News blackout.

Been offline for so long. December has been an intense month this year. I’ve been working so hard making chunky chile oil right up to Christmas that all other things fell by the wayside for a while. Eager now to get back to a normal level of intensity which should allow for things like taking care of the plants, writing a little, and maybe getting a haircut. Then there’s lots of baby plants to start growing. New years resolution – start as many new gardens as possible in 2009!

Beta program now open, first bug report.

Made my first actual sales at the AMNH Exhibition Dept holiday party yesterday. I am so thrilled by the interest and support and feel like this whole chile venture is gathering steam. I hope that everyone who tries a jar will be interested in giving feedback on the taste of the chunky chile oil since I’m still tinkering with the master recipe. I’m kind of thinking of chunky chile oil as it exists today as like a beta version of a software program – it’s almost ready for retail prime time, but there’s definitely still room for improvement. I encourage all beta testers to send in bug reports as you taste the chile condiments.

I realize that the current batches of hot and mild both have a mistake in the ingredient list. There is a bit of lemon juice in addition to the ingredients listed. While this inclusion of citric acid hopefully will go a long way to making the oil more shelf-stable, I encourage everyone to refrigerate your jars between uses. My experience is that it will keep for weeks in the fridge, but use caution about storing it at room temp for more than a short time.

Floating clumping old worm poop, plants say yum.

Found a small container of old worm castings in the bottom of my closet Thursday. Not nearly enough to top-dress more than a single plant so I had the brainstorm of mixing them into a bucket of fertilizer water. An extra organic oomph, I thought. But this poop was so dry it just floated on the top of the water, and didn’t mix in even after soaking for a while. Eventually I just started using the water and soon my long-necked watering cans were clogged. So it was quite a hassle to administer, and I think I’ll just top-dress next time, but I have a feeling the plants were happy. I think I’m realizing this week that the plants need water and probably fertilizer a lot more often. I need to start thinking about how to set up an indoor drip system.

Chunky chile oil beta testing begins.

Welcome friends family and foodies. My process working on the chile garden and it’s first offspring chunky chile oil has been so slow that I had to give myself a kick in the ass by inviting more people to try it out. I’m certainly still early in the process so I hope you all will bear with me as I’m still figuring out things like mail order fulfillment. But it’s really exciting to hear back from so many old and new friends and make you all batches of CCO. 

This week I’ve been experimenting with adding ancho peppers to the mix. I’m running out of rooftop grown de arbol peppers (I grew way fewer de arbol than chiltepins this year.), and the replacement supply I found at Kalustyan’s seems to be hotter than the ones I grew. Food writers generally refer to the de arbol as a very hot pepper but for some reason mine are super flavorful but mild and so have been working well for a mild version of CCO. So I’m in search of a commercially-available mild pepper to get me through the winter months. I’m pleased with how the anchos are working out so far and will be interested in hearing what other people think.

Other big experiment now is varying the amount of oil I’m using in each batch. Some early tasters didn’t like the way the oil separates from the chunks at the top of a jar (like health food store peanut butter) so I’ve gradually decreased the amount of oil until the result is more like chunky chile paste than chunky chile oil. I like it better this way – it’s closer to the sambals I tasted in Singapore which got me so excited – but I don’t know if others will find the product as easy to use this way. Only way to decide is keep trying more variations. And please let me know if you have a preference.

Which is scarier, aphids or my laziness?

Now that the invertebrate horde is on the run I can really look at the plants in the guestroom garden. The aphids are mostly litter to be swept up or let decompose into the soil and I can confront the fact that I let them crawl all over my precious plants and waited a couple weeks to do anything about it. Did I hope that they would just go away on their own? That they could peacefully co-exist with the plants? That indoor plants always have pests? Not anymore, those days are over.

Now I can see that the layer of aphids was hiding and/or feasting on a good bit of new growth on the plants. Not just baby leaves but also buds and I dare say some tiny fruits that I don’t think were there when the plants came downstairs. Maybe I’m dreaming but  think these babies are going to produce fruit under a few florescent bulbs and a south facing window. It’s a new 16 hour day in the indoor garden.

Aphid host routed.

Weeks after bringing the plants inside I finally feel good about their health. All it took was a strong spray bottle to blast the aphids off the plants. I’ve mounted more florescent shop lights with velcro tape to the ceiling above the top tier of plants, so they’re going to get proper light for the first time inside. Got the fan going again, and a humidifier/ air purifier for good measure. We’re going to wash these aphids right out of our hair.

Guests are great, but the plants get neglected.

It feels just a bit gloomy in the garden room today, despite dazzling sunshine and temps around 50F outside. Not bad for Dec 1, but the busy Thanksgiving birthday last week meant I completely neglected the garden. One lamp fell down, thankfully against the wall and didn’t seem to take out any plants. Aphids rule in there. I really need to defeat those buggers soon or I don’t think I’ll ever see winter fruit. And not watering for a week left the soil quite dry. But I gave them all a drink of fish fertilizer water and hopefully they’ll all thrive again soon. I hope this kind of hardship builds character, like getting together with the family for the holidays.