Piquanté Pepper harvest and giveaway

It's been a hectic couple of weeks here.  Firstly, last week / weekend was the end of our company's financial year.  That, for me as "the one who does the (basic) books", is pressure in itself.  All info the be captured, all the figures I need to prepare for the accountant, reconciling bank accounts, etc...

Secondly, I decided to upgrade our 6 - 8 year old laptop and PC into a single new laptop - and one that only uses 35 watts / hour :)  Compared to 65 watts on the old laptop and 90 watts on the PC - that's a lot of power available to use for other appliances.  And, will save a whole whack of time - as the laptop used less power I was using it downstairs for day to day dealings, and then having to re-capture everything I had done on the PC programme upstairs.  RSon was a great help with that - he patiently advised me on various models (I am very fussy - especially when it comes to a large purchase - I need to know I am getting what I pay for and that it will suit it's purpose for years to come), brought the new laptop here, and sorted out all the software installations it required (anti-virus, picture viewing / editing, etc...)  The PC will be kept in case the new laptop ever goes down, and the old laptop - well it has a new owner :)

Thirdly, I decided to upgrade the accounting software we use from a 2006 version to a 2015 version.  THAT has taken me more than a week to sort out as templates, legislative changes, etc are tedious, one-at-a-time adjustments.  New software looks different / handles different aspects, and, like walking into an unknown shop, takes time to familiarise oneself with.  But, I made it and all seems to be running smoothly :D

Whilst RSon was busy tweaking the new machine to my requirements and downloading the relevant software that was required, last weekend I harvested the first batch of piquanté peppers for this season. Bearing in mind that this is approximately 1/3 of the fruit on the bushes, I garnered a whopping 2.075kgs!!

The piquanté pepper bushes are bending over 
they are so laden with peppers

The bushes in the pic above are from last year - they survived the winter and produced plenty of fruit this year - so much so that the poor stems were bending over, and, in some instances, touching the ground.

On harvesting the fruit I noticed something strange.  Last year one of my piquanté pepper bushes produced no fruit whatsoever.  It was on it's own on the side of the shadecloth veggie patch.  I had planted two of them there, but one plant died.

Large pendulous fruit hanging from the
single bush

Thinking that it needed like species company, at the beginning of last summer I almost transplanted it next to the others.

Single bush fruit on the left,
fruit from the row of bushes on the right.
Notice the difference in size?

But, I'm grateful I didn't.

This year it has produced fruit, and that fruit is over triple the size of the fruit from the other bushes.

From the smallest to the largest fruit I harvested.
The middle one is the average size on all the
bushes

Both area's got the same dose of alpaca poo, water,etc.  Perhaps it benefited from the no fruit last year by allowing the roots to get a better spread / grip?  Maybe it like being placed next to my rosemary bush?

 I take this black stripe on the stem as an 

indication that the pepper is ready to harvest

Who knows.

Now - onto the preparation of the piquanté peppers and a word of warning.  The recipe I googled warned that gloves should be worn whilst processing the peppers.  I knew better, and didn't bother.

I used my nails to remove the remainder of
the stem

I used my nails to remove the remains of the stalk...

... and the handle end of a teaspoon to remove the seeds from inside the fruit.

After cleaning them out and putting the peppers into salt water for their overnight soak, I noticed that my fingers were tingling.  Slightly.  That tingle got progressively worse, especially under my rings.  Washing up the dinner dishes didn't help.  Neither did applying hand cream.  The only remedy I found that worked was shoving my hands into milk.

By the way - if ever anyone gets a "closed" burn (the skin isn't broken) the best home remedy I have found is to put the injured part into a suitable sized container full of cold milk straight out of the fridge.  This not only relieves the pain, but ensures that there will not be a blister.

Thankfully, I used the handle end of a teaspoon
to remove the seeds

The next morning there was still hot capsicum baccatum residue on my fingers - ask my eyes, they were the ones that discovered it...lol

But, after processing, four jars of piquanté peppers were filled to the brim - even squashed in.  I had to squash them in because I had no more clean, vacuum sealable jars.

One jar was given to RSon, and the other three are in the pantry.


Piquanté Pepper recipe:

The recipe I tweaked to preserve my piquanté peppers is as follows: (adjust as necessary according to how many peppers you harvest)
500 - 750gms piquanté peppers
60 gms coarse salt
600ml water

Rinse the newly harvested peppers.  Remove the stalk and the inner seeds.

Fill a stainless steel container with the 60 gms of coarse salt which has been dissolved int the 600gms of cold water.  Add the prepared peppers - submerging them beneath the water and keep them submerge with the aid of a lid / plate / plastic bag filled with water.  Leave them submerged overnight.

The next morning, rinse the peppers well, and leave to drain in a colander (shake the colander to remove as much water as possible from inside the peppers).

Then, firstly, I placed the glass jars and their lids into a pot of water and brought them to the boil - and allowed them to boil for 15 minutes.  Leaving them in the boiling water, and whilst the peppers were draining in the colander :

To a stainless steel pot I added :

375ml white grape vinegar (I used 1.25 ltrs for 2 075 kgs of piquanté peppers)
Add a hefty chunk of freshly peeled ginger which has been cut into thin-ish slices (round or matchstick shapes - your choice)
Pickling spice to your requirements (I used 5 tablespoons to 2.075 kgs of piquanté peppers)
Dried or fresh garlic as required (I used 2 tablespoons of dried garlic flakes to 2.075 kgs of piquanté peppers)

Allow the vinegar and spices to come to a rolling boil.  Add the peppers and bring back to the boil for 1 minute.

Then place the peppers into your prepared warm jars, add as much liquid as necessary to cover the peppers, clear the rim of the jar and tighten the lid.

As an extra precaution, I then placed the sealed jars in a pot of boiling water and allowed them to "cook" for 30 minutes.  On removing them from the water, I made sure the lids were good and tight, and left them to cool on the kitchen counter.


RSon has already opened his jar.  He says they are brilliant, and go wonderfully on a toasted chicken and onion sandwich.  I reckon I'm going to try :

  putting them under the (breast) skin of a chicken before roasting;
  slicing them, and adding some feta, stuff a chicken breast with them
  before frying / baking;
  adding them to chicken gravy;
  stuffing with cottage / cream cheese, etc


And, what happened to the seeds that were harvested during the processing of the piquanté peppers?

They are going to be given away :)

So - this is not only a piquanté pepper posting but it is also a giveaway.  And it's open world-wide.

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But, it's going to be a fun giveaway - a pay it forward giveaway.  A 1-in-8 opportunity of getting some piquanté pepper seeds. 

The way it will (hopefully) work is this:

Piquanté pepper seeds harvested last weekend

I am offering 200 piquanté pepper seeds to anyone who follows this blog and who leaves a comment.  (New followers entries will be allowed :) )

All the comments will be numbered as they occur and written on a piece of paper.  One of those pieces of paper will be randomly chosen by RMan  and that person will be sent all 200 seeds.  They should hold 25 seeds for themselves, and then providing a link back to this blog posting, offer the balance of the seeds on their blog.  The person who wins their giveaway may also withhold 25 seeds before offering the balance on their blog - again linking back to this posting - and so on until the last 25 seeds arrive at their destination.

To all the winner(s) wherever you are - please - make this giveaway open to worldwide readers of your blog.  The cost of postage on one envelope won't break the bank...

To anyone who scores from this giveaway all I ask is that you please leave a comment on this post - it will be fascinating to see where these seeds travel to around the world.

All followers comments posted before midnight on Saturday, 21st March 2015 will be entered into the draw.

Please note: I take no responsibility for the seeds, and whoever scores is responsible in ensuring that they are allowed to import the 100% organic seeds I am offering.