Time of the season

A cold bastard of a front blew in from the American Middle West last night bringing with it a number of the usual seasonal associations: get a-rakin' Son, clear the gutters and do any pruning in preparation for snow, time to prepare for the annual deer hunt. But first I gotta bring in the chiles before a real freeze comes. The first real freeze looks likely to be next Wednesday, so I spent part of the morning harvesting.

Last peppers of the year come off the plants

This season's weather was odd; way wetter than usual. Consequently the selection of peppers is going to be different from previous years. Typically I would have a lot of long, slender, cayenne-type peppers, lots of little Bolivian Rainbow peppers and a bunch of Habaneros. The purple peppers came through, but there were very few Takanatsumes and only four, count 'em FOUR Habanero peppers.

Mutant Trinidad Moruga Scorpion peppers

What did produce well, for the first time ever, were some chiles that were sold as Trinidad Moruga Scorpions. They're not actually pure Morugas though; they were from seeds saved from the 2017 season and look more like Ghost peppers. They're certainly blisteringly hot, but they don't seem to be that much hotter than Habaneros. One chile will light up a chili con carne. Whatever the case, this year's picante sauce will be made from either Bolivian Rainbows, bastard Morugas or a blend of both.

Saucy Sandy

Picante Ground Zero

The chile pepper harvest has been accelerated this year by Hurricane Sandy. I usually wait until just a bit later in the year to take the last fruits — usually on the evening before the first real freeze of the season I find myself out picking the last of the green peppers with frozen fingers and steamy breath — but this year I was assured by the National Weather Service that the end was nigh; that Sandy’s fury would descend with darkened skies and howling winds and we would be lucky to survive the deluge even in our snug little brick house; so what chance could my poor tropical capsicum plants have out in the open? Consequently, in an uncharacteristic display of good sense, I harvested peppers before Sandy had a chance to gobble them up.

Habaneros - Yucatan green

So this year there will be lots more green sauce than usual. That should be a nice change from the sweeter sauce I’m used to focusing on. The green keeps that spicy vegetal character, the spicy bell pepper quality. So as we hunkered down over the last two days to wait for the end of the world, at least I had the warming company of some delightful Yucatan sunshine to see me through. I got through a couple of dozen 5 ounce bottles yesterday and hope to put by another couple of dozen in the next few days. Then there’s just labeling, packing and world-wide distribution.