Last Year’s Garden

At Uncle Gs farm we say we’re much better at growing livestock than plants. We’ve had about 3 good gardens in the 20 years we’ve been married. And Uncle G’s actually suffered more serious wounds from a carrot than from any of the livestock (the killer carrot of ’14)

BUT, just like any skill, the more you practice it the better you get. 

In our 2021 year of change we narrowed our garden plants down to peppers and tomatoes.  Uncle G has enjoyed hot peppers since the 90s. Nothing too crazy, but for Iowa, he’s pretty daring. We planted Cayenne, Tabasco, jalapeño, Poblano, Serrano, Thai Red Hot, Red and Yellow Habanero, a Scorpion and a couple Carolina Reapers! We started them from seed (also a skill that takes practice) and planted them all in our pretty big garden. 

The tomatoes were also started from seed but we only planted about half as many of those than the peppers. The plan with tomatoes is usually the same each year, can them into diced tomatoes, sauces, and other staples. We still had some left over from the previous year, so we planted minimal tomatoes.

Now, back to the hot stuff!!! The peppers are used all year long in our house. We dry many of them in the dehydrator to make our own cayenne-esque pepper (G puts that stuff on everything). We also ferment many of them to make hot sauces. G is obsessed with Chili Chump, and if you LOVE peppers you should definitely check him out. Aunt TT makes a killer jalapeño jelly that has just enough spice for more Iowans but is sweet like jelly too. (Try it on hot wings for a “Jammin’ Jalapeño” style sauce a la Buffalo Wild Wings). You can find it in the Ball Blue Book caning book.

One of the funnest things we tried with our peppers this year is “spicy gummies” You can find more information here at Pepper Geek. These are super easy to make, can be pretty spicy, and are just plain old fun. 

It’s a bit early, for Iowa, to start seeds indoors yet but look for our hints, tips, and suggestions on starting seeds indoors in the coming weeks. February will be here before you know it. 

Overall, our decision to focus on peppers has been a huge win. In 2022 we are planning on more seed starts as well as more tomatoes and trying some other veggies again. We are also going to try winter sowing again, which is basically starting seeds in milk jugs outside. The milk jugs act like mini green houses. We failed miserably last year, but we put in a good 2,948,274 tries before we throw in the towel;) We can’t wait to share our garden journey this year!