First Big Pepper Harvest of 2017 Season

Pepper Harvest

While I’ve been able to pick the odd pepper here and there over the past couple of weeks, yesterday I was able to finally get the first big harvest of the 2017 pepper season. It also marks the first time this Summer that I was able to grab more than one or two varieties at one time. So, let’s see what we picked last night after work.

Miscellaneous Peppers

Pepper Harvest

Let’s start off with a group of single peppers that I pulled off plants yesterday. The long one is the Hot Portugal, which I have steadily been enjoying more and more as the season has continued along. It’s combination of cayenne smokiness with a light sweetness has made it a versatile pepper I can enjoy in just about any dish. Also pictured, we see the Caribbean Red (I still have no idea where this plant came from) and a single super chili. The fourth pepper there is what should have been a peach bhut jolokia, but it looks more like a standard ghost except a bit gnarly in shape — a taste test later today will tell me more.

Trinidad Scorpion

Pepper Harvest

These pods come from a plant I purchased in early June from a local nursery. I’m pretty darn excited about these and can’t wait to cut one open and set my mouth on fire.

Scotch Bonnet

Pepper Harvest

When I bought this plant a couple of months ago, the tag shows a picture of red Scotch Bonnets, so you can imagine my surprise as they started to ripen yellow. I’m not at all disappointed and am thrilled to have some more color in the garden. I’m hoping these turn out much better than the duds that my plant produced last season.

Red Habanero

Pepper Harvest

The biggest haul of the day also happened to come from the smallest plant. This little guy is maybe a foot tall — on its best day —
but it’s also producing pods like crazy. I harvested ten fruit from it yesterday evening that vary in size from quarter to half dollar in diameter. As fiery as the pods have been from this plant thus far, it’s going to make an excellent choice for drying.

I’ve still got a pile of fruit in various ripening points on my plants, but it’s looking like next week’s harvest may be on the hotter end of the Scoville spectrum as a good number of ghost peppers are sporting rainbow hues as I type this.