The Sadistic Pepper Blog

It’s definitely been a while since I last posted on here, and for that I apologize. Between getting a huge promotion at work, and the shift change (I now work 3:30 to midnight) it’s been interesting. The money’s great but it’s of course taken me away from my beloved peppers.

Another major change is coming up. Later this year I will be moving into a house owned by my parents and maintaining it year round for them. It’s a win-win for everyone because they get to keep a house in sunny South Florida by the beach, and I get to live in a rather spacious house by the beach for a majority of the year by myself. And the backyard is extensive enough that I can grow significantly more peppers than I ever could in one room of my humble (read: cramped) apartment. And since my job is effectively a virtual job, I can work from anywhere, so moving up there will not be a problem whatsoever.

As it stands now, I have to wait out my lease since breaking it would cost a pretty penny, and they don’t mind waiting until then. In addition, there are no shortage of Farmer’s Markets in the area where I could sell my spicy wares. Said markets are also open on days/times I don’t work so that works out perfectly.

All that being said though, I decided to put a temporary moratorium on growing any new pepper plants in the interim. Reason being, it’d be a heck of a lot easier to transport seeds than full grown plants, so the couple plants I have right now, I can do without too much trouble, but any more than that would be pushing it. Once I begin moving into the house though, I can get some seedlings started at least, so once I get settled in the, I can hit the ground running and get some of the superior peppers going.

Oh yes and that reminds me… Many special thanks to Judy, Pepper Joe, and everyone else for the awesome seeds sent my way the last few months. I now have in the range of 30 different breeds of peppers seeds, and I’m gonna have a tough time figuring out which to grow first, even with all the space I’ll have at the house. I may just have to do coin flips for a few of them.

The last several weeks, I’ve been “informed” (read: told the error of my ways) that a Deep Water Culture system would be the best bang for my buck in terms of growing these plants indoors. And to be honest, I can definitely see the benefits… no more need for soil, watering & adding fertilizer are made MUCH simpler and easier, and the plants grow like mad! So I’m making plans to get a DWC system to grow my pepper plants.

I’m back yet again, after a hiatus that was partially my fault. I meant to update with stuff, but life just got in the way. That and a recent untimely event affected me pretty badly.

My grandfather, whom I was extremely close to growing up, passed away recently. Even though I knew he wasn’t quite as spry as he once was, even at 93, he was faring better than most would at that age. In fact, a friend of mine swore that even at 93, he looked like he barely cracked 70. I always remembered he and I going for walks to the local corner store to buy He-Man figurines once a week, to the point where I had a collection that was the envy of the neighborhood. We also would talk about any and every subject under the sun. He also went out of his way to encourage me to always be myself, to be my own man, and never let anyone, not even him, tell me any differently. He assumed I was smart enough to think for myself and figure things out on my own, and if I needed help, there was no shame in ASKING for it.

He was also a WWII veteran, and was one of the the only, if not the last, remaining survivors of the Battle of Narvik in Norway. For that, he received special recognition from King Harald V himself. He would always tell me the stories of his exploits, and encouraged me to not only lean about history, but to learn in general, which was the most important lesson of all; never stop learning.

That’s one of the big reasons I decided to start this whole thing, because I wanted to learn, and it was because of him teaching me how to do so that I had the confidence to do so. I can’t thank my grandfather enough for that gift.

OK, I had better stop before I start crying again. In the intervening time, I have had at least some time to develop and test out some more sauces with some friends, and just the other day, I even got myself a dehydrator. Reason being, if I’m going to base everything I do from peppers, it stands to reason that I need to figure out a storage solution that’s not only long-term, but also space saving and economical to boot. And what better way to accomplish all three than by dehydrating the peppers. I already have done a test run on a single pound of peppers that I recently purchased. I got the peppers reduced by 75% in weight, and putting them through a blender, then a coffee grinder further reduced their volume. So now what was originally taking up 5 tupperware tubs in my fridge will now take up barely an inch inside the same tupperware tub. Which is awesome, since that means once my pepper plants begin producing peppers any day now (they’re blooming, hooray!!), I can make more powder.

Lots of things have been happening here in the land of all things Sadistic Peppers!

First of all, I’m proud to report that I’ve begun the initial stage of formally making this pepper venture into an official company. I decided to go the Sole Proprietorship D/B/A route, since any of the other options were just to expensive at the present moment, and some of the things that were offered and/or required of me, would take up too much of my time realistically, given the small (but growing) nature of this venture.

That being said, my pepper plants are growing like crazy, and my trip to Disney World last weekend seems to have done it’s magic. I’ll be sure to post more pictures later! It never fails that whenever I go to Disney World, the plants seem to grow like mad. Maybe it’s that I left the growing lights for 24/7 while I was gone, who knows? All I can say is that they’re right on track for blooming and producing peppers by the end of next month.

And speaking of which, I would be remiss if I didn’t give my thanks to a fellow Chilihead. PepperLover, who has a website of her own (Link), sent me a box of Trinidad Scorpion Morugas and 7Pot Douglah peppers. I used the peppers to make a puree based on a recipe I found from another Chilihead, and wound up making enough for a single 8-ounce jar. I brought it to my weekly Dungeons & Dragons group (yes, yes, I play D&D), and the people brave enough enjoyed the sauce. They said that the heat wasn’t immediate, but true to form for the Morugas, it built to an incredible climax. They said it had a good mix of flavors, and would be outstanding as a base for other stuff.

So today, I took their advice and bottled 18 jars worth of barbecue sauce, using about a tablespoon for every 6 jars. I sampled it, and the heat was intense, but not overwhelming. It was also pretty sweet, courtesy of the organic agave nectar I added to the barbecue sauce. I don’t know what to name it quite yet, but right now, I’m leaning towards naming it Draugr Barbecue Sauce, in honor of the draugr, the zombie of mideval Viking mythology that retains sufficient intelligence to delight in the torment of its victims.

This weekend, I finally got around to repotting my seedlings. Took the better part of the morning, but I got them done, and now I just gotta water them, show ‘em some love and in about 3 months, I should have one helluva good crop. Here’s some pictures:

Growhouses together

Bhut Jolokias

Trinidad Scorpion Butch T’s

Naga Morich

OK, so it would seem that fate has made the decision for me I’ve been agonizing over for the last couple of weeks. The Ghost Pepper plants, specifically the ones that had plenty of flowers, but not a single pepper, were so terribly infested with bugs that they were beginning to die. That, and no amount of insecticide was helping remove these bugs. So I was pretty much forced to toss the plants out, and put out fly traps and tape traps to get what flies and bugs were remaining. Thankfully, the new batch of seedlings I started from seeds that I purchased from the legitimate sites (The Hippy Seed Company and JungleRain), I had sequestered, and look to be bug-free. Still, to be safe, I have a fly trap and tape traps around them to catch whatever flies are left.

That being said, this may be somewhat serendipitous for me. One thing I realized in discovering the bugs was that I may have been somewhat overambitious in doing so many plants. 45 plants was simply too much for me, given the severely limited amount of space I had. So instead of doing that many, I pared it down to 24 plants across 4 breeds of peppers. I went ahead an purchased a couple more indoor growhouses, and in what I can on describe as a delivery speed record, they arrived the day after I ordered them. I got them assembled and put my grow lights atop them. This not only gives me more space to use in my place, it also simultaneously gives the plants much more vertical room to grow. In my previous system, they were limited to just under 2 feet, now they have over 6 feet. Plus, this will allow me more time to care for each plant

OK, so I admit, I haven’t posted at all the last two months, and have no excuse whatsoever for my lack of posts.

That being said, I’d like to start off with some bad news. It would appear I got gypped in the purchase of some of my seeds. I purchased what I thought were some Trinidad Scorpion Butch T seeds, and the plants were growing great until the first couple peppers started to develop. I thought to myself, “Self, those don’t look like Trinidad Scorpions…” Sure enough, several people in the know confirmed that none of the plants were Trinidad Scorpion pepper plants, which was disheartening. I decided against going after the person who sold me the seeds on eBay, who was also on Amazon, and I found out later was masquerading as the person who held the World Record for the hottest peppers in the world.

Also, the other plants I planted, despite growing EXTREMELY well, seem to be sterile. Despite every attempt to fertilize the flowers, I still have no peppers whatsoever. As it stands now, they’re well within (almost on the tail end) of the period where they’re supposed to be producing since I planted these prior to the supposed Butch T’s, which have several peppers already…

I managed to find the person who really did have the World Record, and he was aware of this seller. He was actively trying to get this person shut down, but by virtue of the fact the bogus seller is in the US, and the actual guy holding the record lives in Australia, it’s been an uphill battle. He took pity on me, sent me a total of 60 seeds, 20 from the three hottest varieties he had, which I received the other day. Right now, I’ve got 5 seeds of each type soaking right now in their 24-hour warm water/hydrogen peroxide prep, a technique which has served me well in getting seeds to germinate. I decided against going after the person who sold me all the seeds. Reason being, I was only out a total of $25, and I figured it was far too late to do much, and how much hassle would be worth $25 on my part, so I decided to cut my meager losses and run.

So yeah, that’s the latest and greatest, and I’m hoping that these guys are ones that will grow fast, and produce, since I’d like to get started in selling not only some plants, but all the spicy peppery goodness….

Firstly, humble apologizings for not posting anything in the last month. I’d like to update you all on the latest and greatest going’s on in Sadistic Pepper Land.

For starters, I ended up having a ton of seedlings sprout up. The bad news was, due to space limitations, I had to decide on the best 30 peppers, 15 of each Trinidad Scorpion and 15 Ghost Peppers, for transplanting into pots. That being said, however, I’m proud to say that all 30 are growing happy and healthy. Before I know it, I’ll probably have an entry concerning how I now have way too many peppers, and I don’t know what to do with them all.

In addition, I managed to finagle around my area, such that I have space for 15 more peppers, and decided on planting the Morouga Scorpion seeds I got not too long ago. Just to refresh everyone’s memory, the Morouga Scorpion is the current Guinness World Record holder for spiciest pepper on the planet. I managed to acquire said seeds from the very plant that was tested as growing the world record. So these guys should be incredibly spicy. I have three confirmed sprouts as of this morning, and this coming less than a week after having planted them in their Jiffy germination tray. WHat can I say, when these guys wanna pop, they wanna pop!

I have also been in talks with the Yellow Green Farmer’s Market, located in Hollywood, FL. It’s the oldest Farmer’s Market in South Florida, and one of the largest. The GM himself sent me an e-mail regarding my desire to get a stall there, and seemed genuinely excited about having someone growing these super hot peppers. He said that with someone who knew these superhots well (like me ), I could have a reat business on my hands there.

I must say, I’m impressed! I have a grand total of 22 viable sprouts and counting! If this keeps up, I may have to get extra space just for my plants!

As I’ve already alluded to a few times, growing these sadistic little beasts is very much a learning process for me. I’ve already made a few mistakes along the way (being a touch zealous with the fertilizer, etc.), but I think I’m getting it down pat.

That being said, I just wrapped up what will probably be the last batch of pepper seeds I’ll be planting for a bit. I’m slightly worried that if too many more sprouts pop up like they have in the last two days, I won’t have enough space in my meager little apartment to fit them all. That, and my electric bill will go through the roof with all the fluourescent lamps I would have to set up as a result However, the quasi carpet bombing of planting the seeds that I’ve done lately will only help in the end, I think, since it’ll give me as many plants as I can so I can sell these little suckers, and spread the sadism all over