One treasure I found at this week’s market were the gorgeous chiles you see in the above photo — all of them hot. The farmer was selling them for a dollar a handful, which was a bargain for two reasons — neighboring stands were selling them at five for a dollar, but also, this farmer had huge hands, so his “handful” was extremely generous.
As he dropped two huge fistfuls into a bag, I mentioned that I’d be posting a photo of these fiery little beauties on my blog. He promptly added three more handfuls for free, including some chocolate habaneros — just to add more color to the photo. I came home with a whopping full bag of hot chiles, all for two dollars. Purchased at another farmer’s table, the same amount of chiles would have cost me nearly twenty dollars. And if my own chiles had survived the summer, I never would have met the generous farmer with the aesthetic eye.
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What a wonderful man! Now, let's see what you do with all those chilies. Hot mama!
Those are gorgeous! I can't wait to see what you make.
Thanks Carrie and Tami — I actually have no idea what I'm going to do with all these chiles. Any idea?
I'm a zone north of you, and we, and the local farmers, all notived less production (particularly tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants).
Squashes, beans, carrots, snowpeas, greens were robust, but the general concensus is that (a) not enough sun, (b) cooler nights, and (c) some unusual cool days, had a major impact on fruiting. We didn't get a string of “high heat days” with “full sun” that is more characteristic of the season.
Also noted was a distinct absence (or diminishment) of insects, both beneficial and harmful.
Oh well… you can do everything right, and it still doesn't go as well as you'd like.
FYI, Mark
(as to the chiles… tonight I roasted a bunch of veggies (tomatoes, zukes, eggplant, onions, squashes, etc.) sweet and hot chilies (all cut to mouth sizes), with a teriyaki sauce… then, mixed that with hot multi-grain (flaxseed, too!) fettucine… let it steam a bit in pot with cover…
Mouth burning, it's a good buzz, the Chardonney is helping!)