Archive for August 2010

Sweet peppers have so much value in the kitchen, it’s tough to tally all the ways a good harvest of peppers can be enjoyed.  First of all, peppers are easy to grow, and their plants are neat and compact, taking up little space in the garden for the wealth of fruit they produce.  They’re relatively resistant to pests and disease.

It’s time to pick your peppers when they reach the full size for their variety, based on the maturity date on the seed packet or growing instructions.  Bell peppers should have a glossy surface and deep green or brilliant gold or vibrant red overall color. Some varieties have variegated hues at maturity.  They should feel firm but not hard when squeezed with slight pressure.  Sweet banana peppers are generally ripe when they reach a bright yellow, yellow-green, lime green or red color and yield to slight pressure, as well.

That’s “when” to pick.  And now for the “how” to pick… and how to feast on your harvest.  Peppers sometimes are stubborn, so it’s best to cut them off the plant with clean, sharp shears or a knife.  Leave the stem end attached, to preserve the fruit as long as possible.  Store at room temp, in a slightly cooler root cellar, or in the refrigerator, until ready for use.  They’re at their peak flavor when fresh off the plant.

Sweet peppers are delicious raw, and are colorful and crisp additions to veggie trays, served with hummus, ranch dip or cream cheese fillings.  They can be sliced or diced to mix into tossed salads.  And, they add color and texture when used as garnishes on entrees.

Cooked, bell and banana peppers are a bold flavor enhancer.  They add a full, sweet taste to nearly any recipe.  They can be cut into large or small pieces or long skinny slices.  Tiny diced red peppers add zing to simple cooked corn or green vegetables.   They soften when cooked but can be added early or late in a dish’s preparation, depending on how much crispness or wilting is preferred.

Pickled peppers are a good source of nutrition and a delicious side dish throughout the cold season, when store-bought peppers just don’t satisfy.  Peppers can be preserved in any traditional manner.  Gourmet kitchens are never without roasted bell peppers in jars filled with brine or olive oil and they can be added last-minute to perk up even the most boring dish.  Peppers can also be frozen for use months after the garden has retired for the season.  Just chop and freeze in airtight containers.

The flavors and colors of sweet peppers marry well with onion, garlic, and most other vegetables, meats and spices.  Many traditional American foods, as well as ethnic cuisines, call for sweet peppers, and no garden harvest is complete without them.

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So, you’ve discovered that you have an infestation of bedbugs. That is definitely one of the most unpleasant surprises ever. You might have found them in your home, but the most common places to find them are in University dorms and in hotels, motels or hostels.

Bedbugs are notorious hitchhikers though, so if your high school student goes and spends a “college experience” in the dormitory of the local university that is infested, he or she may very well bring them home. The same holds true of your children going on sleepovers or even hanging out in the home of a friend. In fact, if you live in a multi-family dwelling, they can move from unit to unit along the wires or water pipes, just like cockroaches do. The good news is that they are not known to carry any human pathogens from one person to another or from pets to humans, so you won’t get deathly ill from them. But, the little sores they leave can become infected and the itching can be downright uncomfortable and annoying. Calamine lotion, Campho-Phenique® or other similar solutions may help, but that still leaves the problem of getting rid of the bedbugs.

Your first line of defense, if you can afford it, should be a professional exterminator. They can utilize a fogging type of insecticide that will get into every nook, crack and cranny that a bedbug might choose as its daytime hideaway, though a combination of dusts, sprays and aerosols may be the best option for your particular infestation. Their solutions will also take care of the eggs that have been laid and will be approved for use on bedding, which is the most difficult place to get rid of them.  A thorough inspection of your home should be accomplished and the exterminator should be able to show you the signs of bedbugs and be able to point out to you some live adults. It’s important that you recognize the bugs and know what it looks like if you start to see an infestation again.

If you are unable to afford an exterminator and think that your infestation may be confined to only one small area, like a single bedroom, you can try a number of “home remedies” that have been proven to work, to one degree or another:

• Vacuuming & Cleaning—This will work in the short term, but it’s important to realize that cleaning up will NOT get rid of bedbugs completely. They are not attracted to dirty houses and they are such experts at hiding under baseboards, in the tiniest cracks and nail holes and even behind artwork hung on the wall that no amount of cleaning will get rid of them. Their eggs are hardly even visible, resembling the smallest bits of dust when on a dark surface. Dismantling furniture, scrubbing the undersides and the interior of every drawer, pulling baseboards off the walls and using caulk to seal up every single minute access or hiding spot will probably not be enough to find every single bedbug and eradicate them.
• Steam Cleaning—Extreme heat, anything above 120°F, will kill bedbugs and their eggs, but you must steam clean every single surface. Most steamers will exceed this temperature, but you may want to get a commercial steamer so as to be able to run it for long periods of time and to be able to thoroughly steam all possible accessible areas. There is also a “dry steam” option that has a much lower risk of mold which can be a problem when using wet steam on fabrics, carpeting and carpets. You will also have to be absolutely sure that you have applied steam to every single crack and crevice. If the head of the steamer cannot reach far enough into these areas, the heat may dissipate before it reaches the little suckers and then all your work will have been for nothing. Leave one egg, one nymph or one adult female and you will soon have the same problem that you worked so hard to eliminate.
• Diatomaceous Earth—Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE) is one of the few really effective “all natural home remedies” for killing bedbugs. Consisting of very fine fossil dust, it has really jagged edges that are lethal to the exoskeleton of many insects, to include bedbugs. Fleas and ticks are also on this list, so using DE will not only work on bedbugs, but will rid your home of other biting insects as well. DE can even be used outside of your house in the yard and is completely safe for your family and pets. The jagged edges that kill the bugs are so tiny as to be completely safe when coming into contact with your own, your children’s or pet’s skin. You can sprinkle DE around the floor under and near your bed and along the baseboards. You should also sprinkle it over your mattress, topping it with a mattress cover, and between mattresses and inside the box springs if you can do so. Putting it in all of these places will pretty much guarantee that the bedbugs will cross it and will therefore be rendered deader than a doornail. When treating, make sure to wash your bed linens in hot water to get rid of any “bug signs” and eggs that may have been laid. The hatching nymphs will have one thing on their mind—their first blood feast on your nice warm body. One word of caution—only use Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth. There is another form that is often used in swimming pool filters and is not as safe for your family and pets, especially if inhaled. You also might want to wear one of those simple paper masks to avoid inhaling the Food Grade DE; it is quite fine and easily inhaled and though it won’t harm you, it doesn’t taste that great. Then, after a couple of weeks, vacuum the evidence completely away. If you vacuum in between, reapply the DE so as to make sure to kill those hatching nymphs. Eggs hatch in 10 days so a 2-week treatment should work very well.

Some of the things that are pretty much a total waste of your time will be:

• Leaving stuff out in the heat or in the cold. As stated above, it would have to be over 120°F for an extended period and it would have to be below zero for a week or two in order to freeze them out. That also will do nothing for the little buggers hiding behind baseboards, in nail holes, behind artwork, in electrical outlets or in any other number of interior spaces.
• Mattress Covers or encasements, which completely zip around your mattress, will eventually kill the ones trapped inside, but keep in mind that they can live up to 18 months without feeding. As long as they can’t get out and you don’t mind knowing that they’re in there, it’s a good solution for your mattress.  It will, however, do absolutely nothing for the ones that are hiding elsewhere.
• Lavender oil is a complete waste of your time and money. Though touted as a solution, there is no evidence that it works at all.
• Bleach will also not work. It is toxic when inhaled; it irritates your skin and can damage just about any surface it comes in contact with.

So, the informed agree; short of a professional exterminator, which can be quite costly and may have to treat more than one time, Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth will do the absolute best job. You can even buy a small quantity and take it with you when traveling or include it in your son’s or daughter’s college dorm furnishings.

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All gardeners know that water is the essential ingredient to a successful crop, but water can also be a used as a tool to extend the growing season by as much as 4 months!

Season Starter Plant Protectors are designed to shelter plants against damage from extreme temperatures, allowing some garden plants to go into the ground as many as 6 weeks before the last frost and likewise, to stay in the ground long after the first frosts of fall. Season Starter Plant Protectors are designed like the original Wall O Water but include updated features that make them the ultimate chill repellent.

The Season Starter works miraculously well, considering it doesn’t require much effort or maintenance.  The concept integrates natural laws of physics, and operates like a solar panel for plants.  The lightweight plastic protector is similar to an inflatable pool float, with a row of hollow tubes.  In this case, the Season Starter’s tubes are filled with water.  The empty Season Starter is stood up around the plant with the tubes aligned vertically with their openings on top.  It creates a physical protector around the plant but is transparent, so it allows sunlight in.

Once in place, the tubes are filled with water, so the protector is weighted down and stays put.  The water serves to conserve energy from the heat of the day, then releases it as nighttime temperatures drop.  As the water gets colder, it actually releases heat to the core of the protector, and thus to the plant.

If the water freezes because temps drop below 32 degrees, your plants will still be kept well above freezing, because the water in the tubes turns to ice and then releases even more calories and heat to the center.  The sun’s heat is stored and released like magic, not only keeping the plant warm, but keeping the ground around the plant’s roots from freezing.  Frost can’t even settle on the plant’s leaves, meaning the plant can withstand unseasonal or seasonal dropping daytime and evening temps.

When the fall approaches, you can put Season Starters around any plants that still have produce in the works.  Harvest your late-season vegetables much later than you have ever imagined by buying an extra month or more of growing time.  Season Starters are very affordable, and are available in 3-packs.  They’re lightweight, collapsible, and store flat to take up no space in your garage or shed between seasons.  They’re durable and should last through several garden cycles.

A fall harvest must end at some point, but why not extend your growing season as long as possible, when it’s as easy as using Season Starters and your garden hose?

Posted in Product Reviews | 2 Comments »

I currently have 3 habanero plants growing. I am planning on making and bottling a small amount of hot sauce. My habaneros are approximately 1-inch long, and still green. I have been searching the internet for 2 days now trying to figure out how to harvest them. I know when to harvest, and I know I need to use rubber and not latex gloves. My question is, should I just pull the fruit off of the plant, or should I use scissors to snip them off? I’ve never ever grown anything before, but I’ve found that I love it and next summer I hope to grow a full garden. But I need to know if I should snip them off, or if that will hurt the plant. Thank you very much for your time.
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Sincerely,
Josh F.

Answer: There are many ways to judge when to harvest your hot peppers. The best clues will come from the color of the fruit.  Depending on your variety the mature color could be reds or oranges. Some varieties also develop small stress strips as they reach full size.

 The right time to pick may also depend on what you intend to use the peppers for. If you need them to stay crisp you might choose to pick them before they start to turn red, but habaneros are generally left to ripen to full color for your variety. Try picking at different stages to determine your preferred taste and crispness. If you notice signs of insect damage, pick the fruit before it deteriorates any further.

 Most of the peppers don’t break off easily, so use a pair of clippers or scissors to cut them. We recommend using Wolf-Garten Comfort Anvil clippers, they have a small and large size and help keep your hand from hurting by the time you are done. Do make sure you wear impermeable gloves and wash your hands thoroughly before wiping sweat from your face or rubbing your eyes. Milk is the best cure if you get the oils on your skin or body parts!

 Chilies can be kept refrigerated for up to a week. Leave the stem on and store in a paper bag for the longest period of storage before they start to spoil.

I hope your hot sauce is wonderful!

Karen

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