i found this, ive never had a lemon drop but read about them and it says they have a lemon chile flavor, is that true?

here's a recipe i came across :
http://www.bvdrangs.com/recipes/LemonDrop.html

Lemon Drop was a wonderful and bountiful find last year. Tried to over winter, but didn't make it. Didn't replace it this year, my bad. Will have two or three next year.

Rick

Lemon Drop is an incredible pepper. The flavor is completely addictive. I went through a full pepper shaker of powder in a month.

Chris

Oh, you guys are making my mouth water!
Is Lemon Drop same as Limon Chile (Mariseeds) or Hot Lemon? I have the latter 2, but not Lemon Drop.

I believe the hot lemon and the lemon drop are one and the same if not very close. It's a baccatum.

I bought live Hot Lemon plants from Burpee last season. They hail it as an heirloom variety from Ecuador. It was one of the most prolific peppers I've grown and I literally harvested 100's from one plant in the garden area last year. I grew another in a pot and it didn't do much at all.

However, I over-wintered and planted it in the garden area this season. Before it died, I did harvest quite a few peppers. It seems to do better in the ground and with some shade.

I believe the brutal summer we had here in the Panhandle of Florida may have been too much for it.

I love the lemon drop, we grow them every year and it is always one of the most prolific in the yard. We grow in pots and in the ground and either way, we are swimming in pods.
The powder is excellent and if you think that is lemony, make a sauce with a little white wine vinegar from them and you would think you added lemon juice to the mix.
I think the sauce is my fave way of eating them especially since you can use it as a marinade, mix in vinegar/oil for a lemon vinagrette, or just dip grilled chicken or shrimp into it for a lemony bite.

kendra

ardnek, what amount of vinegar vs peppers do you usually mix?

Thanks!

I never used white wine vinegar yet but have use Rice Vinegar, any big diff?

The Lemon Drop and the Limone are great tasting, prolific, easy to grow and take very well to containers.

I like to have a couple in pots out on the deck where I can step out in the AM and snag a few to dice up in the eggs.

Well worth the effort to grow.

HENDRIK!! yer killing me here! there is a limone pepper now???? I got to wait a whole another year to try those now...

Follow the link, if you like Lemon Drops you'll love these, and they do very well in five gallon pots.

Gives you something to look foreward to this winter.

Here is a link that might be useful: limone

Aji Limón Pepper [Bolivia and Peru]

Botanical name: Capsicum baccatum, var. pendulum

Family: Solanaceae

There is a certain faction in this country, notably in New Mexico, that insists on calling peppers "chiles." This is perhaps influenced by Mexican ways of categorizing peppers, and maybe also by a tad of gringo commercial chauvinism, because the rest of Spanish America does not view peppers in quite this way. South of Panama, peppers are aji (and Chile refers only to a long, narrow country west of Argentina). North of Panama, in Latin American nations like Honduras or Nicaragua, the word chile is not as broad in meaning as it is farther north in Mexico but instead denotes only the hot peppers. So there is no warning at all in aji limón that this little yellow lemon-flavored pod from the western slopes of the Andes mountains is nothing short of an Inca hand grenade. It is a blast of heat and flavor that makes one of the most distinctive salsas in the Western Hemisphere. I am not exaggerating.

The Peruvian original is a sweet but hot yellow salsa that includes mango, generous quantities of aji limón, and mustard. I make my own salsa de aji limón and do not fail to add a little lime basil and desert tarragon. However it is prepared, this fragrant pepper has a rich piquant flavor that matches well with fish, white wines, ceviche (fish marinades), and indeed with any foods that blend nicely with lemon flavors or that themselves have a citrusy taste. Those flavor combinations should be kept in mind when cooking with this pepper. But cooking with aji limón also means wearing gloves, and breathing the cooking fumes can be deadly, so caution is recommended.

We may wonder how it was that the indigenous peoples of the high Andes took pleasure in eating food that was so excruciatingly spicy, but whatever the case aji limón predates the Spanish conquest of Peru and belongs to a species of pepper that has been under cultivation in that region at least since 400 b.c. The speakers of Quechua, the ancient language of the Incas, do not call it aji but rather uchu, a word that adds an additional layer of regional and dialect names for this pepper.

Aji limón is actually one of a triumvirate of baccatum peppers that form the cornerstone of indigenous Peruvian cuisine. It is found in local markets along with a pinkish, orange-yellow pepper called aji amarillo (or aji Cusqueo, meaning "Cuzco pepper") and a long, wrinkly mildly hot green pepper called aji escabeche since this latter pepper is used primarily in ceviche. The amarillo, which is normally sold dried, possesses a rich peach or apricot flavor and losses much of its heat when cooked; the escabeche ripens red and actually acquires a sweet taste that is quite pleasant. Aji limón just gets hotter and more concentrated as it cooks.

All three of these Andean peppers are perennial in their native habitat and can be grown in pots or tubs in North America. They develop woody trunks that can be pruned and shaped into small bushes that are quite ornamental when the fruit is ripening. The aji limón plant, however, is small, rarely growing more than two feet tall, so it is even better adapted to container culture than the others. The plants can be brought indoors to overwinter and can be maintained this way for many years.

The fruit of aji limón is also small, about three inches long, flat, tapered to a point, and somewhat three-sided. The pepper is well named because it ripens to a brilliant, glowing lemon yellow. The pods, which hang in clusters of two or three, come on in such an abundance that the plants are likely to fall over unless they are staked. But one or two plants are plenty for one family because the salsa goes a very long way.

aji amarillo & aji escabeche what do people know about how it grows and looks etc.

some people seem to call this pepper both escabeche and amarillo

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pepper/msg0820450017279.html

Maybe the Aji Amarillo is too slow to ripen.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aji Amarillo discussion on GW

web of hair>>we use quart canning jars and pop the peppers in the jars as they ripen. We fill with vinegar. Basically the jar is as full of peppers as we can get it without overy squishing them in and then we add vineger. We can these in Boiling Water Bath and then after a few months spin the whole concoction up in the food processer. It is a thin sauce but hot, super lemony, and bright yellow.
You can use any vinegar that is 5% acidity and rice wine would be a nice and mellow choice. We have even used regular white vinegar before but it definitly has a stronger vinegar taste in the final product.

kendra

It's also great with just a little tamari or soy sauce.

hendrick, thanks for the great info on the baccatums-wish I knew more about pre-Colombian chile (aji!) history. Is there a good online source?
brookthecook

I'd just do a search on line or contact someone whose a true expert, I'm just a so so amature. :)