End of season shout out to my jalapeño plant. It was the workhorse of my garden this summer and I hate to see it go. Out of everything I planted this season, this one jalapeño plant outperformed all of them. The pests rarely bothered it; the temperature fluctuations didn’t affect it; it just kept making beautiful peppers all summer long. It’s now November and I am finally saying goodbye to it. But before the bagpipes play, let’s see what this one little plant was able to produce and how to use up all of these peppers!
The photo above is only one harvest. I think I collected 5-6 gallon size bags of peppers over the summer!
My gardening season didn’t have the greatest start this year so most of my veggies were small plants from the local garden center. I put them in my raised garden beds loaded with compost and worm castings, turned on the drip irrigation and let Mother Nature take over. I’m all about stress free gardening so no complaints here!
I did one pinch back on the pepper plant in early summer to keep it from getting too leggy. Then I used this garden stake and a couple of these handy plant clips to keep it under control. I use these stakes and clips in all of my raised beds!
Ginger Tip* Wear rubber gloves and wash hands thoroughly after touching jalapeños.
I added worm castings to the soil when planted and a round of fertilizer 4-4-4 mid-summer and the rest is history.
What do we do with all of these jalapeños ?
Freeze Them!
Freeze some so that you have plenty through the winter. It’s best to wash, trim and remove seeds/ribs before freezing in a ziploc. However, I am usually in a hurry and just rinse and toss the whole pepper in the bag. When it’s time to use them, I do a quick rinse under warm water to soften them just enough to cut and remove the insides. If they completely thaw out, they can be a little too soft. Remember to mark "use by this date" on the baggie! They taste best within 6 months, but can be frozen for up to a year!
Use Fresh in the Following Recipes:
For more soup recipes, check out my post:
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