The Garden Is Finally Done

With some pretty cold weather predicted, I harvested the remainder of my peppers and I'm glad the garden is done for the year but I had a banner year for peppers.  In addition to the shots below, we ate all we wanted and I probably gave away 10 plastic supermarket bags full.  This shot was from my post for early August which was from those that set on in the spring.

Then last week, I posted these shots.

And finally this week, I got the last harvest and still left a lot of little ones on the plants.  These are sweet on the left, various chiles in the center, and pasilla chilles on the right.

I'd never grown these before, but notice many recipes use pasilla peppers and while looking around at a plant sale this spring, I decided to try one of theirs.  They languished around the garden with odd shaped leaves, like a mutants, with no blooms or peppers, then mid summer, they took off.  In doing a little research, it seems the pasilla is really the dried version of a chilaca pepper, just as the ancho is a dried poblano.  My understanding is they ripen to brown and a few of them had started, but most were green - not sure how they will turn out, but I dried them and will see what happens.

For the chiles, I roasted, peeled, and froze them whole providing the option of stuffing for rellenos or other dishes.  Here are some of the anaheims roasting and frozen - the poblanos were already bagged.

I'm sure it would be much easier to go buy canned or fresh chiles for roasting at time of need, but there's just something special about growing and preserving my own.  Since we plan to travel rather than garden next summer, we are putting up more than normal this year - the frozen peppers will easily last two seasons if vacuum sealed. 

This is the last of the sweet peppers headed for the freezer.
 

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: A Little Touch Of NOLA At Almost Heaven South

Two years ago:  It’s Fall And Time For A Fire At The Lake

Larry