Making a Pepper Seed Wish List

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It's that time of year again when I start seed shopping online. By that time of year I mean any month between January and December. Seed shopping is a bit of an obsession. It takes the form of "what if I do this next year instead of that?"

A friend gave me some fairly hot heirloom peppers that he gets from one of his friends every year. I don't know exactly what they are, but they look like small red jalapenos. I used them to make hot sauce, really great hot sauce, and it spurred my imagination.

I started cruising every online heirloom seed catalog I could find, considering possibilities for making hot sauce next year. Heat is not the issue. Jalapenos are hot enough, I'm not even going to consider habaneros or ghost peppers or anything like that.

I'm thinking about buying tabasco seeds and then I'll use the patented Tabasco process of fermenting and aging the sauce. Or I'll get some serrano seeds and make a nice garlic hot sauce and steep it in the refrigerator for a month or two.

Then there's my salsa. Different peppers add different qualities like fruitiness, sweetness, sharpness, smokiness and citrus quality. Not to mention, I can use different peppers for different levels of heat. Right now I make mild and hot. I could add medium.

Oh, and chile rellenos! I could grow pablanos again, but add Anaheims and green chiles and Big Jims and anchos. We could have lots and lots of chile rellenos.

And of course I have to have bell peppers. I'll grow yolos and keystones again, oh and sunbrights. Maybe I'll try something more exotic like the chocolate or purple or even those white bells. California wonders might be good.

For my hot sauce I used a very simple recipe I found at pepperscale.com. The ingredients are peppers, distilled white vinegar and salt. Did I mention it's really great hot sauce?

I'm not sure I save any money by making my own hot sauce, but it's so satisfying. And growing my own peppers is also a lot of fun.

Oh, hey. Here's a website that has over two hundred different varieties of tomatoes. I could can my own spaghetti sauce!

Stephen P.

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