Ron, Phoenix Perennials might be worth looking at if you're into agaves, yuccas, and sedums. They started doing mail order a year or two ago. The owner is a great guy and I suspect he will increase the selection of agaves over time. I ordered from Plants Delights once before and am tempted to do so again this year, but, of course, it gets expensive when ordering from Canada. I finally orderd a couple of plants from Jamie at Valley Succulents, who is also great to deal with, but will pick the plants up in Comox in the spring. Finally have (well almost) Aloe plicatilis and Sedum palmeri Jeff! :-) Here is a link that might be useful: Phoenix Perennials

Really you just need to google "pepper mash" or "fresh chilis" or something similiar, there are many many places that sell fresh, frozen, or fermented mashes. Cross country nursery sells fresh pods in the fall, Jim at Mild to Wild sells tubs of pure mash, Pedilogues sells mash, there are some people on ebay that sell mash, you can get fresh or smoked/peeled numex styles from various places in new mexico in the fall, etc. I am sure there are lots more places I am not thinking about that other people will chime in about. kendra

you know it... when you're about to cook, and your wife, who was born in Trinidad, tells you the to make a less spicy batch for her. when you have a small flask filled with your own hot sauce that you take with you everywhere when your back yard is full of weeds, but not a single one is in one of your pots. when you have no idea what all these people are talking about in terms of burning at both ends, because you've never had that problem. when this time last year, the idea of eating a habanero whole was terrifying, but now you're not even growing habs because they're not hot enough.

I usually wait until my habs are full color, but this year besides the usual orange habs that I grow every year, I also grew Red Savinas for the first time. While I did also let those get fully red for the most part, I was curious to see what one would taste like if eaten at "first blush". Truth be told, I had accidentally knocked a not-quite-ripe pepper off the plant and I didn't want to waste it-- it was actually my first one. I had a grill going where I was cooking chicken. I took the pepper inside and cut it up into quarters. Yeah, habs are kinda small, but Savs are larger than the standard orange jobs. They're also hotter. CONSIDERABLY hotter. Tentatively, I took a small taste of part of one of the quarters. It was a very pleasant surprise! The first flavors that hit were "fresh" and "sweet", sort of like a green bell pepper or perhaps a poblano-- soon giving way to a slight jalapeno-like note before the heat set in. Oh, the heat! It came up like a Roman candle, culminating in a burst of fire (in a good way that any pepperhead can relate to). Wow, it was delightful! I wrapped the other pieces up in a bit of tin foil and set them out on the grill with the chicken, over indirect heat from charcoal and mesquite wood. Peppers cook quickly, and the chicken was just about finished when I put the habs in, so in a few moments I took the chicken and peppers in the house and served up dinner. Now, DH isn't a chilihead to the extent that I am so he took a pass on the "H-word" peppers that night. I, on the other hand, took a larger serving of the grilled "Green Savina". I topped a few bites of chicken with the pepper-- and it was fantastic! The heat didn't disappoint (and of course, it would only get hotter as the season went along) and the other flavor notes were excellent. The mesquite smokiness gave it all a nice outdoorsy flavor. I bet that smoked/roasted "Green Savinas" would be awesome with corn, black bean and tomato. Don't be afraid to try your peppers at different ripening stages. Many peppers are very tasty when eaten green OR ripe, and even somewhere in between. I roasted a few half-ripe jalapenos for use in salsa (got 'em when they looked sort of maroon), and a few more for a steak marinade. The pepper flavors change as the peppers mature, and each stage offers a new and unique balance of flavor notes. Have fun! -Megan