GOOD GRACIOUS! For those who might not know, in addition to my photography of refraction I am also developing a small range of ornamental chili pepper seeds. Last year was spent learning about the business and developing my own plants. Around November last year I despatched a supply of seeds off to California to obtain my USDA certification. Also around that time I started the rather laborious task of harvesting, drying and cleaning the seeds which are to be sold for cultivation in 2012. This probably all sounds rather ho-hum. What actually happened was right through Christmas we were busy devising methods to get all this accomplished and the holidays sort of flew by in a cloud of chili's! When all was done and dusted I was hoping for a month or two off.
Apparently this won't be happening. Walking past last year's chili beds this week I see these hot little numbers have decided to get an early start to the year. Now I do know that Texas has hardly experienced a winter this year and this is no doubt the reason why they've started growing so early - but two months off would have been nice ........
Being the trooper I am, I'll go along with the plan. So here's some photos of my Black Pearl and Calico chili plants. They aren't big ......... just the product of the macro setting on my camera. Right now they are about three weeks old. Already they are looking pretty robust. You will see that the plants in the top photo are purple and green. These are the Black Pearls. The bottom photo are my Calico Chili plants. When they are a little larger, their leaves will grow purple/green/cream. Both plants produce huge quantities of chili's later in summer. I've been around them long enough to make the decision that these chili's will remain in the garden and there's more chance of me seeing pigs fly than popping them into the crockpot!
It'll be quite interesting to blog their progress so watch this space.
Am I allowed to giggle just a little? You are obviously much more organized than I am. Would you like some basil seeds? They make a great backdrop on the peppers. I don't sell - I just propogate basil. it's a mix of sweet, chocolate, lemon and cinnamon. I quit trying to keep them separate years ago. (Mostly sweet and lemon - you CAN tell which once they start growing.)
ReplyDeleteWhat you've done sounds like quite a bit of hard work. Congratulations! I do think our winter is over. The telling is in the next 2 weeks.