Crushed Red Pepper

Hello everyone,

I love spicy food. If you're not sweating, it's not hot enough is my motto.

I have a pepper that I grow from the previous year's seed every year in order to dry and grind them for use on pizza, spaghetti, etc. but I am always looking for others. I wish I could remember what the name of the pepper that i grow is, but I lost the little stake a long time ago.

So, are there any other chili heads out there, and if so, what variety serves you best for your 'heat fix'? I am growing a ghost chili pepper this year, but I am not sure I will have the will to try it.

Thanks in advance,
Jeff

I add lots of "Texas Pete" to my scrambled eggs each morning - does that count?

Jeff, I've talked about my Maui Purple Peppers on here before - but I think you'd really like those.

Back in the 90's, maybe 12 or 13 years ago now, I bought a pack of seeds from a lady on Maui, Hawaii. She said Maui Purple Peppers are a native plant there, and since it never freezes she has a hedge of them in her yard.

I grew several plants in my garden that year, and they were just great. They're a pretty plant - deep green leaves with purple highlights, purple blooms, and little 1 1/2" elongated peppers that turn from green to purple to red. They're hotter than all get-out, and they have a real good flavor.

In the fall of that first season I was taking my garden out, and I dug up the best looking M.P.P. plant, transplanted it into a pot, and brought it inside for the winter. It thrived, and we had fresh hot peppers all winter long. I've kept those peppers going in the pot ever since - by a south-facing window in my office in the winter and on our deck outside in the warm months.

Individual plants in the pot seem to live 2 or 3 years, but they re-seed themselves from peppers they drop on the soil. They like to be crowded - there are about 9 plants growing in that 4-gallon pot now, and I've got a cut-off small wire tomato cage stuck in it to keep them upright.

In this picture I just took, they're looking a little rough because they've been battered by thunderstorms and high winds for days (yes, we're near Joplin, Mo.). You can see that the bottom is full of rain water, but they like it. They're very hardy, for peppers.

These have usable peppers on them ALL the time, year-round, so they're the only hot pepper we grow. My wife uses them in all kinds of dishes, they dry up and crush into powder real well, and I've found that 9 of these little peppers are just right to put the "heat" in 1/2 gallon of garden salsa. Good flavor, forehead sweating, nose running, need a glass of ice water nearby - JUST right!

I've got plenty of seeds. If anyone here wants some, send a S.A.S.E. with Maui Purple Pepper written on it (or just M.P.P.) to:

Sam Wammack
P. O. Box 111
Ozark, Mo. 65721

Honeybee, that is funny. I am more of a Tabasco person myself. If anyone out there likes green bean casserole, try it with some green Tabasco. It will turn like into love! Even my kids put it in and since the green is very mild, it doesn't turn up the heat.

Sam, thanks for the generous offer, I will take you up on it. It is probably too late to get them out this year though. I might just give it a try. I have plenty of my seeds left over as well if you'd like to fire it up a little.

Thanks again to everyone that responded. I love this place. Money very well spent!

Jeff

Bhut Jolokias (ghost pepper) are very hot indeed, but I've been buying smoked jolokia powder at a local chili shop and find it's great sprinkled on whatever I need to spice up. A little dab will do ya'.

As far as "crushed red pepper" goes I'll crush up about anything I grow for later use but Cayenne types are easy to grow and generally produce a lot of peppers per plant. It's hot enough for most people but your mileage may vary. The piquin types are often crushed as well, and generally pretty spicy. Chiltepin is awesome too.

I should point out I'm a little on the stupid side when it comes to eating hot peppers so it might help if you described your tolerance for heat. (i.e., "I eat fresh Jalapenos all the time", "Habaneros tastes like candy to me", "Bell peppers make me cry" etc.)

We've quit using dried crushed peppers entirely since I've had the pot of Maui Purple Peppers growing. I crushed some of the dried ones into powder and put it in a shaker, but we never get around to using it. Indoors or outdoors, winter or summer, those plants always have a lot of very-hot flavorful peppers on them - green, purple, and red.

Dried = good. Fresh = better.

"Dried = good. Fresh = better."

"and I've found that 9 of these little peppers are just right to put the "heat" in 1/2 gallon of garden salsa."

You're killing me Sam/Ozark. Sounds like these would go great in your cucumber salsa recipe you once shared (which I made and loved!)

Shoe

"Sounds like these would go great in your cucumber salsa recipe you once shared"
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Oh, yeah - they did. Maui Purple Peppers are what I use to put "heat" in every dish that needs it.

Hey, in spite of all the rain and thunderstorms those Northeast Pole Beans are doing great. They've only been planted about two weeks and they're already starting to climb. I made one small planting of those early, just along an 8' cattle panel. I'll do another planting of the same size in a few weeks to space the harvest out. I'm also spacing out some small plantings of Provider Bush Beans, a favorite of mine.

Provider has dark brown seeds and Northeast is white, so we'll sure know which beans we're eating. lol

Good to hear those pole beans are up and going. They climb early and produce earlier than any pole I've grown. You'll know them from the Provider from their shape (and climbing habit!) as they are a flat-type Italian/Romano shaped pod (with Provider being more snap-beanish, round).
I think you'll like the taste as well as the early harvest.

Rain has stopped so back out to finish loading for mkt.

Happy Weekend to All!
shoe

Thanks again for all of the replies. Sounds like I need to send Sam a SASE to get me some Maui Purple Peppers!

Jeff

Other varieties I've grown that do well in containers (you'll need them indoors if it gets much below 50 degrees where you live) are NuMex Centennial, NuMex Twilight, Black Prince, Bolivian Rainbow, and Thai Hot. Any pepper will grow in a container but these varieties are small bushy plants, around 12" to 18" tall. There's a picture of my Twilight somewhere in the plant files here. It's a small plant with small peppers but very productive (100+ peppers on a 12" plant) and they were "hot enough".

Out of curiosity... is there any benefit to pinching blooms when pepper seedlings are still smallish? I have some Yellow Hungarian Wax and Cayenne that are in bloom and the plants are only about 8 inches high. Will I get a higher productivity rate if I pinch early blossoms? Our family can't get enough peppers, but we're new to gardening. Last year was our first year so we still have a lot to learn :)

Sam, if that is your pepper plant "looking rough" I would love to see it when it looks good. :-) It is beautiful. SASE on the way.

Mindy in Tucson

"Out of curiosity... is there any benefit to pinching blooms when pepper seedlings are still smallish?"

oyye-vey, yep. I'm of the mindset that pinching the flowers when plants are that small helps a great deal. When your plants are on the small side at plant-out time you want them to put their energy into growing roots and top growth. If you allow the flowering to kick it, the reproductive stage, energy goes there instead of to producing a bigger plant and in the long run more flowers. You'll also want a plant that is big enough and sturdy enough to support your fruit. Hope this helps.

Sam...what Mindy said, that's a beautiful pepper plant you have there. It reminds me of ones I grew that originated in Guam. Do you know if that would be the source of your seeds?

Shoe

Shoe,
Thanks for the info on pinching the blooms. I'll have to go out and do that tomorrow. We have a ton of cayenne and Hungarian wax blossoms already. Random question not related to peppers, but more to pinching blooms. I have some very young cucumbers... the plants are maybe 12 inches in height that already have tons of blooms. Do I pinch those as well? I just am too inexperienced with pickling cucumbers! :)
Thanks again,
Alison

"Sam...what Mindy said, that's a beautiful pepper plant you have there. It reminds me of ones I grew that originated in Guam. Do you know if that would be the source of your seeds?"
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Shoe - The lady I got the seeds from said the Maui Purple Pepper is native to Maui, and I think I read that somewhere later also. Maybe it's also native to Guam, or there's a similar pepper there, or someone brought MPP's to Guam and they thrived? I don't know.

I don't have ripe tomatoes yet so I found a recipe online and brought Mango Salsa to a poker game a couple of days ago. It's the same as my regular Pico de Gallo Salsa but with mangoes substituted for ripe tomatoes (I just smooshed them in a blender and cut up the onions, green onions, sweet peppers, hot peppers, and cilantro). GOOD stuff!

Oz,
Costco sells mango salsa and I buy them!! It is good as a side entree to fish and meats. My mouth is watering, Love them!! LOL!!! Bellie

Thanks, Sam. It slipped by me the peppers were called "Maui". (Duhh, I my part, eh?) :>) And now that I think about it I don't recall my peppers from Guam ever turning purple, just staying at the red stage.

oyye_vey, regarding cukes, if the plants are small I pinch those flowers, too. There shouldn't be too many flowers if your plant is only 12" tall, unless you are growing Little Leaf, which produces flowers at nearly every node. If so, feel free to pinch those off, too, as that variety will flower profusely and pretty much non-stop.

What I like to do is let your cuke plant get up in size a bit (a foot or so) then when you see the first tiny cuke appear let the vine grow another node or two then pinch off at the second joint after the little cuke. This will cause the vine to divide, growing two more vines. Let each new vine grow until it produces a tiny cuke, repeat the same process, causing two more splits, etc. You'll get plenty of cukes off one plant this way. And I highly recommend trellising them. When my camera battery is charged up I'll try to take some pics today.

Shoe (not looking forward to 98* temps today...)

Shoe,
I looked up some pictures to see what you were talking about and then went out and pinched all my blossoms and then pinched off the new node so that it will divide. I probably had 5-6 little cucumbers per plant already that were less than an inch long, but I just pinched them off. I also pinched the blooms off the peppers. I even had some blooms forming on my teensy weensy jalapenos that I started from seed so I pinched them too. Thanks so much for all the advice, I'll have to take some pictures tomorrow when the weather cools. I got my watering done and was already sweating at 9am. Bleh. Our heat indexes are 97-102 today. The heat was the main reason we moved north away from Texas. Anyway, thanks again!!
Alison