Thanks, all ... pit - the yellow ones are habs. The skinny red ones are cayenne, the long green is a sweet pepper 'cubanelle'. mo-girl: the peppers are all growing in two-gallon nursery pots, and the tomatoes are in an EarthBox. The toms in the picture are 'patio' tomatoes; they're a determinate type, which is good, 'cause the 'kosovo' growing with them are about to take over the world. They're 6 ft. tall and still growing. And yes, I am a chile-head! I grow at least two varieties of chiles every year; don't make salsa, but I do use them for cooking. I pick 'em as I need 'em; come the end of the season, what's left on the plant is picked and frozen, as is. They freeze really well. PV

Julie, The term "the blue stuff" refers to water soluable fertilizer that you buy in a powdered form, dissolve in water, and use to water your plants. There are many brands available....two common ones are Miracle Grow and Peter's. For tomatoes, Miracle Grow has a special Tomato Formula. Ladybug is an organic line of garden amendments and fertilizers based in the hill country of Texas, so Ladybug fertilizer is slower release than a water-soluable fertilizer as described above. Ladybug also has very cute packaging. We aren't going to harass you for growing in Topsy-Turvys, and I consider anyone who is growing anything at all to be a true grower too, whether they're growing in the ground, in containers of any kind, hydroponically, under a light indoors, etc. Because you have to water a Topsy Turvy often, if I were you, I'd likely use one form or another of water soluable fertilizer every day or every other day, but would dilute it to 1/4 the recommended strength since I was using it so often. The reason is that, in climates like ours where you have to water so often, the constant watering leaches nutrients out of the growing medium and you have to provide extra nutrition to make up for all the leaching. In general, I prefer organic slow-release fertilizers, but often they release too slowly to be your plants' only source of nutrition in containers that are watered daily. So, if it were me, I'd likely alternate between 2 or 3 or 4 fertilizers. I'd probably alternate between a Miracle Grow Tomato Food type product and a liquid seaweed, liquid fish emulsion or compost tea type product. Good luck with your Topsy Turvy tomatoes. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Lady Bug

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

Armageddon: Smoking the peppers first sounds like a great idea, the scotch bonnet sauce recipe I used called for frying the pepper, garlic and onion in a bit of oil for a about 5 minutes before adding the water which really brought out a lot of savory flavor. jennie: If you're referring to my asian wing sauce, you can freeze it, but don't add the basil or cilantro till you use it as a marinade. I would keep it refrigerated instead of canning/shelving, since there's not much acid in there with only 1 lime. IAmSupernova: It really is a great wing sauce. Just be careful if you use the grill, wings tend to flare up and burn especially due to the brown sugar and oil. The licorice taste of the thai basil with the high heat from the chiles is out of this world.