They're very old trees that are used to a long dry summer, and don't seem to be fazed by the heat. The peach tree on the other hand definitely didn't like the heat dome.
jeff
I can kind of get that, but to me onions are a sine qua non, and the same with fresh peppers (you pick the kind you want to use).
I think we could be pepper friends
(In reverse) Lightly toasting the cinnamon quills in a dry pan, though it takes a while, let them cool a bit and they grind better and the flavour mellows a bit. Yes, I always toast whole cumin seeds etc then grind it all together. Toasting the oregano makes, to me, a big difference, it's a whole different flavour (though my dried oregano was Greek, which has a slightly different profile from Mexican oregano). I usually have whole allspice berries (aka piment de jamaique) lying around but happen to be out right now, else there would have been a few in the spice mixture. I just happened to have a bunch of guajillos and anchos around, if I had had some pasillas or my usual home-grown New Mexicos they would have featured prominently. I usually have some arbols around, and would have used some dried Indian red chilis, but I wanted to keep the heat level low, especially since my roasted tomatillo salsa was a bit spicy (though it mellowed a bit after a couple of days in the fridge).
Although I am in Halifax for now (at least until sometime next month) the chilis I used were purchased at "Sabor Latino (St Hubert)" in Montreal. I left a lot of those spices in Montreal because I thought (in May 2020) I was leaving for a couple of months. I particularly likde being able to buy big, dried branches of epazote with leaves attached. (Fun fact: a few years ago in the late spring I was at a Canadian Tire in Halifax and stopped to look at their assortment of herb seedlings, and they had a few epazote plants. I bought one and planted it in a pot on my deck. The fresh leaves smelled like gasoline when crushed (with a hint of acetone), and no bugs or slugs would come near it, but a few of those leaves simmered with your red or black beans adds an indescribable flavour. I have never seen epazote seedlings before or since.)
This reminds me of an essay in Gray's Sporting Journal some years ago, by their "Campfire Cooking" columnist A. D. Livingstone. He discussed chili con carne, its roots and development. He presented a series of recipes starting with "simple but authentic" and moving up to "ridiculously complex", but the first one just said:
In a large pot put a couple of pounds of cut-up meat, preferably venison, preferably with bones, and add salt, a handful of crushed dried chili peppers, and water to cover, Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer until the meat is tender and falling off the bones.
I always liked that "recipe" because it cuts to the heart of what "chile con carne" is supposed to be.
huh, I always assumed "chili" just evolved from chili colorado. They are so similar. Fresh epazote is readily available here but I have never seen seedlings. I do put a bit in black beans but not pinto. It is definitely not something you would smell and think "I'm gonna put that in my food" works great with the beans though.
Chili con carne. The name kinda gives it away
My chili crop isn't as good as previous years due to the odd summer weather and an accident on a windy day snapping a couple, but the fruits we have are superbly flavoursome. Nothing too hot (just below a scotch bonnet on the scale) but suits the cooking we do. Won't have enough to dry so will double the plants next year.
I have no answer, but it is my belief that the productivity of plants is more related to the previous year than the current year. Things tend to go in cycles. Of course an event like an unexpected frost or a hail storm can damage a crop, but outside of that, assuming "normal" growing conditions, plants are unlikely to predict the future but are likely to respond to the recent past. A bad year or a tough winter can cause plants to produce more fruit to compensate, whereas a bountiful last year might prompt a tree to kind of take a year off.
Some years spruce trees produce so much pollen that you see yellow clouds blowing around and everything is coated in yellow dust. People would say "when that happens it means a bad winter coming" and I would say "I think it has more to do with the last 2 winters, if anything".
Our raspberry plants produced almost nothing this year, but they grew like crazy and I assume next year will be a good crop from those huge, new, vigorous plants.
I camped at a friends this weekend. We spent all day Saturday picking apples, de-coring them, cutting them into slices, pureeing them, crushing them and extracting the juice.
Six of us processed what we think was 150 gallons of apples to produce over 32 gallons of cider.
My take is fermenting in the basement.
I can assure you that 5 gallons of juice is a lot of work.
My friend told me that everyone he knows who has apple trees sees alternating years for good yields. Every other year is good. In between he gets a much worse yield.
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I know it's behind a paywall (pm me if you'd like a PDF) -- "Eleven Madison Park" went full veggie a few years ago. It got a horrible review in the NYTimes
Eleven Madison Park Explores the Plant Kingdom’s Uncanny Valley - The New York Times
Just a snippet:
They used to do a similar beet act at Agern, a New Nordic restaurant in Grand Central Terminal, roasting it inside a crust of salt and vegetable ash. That beet tasted like a beet, but more so. The one at Eleven Madison Park tastes like Lemon Pledge and smells like a burning joint.
and
Time and again, delicate flavors are hijacked by some harsh, unseen ingredient. Marinated wedges of heirloom tomatoes have a pumped-up, distorted flavor, like tomatoes run through a wah-wah pedal. Rice porridge under crisp, pale-green stems of celtuce has a tangy, sharp undertone that another restaurant might get from a grating of aged pecorino. A tartare of minced cucumbers, honeydew melon and smoked daikon is suffused with an acrid intensity.
Eleven Madison Park Explores the Plant Kingdom’s Uncanny Valley - The New York Times
Just a snippet:
They used to do a similar beet act at Agern, a New Nordic restaurant in Grand Central Terminal, roasting it inside a crust of salt and vegetable ash. That beet tasted like a beet, but more so. The one at Eleven Madison Park tastes like Lemon Pledge and smells like a burning joint.
and
Time and again, delicate flavors are hijacked by some harsh, unseen ingredient. Marinated wedges of heirloom tomatoes have a pumped-up, distorted flavor, like tomatoes run through a wah-wah pedal. Rice porridge under crisp, pale-green stems of celtuce has a tangy, sharp undertone that another restaurant might get from a grating of aged pecorino. A tartare of minced cucumbers, honeydew melon and smoked daikon is suffused with an acrid intensity.
Popcorn Soup with dinner.
Broth made from corn cobs; added to a soup base which also includes roasted corn kernels, mirepoix, garlic, dairy, popcorn, and so on. Pulverized in a blender, strained, blended again, then strained again.
Garnish is a few popped kernels of Hoosier Hill Farms popping corn. By far the best we've ever tried. (purchased from Aword dot com)
Quite good actually. Re-creating a taste memory from the fine dining restaurant at the Four Seasons hotel in Seattle.
_
Broth made from corn cobs; added to a soup base which also includes roasted corn kernels, mirepoix, garlic, dairy, popcorn, and so on. Pulverized in a blender, strained, blended again, then strained again.
Garnish is a few popped kernels of Hoosier Hill Farms popping corn. By far the best we've ever tried. (purchased from Aword dot com)
Quite good actually. Re-creating a taste memory from the fine dining restaurant at the Four Seasons hotel in Seattle.
_
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When we make certain dishes we put a kids portion aside and then bung in chilis for ours. This evening I was sent out to harvest a few and Memsahib chopped them and put them in the adults pan and then went to have a shower. Pro tip. Never shower after chopping chilis. Luckily only got in her eyes and I have a big bottle of saline for optical emergencies.
Japanese chicken Katsu tonight; I'm not sure but I think it's called "tonkatsu" when the meat is pork; katsu for all other possibilities. You've had it in restaurant Bento Boxes, now cook it at home.
The Easiest Homemade Chicken Katsu - YouTube
Quite delightful and the miso marinade was a great addition.
The Easiest Homemade Chicken Katsu - YouTube
Quite delightful and the miso marinade was a great addition.
Back when we were making hot sauce in large quantities for sale it involved the whole family and friends working basically for fun and free sauce, anyway one year we had a bumper crop of red cherry peppers (they produce some awesome sauce) I’m talking 1200 plants that had a perfect growing year……yielded somewhere around 40 bushels!
Needless to say we were some busy that weekend……..still wasn’t able to finish stemming and seeding by Sunday evening.
so our youngest boy was around 10 or 11 years old at the time and he of course was wearing the same heavy butyl rubber industrial gloves as everyone (those tight ones similar to kitchen gloves.) He decides he needs to pee, being tired from flogging peppers for two days he decides to forego taking his gloves off……..well, first I hear a little voice spittin out cuss words I’d never thought he knew never mind use! Then it graduated to a distressing wail so I went to investigate finding him up on a step stool at the bathroom sink splashing cold water on his junk still cussing and crying at the same time……I asked him what the heck and got a ‘I didn’t take off the mother f’n gloves’
I just about busted a seem laughing as he cried out ‘it ain’t f’n funny!’
I thought for a minute and got him a jug of milk to rinse with seeing as that usually helps when you eat something too hot……didn’t really do much!
it was so bad he had to stay home from school the next day, his mamma is a ER nurse, she decided it wasn’t worthy of doctor visit.
Poor little son of gun suffered for days……. he never touched another hot pepper for years!
moral of the story?……… there’s only one kinda glove belongs down there!
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