A Seed Saver's Garden
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heirloomgal
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@Zeedman I'd be happy to send you any of my pepper seeds. I think they'd do great for you. I do find they need to be started a bit earlier than the C. annum's but their health and vigor and productivity make up for that small inconvenience. I have another baccatum (I think that's what it is anyway, it's not an annum) called 'Jasmyn Rissie' - it's fantastic. One of the highest yielding peppers I've ever grown. Very tall, huge pod load.@heirloomgal , your success with C. baccatum peppers is inspiring me to try more of them. But the thing us, now that I am retired, I have no one to give them to.The son-in-law really liked both of the hot pepper crosses which came up this year; but few of my friends & family like hot peppers, other than dried for pepper powder. I miss sharing with all the "fire eaters" at my previous job; I could bring in a bucket of hot peppers - even ghost peppers - and they would all go away. Now I'm mostly just growing them to maintain seed to share. Hot peppers were the last things harvested before the freeze, I literally have a couple pounds right now, of 4 varieties.
Do you like hot pepper jelly? A nice cracker, some cream cheese and a little dab of hot pepper jelly can make anybody happy! I feel like even people who are not crazy about - or even dislike - spiciness enjoy a homemade pepper jelly - the ones from the store are usually pretty ghastly. And you, unlike me, have canning skills!
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Dogs & seeds. 
Having gotten a dog only as a family pet, with no expectations of any kind of work (or even "usefulness" really) from him, it has come as such a welcome surprise to realize that my dog is, in fact, a first rate seed protector. This is not his intention of course, but this is the second time that my dog has alerted me to the present of a mouse that's gotten in the house. In the past, a mouse pair once caused significant damage to my seeds in only a couple days. To the mice's credit, they did help motivate me to improve my seed storage system - to glass jars. But at this time of year all lids are off the 2023 jars as the seeds aren't ready to be sealed up. So the corn, soybeans and peas are all technically up for grabs right now. I saw my dog go into that 'huffing puffing snuffing' mode with lots of snorting and deep chested snuffling yesterday by the fireplace and when I got up to take a look, he jumped right into action digging where the wall and fireplace meet. I knew right then that it was a mouse! Having no cat this is very much appreciated.
This little mouse is bold, and has been seen a bunch of times (not by me though thank goodness) and the traps haven't been set off yet but I'm sure it's just a matter of time now. But this certainly makes me realize why people get purebreds and working dogs. They have such built in functions, no training required. I can see my dog watching my every move now in the living room, just waiting with baited breath, to see if I'll call him and say that magic phrase 'get 'im'. He so badly wants to track down that critter!
Having gotten a dog only as a family pet, with no expectations of any kind of work (or even "usefulness" really) from him, it has come as such a welcome surprise to realize that my dog is, in fact, a first rate seed protector. This is not his intention of course, but this is the second time that my dog has alerted me to the present of a mouse that's gotten in the house. In the past, a mouse pair once caused significant damage to my seeds in only a couple days. To the mice's credit, they did help motivate me to improve my seed storage system - to glass jars. But at this time of year all lids are off the 2023 jars as the seeds aren't ready to be sealed up. So the corn, soybeans and peas are all technically up for grabs right now. I saw my dog go into that 'huffing puffing snuffing' mode with lots of snorting and deep chested snuffling yesterday by the fireplace and when I got up to take a look, he jumped right into action digging where the wall and fireplace meet. I knew right then that it was a mouse! Having no cat this is very much appreciated.
This little mouse is bold, and has been seen a bunch of times (not by me though thank goodness) and the traps haven't been set off yet but I'm sure it's just a matter of time now. But this certainly makes me realize why people get purebreds and working dogs. They have such built in functions, no training required. I can see my dog watching my every move now in the living room, just waiting with baited breath, to see if I'll call him and say that magic phrase 'get 'im'. He so badly wants to track down that critter!
flowerbug
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...
a little hot pepper in peach jam is really good - i also like to add some apple cider vinegar to make it a sweet and sour jam with the kicker.
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heirloomgal
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Sounds delish!...
a little hot pepper in peach jam is really good - i also like to add some apple cider vinegar to make it a sweet and sour jam with the kicker.
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Finally got to processing the garden huckleberries for seed today, after all of us eating as much of them as we possibly could. After some experimentation I found that the best way to have them is cooked with a few apples and a handful of raspberries, and then served with fresh whip cream. Tonight, for our last huckleberry dessert I pureed the compote in the blender. I think it's even better smooth. Now, there's about 4 feet of rolled out parchment across the counter covered in a layer of seeds. That took some time to do! Such a crazy ton of seeds I got from the large bunch I had left. Will definitely be giving some to seed requesters as a little bonus. I now know for the future - ONE plant only. 2 is an avalanche. 
Must now face remainder of hot peppers for deseeding.
Must now face remainder of hot peppers for deseeding.
flowerbug
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it was, i regretted not making more than two jars of it when i did that. i also included some green curry in that and i loved it but i would not do that for most people because they might freak out a bit about the idea of having shrimp paste in a jam...
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You're a fearless eater indeed @flowerbug!
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heirloomgal
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I wanted to see how close I was in estimating how many feet of huckleberry seeds I collected. I don't have the best estimating skills so I measured to see. I also discovered that the 'wicking' effect of paper on seeds has limitations. I covered half of the seeds with more parchment on top, and left the other half bare. The uncovered side was dry this morning, the covered side was still moist. Yes, that rusty measuring tape is from my garden tool box and the reason DH has forbidden me from using his other ones.
I was close!
Made it through the last of the pepper varieties that needed to be deseeded while watching a movie last night. And then I found this today.
Wiri Wiri did not give me much; not sure if it needs to be started earlier, or if the aphids early in the season really set it back. But this is one I'll try again with - I kept one plant. If the aphids are too difficult to deal with, I'll take a cutting. My other cuttings are doing really good - Murupi White and Habanada. I kept one Habanada plant and put it downstairs under lights, but it is so afflicted with aphids now I may need to throw it out before the peppers totally mature. Mysteriously, the cuttings are totally aphid free.
The Capiscum fexuosum barely budged this summer, but it is so different than the other peppers in that it's totally aphid resistant I'm going to overwinter it and see what it does next summer. It's leaves are similar to bay leaves.
Brazilian Starfish - NOT a very seedy pepper. Way more flesh than seeds, totally unlike Wiri Wiri.
Orange Cayennes - I could compose an ode to these things. They are nearly totally dried up as is, and I won't need to de seed any of them.
I was close!
Made it through the last of the pepper varieties that needed to be deseeded while watching a movie last night. And then I found this today.
Wiri Wiri did not give me much; not sure if it needs to be started earlier, or if the aphids early in the season really set it back. But this is one I'll try again with - I kept one plant. If the aphids are too difficult to deal with, I'll take a cutting. My other cuttings are doing really good - Murupi White and Habanada. I kept one Habanada plant and put it downstairs under lights, but it is so afflicted with aphids now I may need to throw it out before the peppers totally mature. Mysteriously, the cuttings are totally aphid free.
The Capiscum fexuosum barely budged this summer, but it is so different than the other peppers in that it's totally aphid resistant I'm going to overwinter it and see what it does next summer. It's leaves are similar to bay leaves.
Brazilian Starfish - NOT a very seedy pepper. Way more flesh than seeds, totally unlike Wiri Wiri.
Orange Cayennes - I could compose an ode to these things. They are nearly totally dried up as is, and I won't need to de seed any of them.
flowerbug
Garden Master
you really don't taste it IMO (and i am a pretty picky eater when it comes down to fishy or strange tastes but for some reason that curry paste did not raise my ick at all - which was a good thing because i bought a rather large tub of it that it took me many years past the expiration date to finish).
