Dehydrating the peppers
Hi dere and welcome to da kitchen, eh!
I decided finally to pick all of my peppers today. It was the first non wet day we've had this week, and the weather forecast is calling for below freezing temperatures here tonight, so I figured that I'd better get them picked if I wanted to be able to use them. The plants were showing signs of having been frosted a bit already, probably from the past couple of days. Interestingly enough, the pole beans were still alive this afternoon, they might not be after tonight.
I had 4 pepper plants that had peppers on them, I picked all but a couple of bad ones, and a few that were too small. Since the pepper plants are all in containers, I put 2 of the plants in the greenhouse to see how long I can keep them alive.
Here's all the peppers I picked. They're not Peter Piper's pickled peppers, but they're still pretty pleasant.
All but 3 of these are sweet yellow banana peppers. They turn red if you leave them on the plant long enough. It's interesting that when they turn red, they acquire a bit of a smoky taste.
I started by cutting the peppers and cleaning out the seeds first.
I sliced them up and put the pieces in the dehydrator trays.
I ended up with 5 trays full of pepper pieces procured from the pile.
I've had this Ronco dehydrator for 3 or 4 years now. It was given to me by a neighbor who didn't use it anymore and thought that I could use it. Then last year, I was given another one, so now I have 2 to use. They work well for apple slices as well. I've dried a few other things in them, but I mostly just use them for peppers and apples.
It should take about 3 days in the dehydrator to dry them out enough to be able to store them in a mason jar. They'll shrink up quite a bit, so they won't take up as much space as you might think from looking at them now. I still have some leftover dried peppers from last year, I had more peppers to dry last year so I didn't feel the need to have as many plants this year.
Well, that's it for this post, I hope you found it interesting.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my post, eh!
As always, feel free to leave a comment or a question if you'd like.
And remember, keep on steeming on!
Good call on getting them picked. Getting hit with the same weather and temps here. I hope they do well in the greenhouse.
I don't really expect them to live too much longer, even in the greenhouse. I don't heat it due to the cost, so once the temperature starts staying colder, they'll freeze. I might get another month out of them, maybe enough time for a couple of the little peppers to get bigger.
Even an additional month is worth it - just to have something growing to 'tend' when it's cold out. It makes winter seem a tad bit shorter. Hope you get a few more!
i love home gardening is one of the best ways to get fresh food for yourself
Gotta love growing peppers! Nice job. We love dehydrating.
In México, dehydrated chiles are very common, because we are always preparing spicy sauces for any meal. You can even get them in the small shops. but I imagine there will be places in the world where they are not so easy to get.
Thanks for sharing
regards
Have you tried turning them into flakes or do you always use them in their current dry state? We don't use a lot of peppers and mainly as flakes/powder in soups and stews and I'm wondering if a single, well-producing plant could cover our needs.
I use them pretty much the way they come out of the dehydrator, except I break up the pieces a bit. I mostly use them in my crockpot cooking.
These peppers look so vibrant in colors. I am guessing you are also a photography fan (correct me if I am wrong).
Ohhh i love peppers
Good blog. Informative and interesting. Thank you
