color....and this week they did.

I bought all the pectin that our Wal-Mart had and will be jamming and jellying all weekend long. Now, back outside to pick more plums. Today it looks like the fruit on the second tree are ripening, and I have to pick them fast because they don't hold as well on the tree as the ones on the first tree. With the fruit from one tree still in the processing stage and the fruit from the second tree starting to ripen, I don't know whether to laugh (hysterically) or to cry.

When I'm feeling chained to the kitchen stove doing all that canning, I keep reminding myself that a great yield is a blessing, even if it doesn't feel like it at that exact moment.

Dawn

What is so interesting is how two varieties right next to each other with the same reported heat level can be so different early in the season. I was expecting little heat this early from Mammoth based on last year's experiences, but the Grande caught me off guard (and got some good laughs from the kids as I jumped around crying and trying to find an ice cube). The Grande had more corking than the Mammoth, but I don't recall it being on the plant as early as the Mammoths.

Anyway, the Mammoths I got last year from Carmichaels were pretty amazing. They ended up really large and had very heavy sets until October, and they maintained their nice form (little corking) even when I tired of harvesting them and only came out a couple of times each week to get some for salsa, etc. My only negative is that I would like some with a little less heat so that I don't have to do such a good job cleaning out the inside before stuffing them.

Dawn,
For me most years Purple Jalapeno is a lot like TAM. A steady consistent producer. Not many up and down seasons. What I would call an average or moderate producer. When I have time I'll search for a few articles I've read by an NMSU horticulturilist and another grower I believe. Where they state after doing some trials they have determined some varities produce heavier in hot, low humidity areas and others prefer more moisture and higher humidity. Purple Jalapeno is one I was told that produced better in hot and low humidity conditions. I think that might be true. As last year it produced heavier here than it ever has. Produced as heavy as anything I grew last year. Last year was a good pepper year especially late. I grew the biggest bell peppers I've ever grown last year. I don't plan on it producing that heavy again this year. If it does it will be a bonus. I usually only grow it myself every 2-3 years. I planted them this year with plans to either sell or give them away. The plants were nice so I ended up setting a few out. Jay

So far my one little jalapeno plant has only one pepper on it, so I'm sure glad to hear that they produce better as the weather heats up. I was beginning to think that one was all we'd get. This is such a crazy year for weather ... long, cool, wet spring, then as soon as it started to look like it would warm up and dry out, we'd be back to more rain .... back and forth. The forecast for the next week looks like Groundhog Day, the same thing every day with mid-90s for highs, mid-70s for lows, and no rain in sight. Even after the deluge 5 days ago I can tell its almost time to start watering again.

Suzie

Scott,

I made jalapeno poppers to go with our BLTs for lunch, and the peppers only had moderate heat, except for one that was so hot that it made my eyes water. It wasn't one of the biggest peppers, but it did have the corking, so I think it was heat-stressed at some point. I'm betting it is a Grande' because it wasn't as large as the Mammoths and Mucho Nachos I had picked.

Jay, That's interesting that some produce differently in different humidities, isn't it? I always wondered why chiles from Hatch are superior to all others, and felt it had to be more than just their soil. So maybe it is their climate?

One of the prettiest fresh salsas we ever made had yellow and orange tomatoes (Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Nebraska Wedding) and purple jalapenos. It was just a gorgeous blend of colors!

Suzie,

Hot peppers tend to start out slow and speed up as the summer goes on. By August or September, I reach that "don't want to look at another pepper" stage, but then I get over it. One plant is not enough though....you need to be like the rest of us and drastically overplant. Once we discovered you could never really have too many tomatoes, we then discovered you can't have too many peppers either. Just wait and see.....you'll be addicted to them before long.

Dawn

Most of my peppers will start setting fruit and still continue to grow. I did have an exception tho. The Giant Marconi made a huge pepper about 10 inches long on a spindly looking little plant. I put a cage around it to help hold up the pepper so it didn't pull the plant over. It didn't set anymore fruit. Once I pulled that pepper, the plant started getting more leaves and is beginning to look normal. Maybe by the time it gets more fruit it will be big enough to hold it up. LOL

I didn't try to answer the question earlier on the size of pepper plants because I don't know how to answer it. I have plants less than a foot tall that have several peppers on them and I have some 3 feet tall that only have blooms. Most of that is due to variety, but some of it depends on when you put it in the ground, and the growing conditions it has experienced. I didn't plant anything hotter than a jalapeno this year (unless the ones George gave me are fire starters), but I have seeds to plant some really hot ones next year.

I'm pasting some information that I thought might be of interest to some about hot peppers. It is information from NMSU. Jay

Program Coordinator, NMSU Chile Pepper Institute; Research Specialist,
NMSU Chile Breeding and Genetics Program; and NMSU Regents Professor,
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, and Director, NMSU Chile
Pepper Institute, respectively, all of New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.

Chiles most recognizable trait is heat. Capsaicinoids,
chemical compounds produced in glands and vesicles
on the fruitÂs placenta, produce the heat sensation when
chiles are consumed. While seeds are not the source of
heat, they occasionally get splashed with the capsaici-
noids because of their proximity to the placenta. The
chileÂs genetics, weather conditions, growing conditions,
and fruit age affect capsaicinoid content and, thusly, the
heat level. Plant breeders selectively develop cultivars
with varying degrees of heat. Growers can also control
heat by subjecting their plants to different amounts of
stress, because more stress means hotter pods. Thus, the
chile heat levels listed are relative to the year and loca-
tion grown.

Dawn,
This year I only have a tiny little bag garden with 8 tomatoes, 2 green peppers, 1 jalapeno, and 1 habanero (just so I can make that habanero and apricot jelly, lol). I've already decided that I need MUCH more space next year because every time I make a trip to TLC, Lowe's, or Home Depot it's all I can do not to bring home more plants. Hopefully next year I'll be ready to join Overplanters Anonymous. :) I love reading about all the different varieties all of you are planting.

Suzie

Dawn,
Hello after an absence due to taking care of DH. I'm wondering if you would share your recipe for the candied jalapenos using the fresh peppers? I make them but my recipe calls for canned from the store peppers and since I have my own peppers now would love to use them! My kids just love them and would like to make some to share with them.
TIA!!

I'd love it if someone could tell me how to make the "poppers" mentioned above. I know you said something about cream cheese and cheddar but, never having eaten them, I'm pretty clueless. Can they be baked? I think Dawn mentioned grilling them but I'm not up to wrangling the ginormous, wood-fired Bubba Grill all all by my lonesome at the moment. (I really need to get around to buying a small, city-slicker grill one of these days!)

Thanks!

Diane

Klo,

I hope your DH is dong better!

It is hard to find a safe, approved recipe that produces candied jalapenos like the ones you can buy for $6.00 or $7.00 a jar, but this recipe is close, is safety-approved, and the people I've given these to just love them. It really is just a bread-and-butter pickle recipe but you use jalapeno peppers instead of pickling cucumbers. I found this recipe posted by J. R. Slick on the Harvest Forum last summer. Here it is:

BREAD & BUTTER JALAPENOS (CANDIED JALAPENOS)

Yield: 7 pints

4 lbs. jalapeno peppers
2 lbs. onions
3 C. vinegar
2 C. sugar
2 T. mustard seed
2 t. turmeric
2 t. celery seed
1 t. ginger

1. Wearing rubber or latex gloves to protect your hands from pepper juices, cut jalapeno peppers and onions into thin slices and cold-pack into canning jars.

2. Place remaining ingredients in saucepan and bring to a boil.

3. Pour hot mixture into jars, leaving 1/4" head space.

4. Remove air bubbles and wipe rims.

5. Place lids on jars and adjust to finger-tight.

6. Process in a Boiling Water Bath for 10 minutes.

**Sometimes I run out of brine before I run out of jars filled with peppers/onions, so sometimes I make a batch and a half to ensure I have enough.

Here's a second recipe for Sweet Jalapenos. It is from the new Better Homes and Gardens "You Can Can" book. I'm going to try this one this week, although it really isn't that different from the above recipe.

SWEET JALAPENO SLICES

Yield: 3 to 4 pints

1 lb. fresh jalapeno peppers, stemmed, halved, seeded and cut into 1/2" slices

1 large red sweet pepper, cut into 1/4" slices

1/2 C. chopped onion (1 medium onion)

1 T. pickling salt

cracked ice

1 & 1/4 C. sugar

1/2 C. cider vinegar

1 t. mustard seeds

1/2 t. celery seeds

1/2 t. ground turmeric

1. In a large bowl, combine the jalapeno peppers, sweet pepper, onion, and pickling salt. Add 2" of cracked ice. Cover and chill for 2 hours.

2. Remove any remaining ice and drain mixture into a large colander.

3. In a large stainless-steel, enamel, or nonstick saucepan, combine the sugar, vinegar and spices. Heat mixture to boiling. Stir in drained pepper mixture. Return to boiling. Ladle pepper mixture into hot, sterilized half-pint canning jars, leaving a 1/2" headspace. Wipe jar rims; adjust lids. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes (start timing when water returns to boil). Remove jars from canner; cool on wire racks.

NOTE: Because chile peppers, such as jalapenos, contain oils that can burn skin and eyes, avoid direct contact with them as much as possible. Wear plastic or rubber gloves while preparing them. If bare hands should touch a chile pepper, wash them well with soap and water.

Diane,

There are lots of ways to make grilled, baked or broiled jalapeno poppers and I don't really have a recipe per se. Here's how I make them.

First, I cut the peppers in half lengthwise and deseed them. (Some folks leave the seeds in, but I can't eat them if I do that.)

Secondly, I mix together a package of cream cheese that has been allowed to soften a little at room temperature with some grated cheddar cheese. Sometimes, for a different taste, I use Monterrey Jack. Then I 'stuff' each pepper half with cheese.

Third, I cut uncooked bacon slices in half and wrap them around the jalapeno or, if the jalapenos are really large, I just lay a piece of bacon on top of each cheese-stuffed pepper.

You then can cook them however you choose. You can grill them on the outdoor grill. Cook them until the bacon is thoroughly cooked.

You can line them up on a cookie sheet (with raised sides like a jelly roll pan to contain the bacon drippings) and bake or broil them in the oven. I usually just bake them for about 23-35 minutes at 350 or 375 degrees.

You can cook them a few at a time on a George Foreman grill indoors, but if you're doing a large batch, this could take a while and you have to be sure the bacon covers the cheese so the cheese doesn't stick to the top of the Foreman grill.

I just cook them until the bacon is well done.

Be careful not to overstuff the peppers or the cheese will ooze out.

Sometimes, if I am running 'late' on preparing a meal, I'll put a broiler pan full of bacon in the oven and pre-cook it until it is about halfway done while I'm deseeding and stuffing the peppers. That can cut the baking or grilling time about in half.

If you broil them, watch them carefully so they don't burn.

You can be creative with this recipe. Some people mix some sausage in with the cheese and omit the bacon.

In the summertime, I slice and deseed jalapeno peppers and freeze them so I can make poppers in the gardening off-season.

We could eat these things all day long. If you're a hot pepper wimp like I am, the fat in the cheese and bacon really make the heat from the pepper more tolerable.

Dawn

You freeze the peppers without blanching them? I would love to do that for poppers in the off season!

Yum!! Thanks, Dawn! I'm not a bacon fan (other than turkey bacon on BLTs) so I'd just omit that. I betcha some diced tomatoes mixed into the cheese would be good. Or fresh slices on top!

As far as wimpiness, the more heat the better for me! *slurp*

Diane

I found this recipe the other day and I think I will have to try it also.

Thanks Dawn for sharing the recipes for the candied Jalapenos! Got to give those a try as soon as I get enough off my 6 plants.

Klo,

I've never blanched peppers and think they freeze just fine without blanching.

Diane,

You're welcome. You can stuff jalapeno peppers with just about anything....I've seen people stuff them with taco meat, every kind of cheese in the world, sausage mixed with seasoned bread crumbs, etc.

Carol,

Thanks for sharing that recipe. It looks like a good one. I'll have to try it myself.

Klo,

The candied jalapenos are yummy. I was going to make a double batch tomorrow, but our son came by and picked up a big Wal-Mart bag full of jalapenos to take to work on Thursday, so I only have enough left to make a single batch. (That's OK, though, I am swamped with plums and peaches now anyway, so I'm busy canning.) I try to keep his fire station supplied with fresh produce when it is in season...so today I sent him home with 5 or 6 bags of stuff, and that takes the pressure off me so I can work on those plums and peaches.

I make poppers at least once a week in the summer time when we have fresh jalapenos. We grill a lot so they're easy to throw on the grill with whatever we're cooking. It's so hot today that I think we could grill them on the hood of a car or any slab of concrete! Grill? We don't need to stinkin' grill!

Dawn

LOL!!! I heard ya girl, it's hot enough here to cook an egg on the sidewalk, if we had one that is! Thanks for your input on the peppers and the recipes. I plan on freezing some peppers this summer, now that I know how!

This thread just reminded me:

Does anyone else have a problem with pepper skins after freezing? For me, they turn plastic-like. No matter what I do with them, before or after the freezer, they all get like that. I can't even puree them in the food processor as then there are a zillion little plastic-like pieces throughout. Just as gag-worthy.

I either end up skinning & freezing, dehydrating, or pickling them to get around it.

Diane