2026 CW35 - Converting Jalapeños to Chipotle Powder!
As alluded to in last week’s blog post, this week’s cover story is the processing of red-ripened Jalapeños into Chipotle products (primarily powder).
Step one? Collecting the peppers of course! You want to allow these to reach a bright cherry red while still on the plant. I did a bit of experimentation at this stage (honestly, this entire process was an experiment for me) by picking some peppers weeks in advance and allowing them to partially dry while picking some peppers the day of. Some people say to remove the stems and seeds immediately, but I opted to proceed with those still attached! One bit of preparation I did was to cut a slit into each pepper. This will help with the flavor and the drying in later steps.
Once prepped, it is time to smoke the peppers! I do not own a smoker (one day we’ll get around to building that outdoor kitchen and I will have the room) but that is no excuse! A cheaper alternative if you have a regular grill is to wrap your choice of woodchips (I used Hickory, but traditionally Pecan would be used) in aluminum foil and poke a few holes through it. You then place these foil packs over a lit burner and place the peppers on the “cold” side of the grill. I then allowed the peppers to smoke at around 200 degrees for ~5 hours.
Once smoked, we technically have ourselves some Chipotle Peppers! At this point the peppers could be used in various ready-made recipes such as Adobo sauce. However, since we are targeting chipotle powder, we have a little more work to do. In order to be ground to a powder, the peppers must be completely dried to the point of cracking when bent. To do this, the best way would be to use a food dehydrator. However, we do not have one. In an attempt to dry the peppers, we have resorted to alternating periods of time in the conventional oven and the toaster oven at low temperatures with the doors cracked to allow for some circulation.
Unfortunately, this takes MUCH longer than a dehydrator, and the peppers were not ready at the time of writing this week’s blog. Come back next week to see the finished product!
Can't-aloupe? More Like CAN-taloupe!
We’ve been tracking the progress of our raised bed Cantaloupe plants over the past few weeks, and things are progressing fantastically! The melons are spilling over the sides, suspending fruits against the walls of the beds and our longer-term tenants are turning colors/textures!
Things have actually progressed so much that we have had our first harvest! Sara was VERY excited to cut into the rind and reveal the peach-colored flesh. This was our first time growing Cantaloupe, and we were blown away by the taste!
Underwater Garden Update!
Our planted 29 Gallon fish tank has shown a lot of progress over the past few weeks! The Amazon Swords have reached the water’s surface, and the Dwarf Sagittarius grass is covering the lower area of the tank nicely.
Knead to Know: Fresh from the Oven
This may not be a product of the garden, but I feel as though it fits in to the homesteading theme we have going on here well enough to justify its inclusion.
We rarely purchase bread at this point because Sara has so well perfected the art of baking it at home! You may be used to the round Sourdough Loaves she usually produces in the Dutch Oven (such as the Jalapeno Cheddar Sourdough from 2026 CW32 Gardener Math), but this week she tried her hand at some more classic rectangular loaves. They may not have the spicy cheesy flavor of the Jalapeno Cheddar, but the texture is second to none! I am incredibly grateful for the time and effort she puts into these and continue to be blown away at all of these bread products!
Grow-ers and Show-ers!
Beyond the peppers and bread, the garden was full of progress this week with plenty of promise of future harvests! I am sure you’re familiar with our recently transplanted Lime tree. It has performed VERY well and has already produced its first viable fruit! This is a Show-er for sure!
Back in the vegetable garden, we have Delicata Squash continuing to size up, as well as some fall harvest Pumpkins setting fruit! I know we’re all used to the orange and yellow hues of winter squash, but the deep green of these juvenile pumpkins blows my mind! These are sure to be Grow-ers!
Around the Garden in 80 Seconds
Before we close out for the week, I wanted to give you a quick big picture tour of what else is growing on in the garden!
Out front, as teased previously, we are progressing with our new flower bed addition! As with most things around the house, this project is subject to both money and time budgets. unfortunately, neither of these buckets allows for the full bed installation at the moment, but we desperately needed to get the Hydrangeas in the ground! After trimming the leggy growth, measuring out the spacing, marking the hole locations, removing the sod, digging the holes, and amending with Hollytone, the hydrangeas were finally in their homes! We’ll check in on these in the coming weeks for new growth and eventually remove the remaining sod and extend the bed irrigation system! For now, the lawn’s irrigation will be sufficient to keep these Hydrangeas hydrated.
With Hydrangeas in mind, let’s check into The New Garden Encyclopedia for this week’s entry!
In the backyard, I wanted to share a new view for the blog! The picture showing off the Birdfeeders represents the view from our master bedroom. As gorgeous as this is, the cats enjoy it more than us! During the week I leave for work before daylight, but on the weekends I really enjoy watching Yoda and Scout stalk birds at the feeders. Back in the vegetable garden, we added the hanging Bougainvillea to the Black-Eyed Susan trellis system!
Pests and Pets
This week we provided an update on the underwater garden, so I thought it appropriate to also share an update some of the fish inhabitants! Here we have a [Longfin] Peppered Corydoras amongst the Dward Sagitarria grass. We also have a pregnant female at the moment, but I have been unable to get a satisfying picture of her!
Back in the garden, we had a visiting Monarch Butterfly showing a lot of interest in our Zinnias!
Surprisingly I have NO cat pictures this week. This is very characteristic of me. Fortunately, we do have this comedic picture of Henry begging for some of that fresh garden Cantaloupe as we enjoyed our Sunday morning breakfast.
