July 2009

7-17: It's official, there will be no chili crop for me this year. It is a dissapointment because I like the process of growing chilies but it is just as well because I have boxes upon boxes of chilies from 3 years ago that are still not eaten. I'm still around though, so if you have any questions about chilies I will be happy to share what I know about them. I also plan to update other parts of the Chili Pepper site from time to time.

5-14: No news is bad news. It seems that the Akabare chili seeds don't want to sprout either! Is there some sort of god of chilies that I can sacrifice a goat to? Pele the Hawaiian goddess of fire maybe? I'll keep trying but it's getting pretty late in the year here, and that means blistering hot weather.

4-19: I had a huge setback this year. The Naga King Chilies I had planned to grow this season never sprouted. I believe the problem was that the chili pods the seeds were derived from were smoked and the high heat of smoking damaged the seeds. Fortunately a pen pal named Katrina Cooper, whom I helped earlier, sent me some seeds from a wild Akabare chili she found in Nepal on the slopes of the Himalayas. The Akabare is in the same family as the Habañero though not quite as hot.

Observe if you dare the fiery hotness of this chili. It looks like a red giant star in a vast cloud of green interstellar dust. This is what this years crop will be. I intend to serve as a back up seed source for Katrina as she has no other source of this seed than herself. Of course, in the process, I'll be burning the hell out of my mouth so it's a win-win situation.

I planted the seeds today in 8 peat pods in a Jiffy brand Greenhouse 72. 2 seeds per pod. The seeds themselves are very pungent, fragrant and fruity smelling.

I'm not going for a huge crop as I still have boxes upon boxes of chilies in storage. I just want to grow a couple of plants, keep my hand in the game, and keep my garden up to date.