2014 Chiles

This year I planted Bhut Jolokias, and they are prolific.  The plants are about twice as big as the other Chile plants.  Its kind of a problem because they hog up all the light, and the other Chiles aren't getting enough.

They are also exceptionally hot, about a million Scovilles.  They are about three times as hot as a regular orange Habanero, or twice as hot as a Red Savina Habanero.  I am going to make a sauce with them when I have a larger amount of ripe Bhut Jolokias (Ghost Pepper), but at the moment I only have a few ripe ones.  So I'll dehydrate them so I can use them as a spice, then later rehydrate them when I go to make sauce.

Like I said before the plants are prolific, over six feet tall, and the main stems are like two inches in diameter.  Like other hot Chiles they really didn't start to grow well until the very hottest part of the Summer.  Now they are producing Chiles like crazy.  The Habaneros are behind the Bhut Jolokias, can't even see them.

The Fall brings cooler weather, and less light, and this causes the Chiles to fruit like crazy.  This Serrano Chile is getting overladen with fruit, causing the stems to bend over, and sometimes break.  The red and green Serrano Chiles remind me of Christmas lights.  There have been some years where the Chiles have lasted until Christmas.

There are lots of green Cayenne Chiles right now.  As they turn red I pick them, and put them in the food dehydrator.  The Cayenne Chiles are my main staple Chile that I use in everything.  The Cayenne can be picked green, then let it sit around a while, and it will ripen, and turn red.

Sometimes the Bhut Jolokias are hard to see because they are exactly the same color as the plants.  There are several in this picture.  When they ripen, they turn a bright red color, and stand out.  I am not sure what to do with them at this point, make sauce for sure, but for something like Chili they may be too hot.

Here the Cayenne Chile plants are overladen, and bent over.  As I harvest the Chiles they spring back up.