This was the year of peppers for my garden. I'm not quite sure why I kept planting them, but I ended up with 10 different varieties - sweet bell, banana, jalapeno, chilies, etc. Early in the summer, I had grand plans of making mango salsa with all the different varieties of bell peppers, but as the peppers grew ...
alarming things started to happen. Look closely at the photos -- see it, the peppers crossbred -- basically, I ended up with multiple varieties growing from the same plant. I still didn't think it would be so bad; they'd still taste like the variety they resembled, right? WRONG! After sampling one that looked like a bell pepper but had the heat of a jalapeno, I figured that trying any of them would be a gamble. So, I started looking for ways to use them where not knowing the hotness would matter.
My brother (who has dealt with this same problem) suggested making pepper cornbread to feed to someone as a joke. I did consider it, but my friend Lis had a better idea. Yup, pepper jelly.
So, I spent my afternoon working with peppers and ended up with 28 beautiful jars of pepper jelly that ended up just hot enough to make your lips tingle but not run screaming in agony. I decided to leave chopped bits of pepper in for interest ... this isn't the best photo, but trust me, it's gorgeous!
Very impressive! I have never managed to grow any food crop successfully enough to do anything but graze from it. And I still don't know how to can anything. Yes, both of these things will be appearing on my list . . .
ReplyDeleteM gift jar (always taste the gift-jar's contents right away)was just the right combination of sweet/hot! The peppers stayed true-to-color, giving a yule-tide look to the dab of jelly next to the biscuit. Lovely taste, um huh.
ReplyDeleteLis