Merry Christmas

I am wishing all my friends a very Merry Christmas. Being thankful that I can be present for Christ Birthday, and more blessing than I have ever deserved. Lets not forget.


The Greatest Man

The greatest man in history is named Jesus, had no servants, yet they called him Master. Had no degree, yet they called him Teacher. Had no medicines, yet they called him Healer. Had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet he conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today. Jesus is the reason for the season!

Christmas Story

I know this is not Chile or farming related. But Christmas is a time we should reflect on maybe what it means to each of us.  We all know that it is Christ Birthday, I haven't a clue as to if the actual day or not.

 As a boy growing up Christmas was very special to me. I am 74 years old and was raised by my grand parents. So the up bringing I got was really from way back, I can tell you right now I enjoyed every minute of it. We were poor as snakes but I didn't know it. I am thinking it was because so was everybody else.
When it came time for a Christmas tree, we headed for the woods. Lots of pine grew in our area, we looked for a small tree or maybe a tree top would catch our eye. After the tree was set up it was time to trim the tree. That what we called putting on the decorations. I am sure we didn't have more than 3 or 4 store bought ornaments. Dogwood, holly and yaupon berries were gathered when we cut the tree. The berries being red were strung with thread and hung on the tree.
 My grandmother would save all the tin foil (aluminum foil) from anything she found. She would do this all year, being so careful to flatten it out smooth. This foil was wrapped around pine cones or sweet gum tree balls, and hung from the tree. Sometimes popcorn was used, as garland witch was also strung on a thread. We did grow corn with always some stalks of popcorn. We had a picture of an angel, It might of come from a calender I am not sure. It was rolled into a cone and placed on the tree top.
 Nope no lights, we didn't have any electric power. But boy, I thought that was the most wonderful thing in the world. It was magical. No presents were placed under the tree, but Christmas morning there they were.
 One special Christmas I remember. I received  an apple and an orange, a pair of red pajamas ( I am sure my grand Mother made them) And a small cast iron truck. The truck was about 4" long no moving parts, just iron. I gotta tell you, I wore that truck out pushing it in the dirt. Wish I had it today, I might still give it a push. Very happy time in my life. Wish I had some photos to post but don't.
MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL

Pequin Chiles

Its getting colder, so I have moved some of my Chile plants inside. My Chile Pequin plants among them. I have several that are in there fourth year. I love this Chile, its as hot as heck but sure is tasty. I picked what few fruit was left on the plant. Ran them through the dehydrator, destemed and ground them in my spice grinder. I am now set for the winter. I keep a shaker bottle sitting on the table, use it on most everything. Try it Ya gonna like it.

Desteming Chiles

Finished Product

Fall In Texas

I just could not resist. Most of the time our fall color is from green to brown. Well for some strange reason this year things look different. Not much different, but I like it.
 I know farther East the fall color is really nice. Might be also in the North West, haven't been there in the fall.
Anyway I thought our fall color was worth posting. So took some photos these last couple of days. Thought y'all might enjoy them.

Driveway coming to our house.



The road to the drive

Looking Forward

I am looking forward to new things this coming year. I am becoming interested in new Chiles, and different vegetables. I am thinking also about some livestock. Maybe some chickens and rabbits. We already have plenty of wild hogs.
 I think rabbits and chickens would be just right for me. I would not want many. Just enough to have some fresh eggs and some rabbit meat. No pet rabbits.
 I am finding that I have more time here at home now that I am farming less.
Just saying!! If y'all have any comments I would like to hear them. Thanks.

What to do with all those Chiles

I am sure we have all seen chiles either in recipes or at the markets. You know, the ones we don't know what to do with or what they might be used for. Well I have found this list that might be helpful to us all. I hope you find it useful, I did.

Know what will work best for your Chili Pepper Recipe.


Anaheim or California green Chile:

Named after the California city. Slender green chili about 6 to 8 inches long with rounded tip; mild flavor. Also known as New Mexican chilies. Substitute: canned green chilies. This is the peppers I use for chili relleno.

Ancho Chile

Dried form of Poblano chili. Substitute: 1/2 teaspoon chili powder for each ancho chili. Used in sauces, it is an essential ingredient in mole. Also my favorite for tamales.

Chipotle

Dried, smoked large jalapeño pepper. Dark brown and wrinkled. Smoky with a sweet, slight chocolate flavor. Use in salsas, sauce and soups. Pickled and canned in adobo sauce.

Habañero

Lantern-shaped chilies ranging in color from light green to orange, then red when fully ripe. Very hot. Used in seafood marinades, salsa, sauce and chutney.

Hungarian Wax

Also called "banana chili." Large - 3 to 5 inches long, up to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Yellow chilies with a waxy appearance. Originated in Hungary. Slightly sweet, waxy flavor, mild to moderately hot.

Jalapeño Pepper

Small green or red cigar-shaped chili about 2 1/2 inches long; very hot. Known as chipotles when dried. Substitute: pickled jalapeños.





Poblano Chile

Large, dark green chili that resembles an elongated bell pepper plentiful in Texas and Southwestern states; ranges from mild to hot. Reddish-brown when ripe. Known as anchos when dried. Stuffed with cheese for chilies rellenos. Never eaten raw. Substitute: sweet green bell pepper.

Serrano Chile

If you are looking to make your chili pepper recipe hot this one will do the trick. Dark green to red chili 1 to 11/2 inches long; hot to very hot. Substitute: jalapeño pepper.

Thai Chile

Tiny - 1 to 1 1/2 inches long, 1/4 inch in diameter -and thin. Ranges in color from green to red when fully ripe. Extremely hot, lingering heat. Very popular in Southeast Asian dishes.

Lets Talk Chiles

I have stated before that I love Chiles. Some better than others, some hot and some sweet. For me it depends on what I am doing with the Chiles and who will be eating them. When small children or some grown folks that can't take the heat, I tone it down some. Don't get me wrong here, I like the heat but don't like pain. Y'all know what I mean. Here are some photos of a couple that I really like. I will say that I eat Jalapeños but there is better Chiles out there.

 This photo was taken by my friend John F. who lives in Maine. This Chile is a sweet Chile, much better than any Bell you have ever eaten.
Criolla de Cocina

This Chile is native to Nicaragua

This photo was taken by myself. It is a small hot Chile Called "Chile Pequin". I like to dry and the grind them. I use the Chile powder as a table condiment. It's good on most everything. They are also mighty good fresh off the plant.
Sometimes in Texas, this Chile is known as the Texas Bird Chile. It also grows wild in Texas and Mexico.
Chile Pequin

Remembering 9-11

I for one remember the day we were attacked, and by whom. How can we forget.
I Honor  those who died and those who worked so hard to save who could be saved. The Enemy is still among us, and they are breeding. Be ever vigilant. Keep your eyes open and your Guns loaded. Never Forget.

Chiles, its what's for Dinner

I think when we mention eating Chile's, most people think of the Jalapeño. I do think it is the most popular Chile here in the United States. But guy's there are thousands of Chile's to choose from. Granted you may have to grow them yourself or maybe get them from a local grower. You don't have to like hot pepper to enjoy something different. There are so many sweet variety's, and I am not just talking Bell pepper either. I can tell you, for me Bell and Jalapeño Chile's taste real grassy after eating some of the other Chile's. I do like both hot Chile's and sweet Chile's. I like the jalapeño but don't do the bells. Bell's are OK if they are red and roasted, green and raw are just nasty. By the way a green Chile is one that is not ripe yet. So don't be afraid to venture out and enjoy good a Chile.
 I will post some of my favorite Chile photos soon.

Something New

Not really, just new to me. We bought this pineapple from the market. Me being me thought why not plant this thing. So with an INTERNET search, and now knowing more about pineapple than I ever wanted to know. I planted this pineapple top and it started to grow. That was four years ago. It really never did anything but look like a very large pineapple top. I was getting kinda tired dragging it in each winter and putting it back out in the spring. That plant has now taken on a new life, yep its blooming. I do think I may get a pineapple, maybe not. But it sure is pretty right now. Hope you think so to.

Pineapple plant with bloom.

Short Update

I know some people are having floods and surly don't need rain. But as usual I am not happy with the weather. We need rain really bad. I had said in my last post that I was just working around the yard. Well I still am, I do like our yard, I do love plants. But just trying to keep things growing (green) with it being so dry is tough. Course it will start raining then I will have to complain about it being too wet. Oh Well. Here is a photo of part of what I am doing.

This photo is looking out our front door.

Slow in posting "sorry"

Guy's sure sorry about being so slow in posting. Some days the news isn't worth talking about.
This has been a very depressing year. It may be my last for planting commercial crops. Yeah, its been a bad growing season. I still have plenty to be thankful for, and believe me I am.
Maybe I am just getting old, I know I get tired easy.
I have been working around the house, doing yard work. I do love growing plants. We have 3.5 acres of yard so there is plenty to do. My wife does most of the mowing, she loves to mow. I think she would fight you for the mower. We do however have a large riding mower.
About 3 weeks ago lighting struck a large pine here in the yard, so had to get it cut. I happen to be standing in the garage watching it rain when the lighting struck. I was about 70' away, the boom and flash scared the heck out of me. I never want to be that close again. Later with yard photos. Bill

Onions

Onions are finished for 2010, what a year so far. We have golf ball and tennis ball size onions.(not good). Oh, they will taste good but not sell good. Most people like a larger onion, me I just like onions. These are very sweet really good for fresh eating. Anyway its over. The onions have been dug and are now curing in the field.
Can you believe with the country flooding we still haven't had any rain. The last storms came right up to us then split and went around. Now that sucks. Even my rain dance didn't work. Maybe next time.

Well, misinformed again.

Well, the weather dude said rain. And I guess it did but not here.

I truly am sorry about all the people getting flooded out. Some of my farmer friends have lost everything. Crops, greenhouses, barns, animals, equipment I mean have lost it all. You and your family's are on our prayer list.

I have always found it strange about the weather. We are still super dry here. Just finished putting out drip tape on our Chile plants. Still waiting on rain, before we plant more Chiles. Our ground is like a dust bowl, if we planted the plants now they would die before we could get water on them. Later Bill

Planting Chiles

Folks this has been one of the strangest springs. It has been really cool and super dry.
Anyway we started planting Chiles yesterday. We planted 3300 plants , but quite because it was so dry. The weather dude says rain coming, so we are holding off a couple of days. We are about 2 weeks late as it is, so a couple more day wont make much difference. I know a lot of y'all are to wet to plant but we are gonna do our rain dance. Might have to do it nude to make it work. (now thats scary)
Onions, well we have started to harvest a few fresh onions. Thats the ones with tops, different from greed onions. We call them spring onions. Sure feels good to be harvesting something. I don't have any photos to post but will get some soon.
Wishing you a great season.

Last freeze

I truly hope our last freeze is over. I have however seen a killing frost on the 15 th of April.

The ground temp is 65-70 ° this is a good thing.

All our fruit trees are bloomed out and looking really good.

I am thinking we might have a bumper crop of blueberries. But we all know what happens sometime when we start thinking own our own.

Our little Chile plants are still in the greenhouse, so they are doing good. They need to be in the ground. But just not ready yet.

The onions are growing finally. They did not respond too well to the snow and cold and lots of rain. I think I might have a photo somewhere I can post. Just a little behind from this time last year. I wish you all a great growing season, Bill

What the Heck

Well I keep saying spring is coming. And I am sure it is, I just don't know when. Can you believe we had snow (AGAIN) only two days ago. Not much but it did snow, and was 34 °
Puts a dampener on my wanting to plant anything. You know you get all excited on the warm sunny days. Then the next morning you are looking for your coat again. Oh Well.
Our baby Chiles in the green house are doing great. I hope we can go to the field with them by April.
On another note we have had mucho rain (that means lots) we will be needing it about June and July. I gets some kinda dry about then. So in thinking about it rain is not a bad thing.
Just was out checking the ground temp. It is now 55° to 60° wont be long now. I am about to plant some red potato's. Man I sure like those, I really didn't buy seed just got some from the store. Any way I am only going to plant a short row here at the house.

Spring has not sprung

Spring is not here yet, but its time to get ready. If you haven't started you seed, better get with it. Its difficult to think about planting when its still freezing each night.

Oh, by the way we did have snow.

Its pretty but I could do with out it.

We have our Chile seed in the greenhouse. Got little plants growing. We are not going to grow as many as we usually do. The market killed us last year along with labor cost. Of course being farmers we always say maybe this year will be better. I guess thats what makes us farmers (because we like it) Not because were getting rich. But hey, Obama gonna take care of us. "In your dreams." Oh Oh got to be careful here don't want to get on my soap box.

Baby plants getting ready, don't they look happy.

Climate Warming, Yeah when?

I am sure a lot of folks are wondering the same thing. The weather dude says we may have some snow coming. We just had a nice rain. Washed up some of the onion plants but nothing so far we can't overcome.

I really feel sorry about all the snow troubles people are having. We don't have that much snow here where we live, but I have been there and done that and don't like it at all.

Photo of me being cold Alaska in 1957.

Here is a photo of our poor little onions.
We are plowing them to dry the soil some. After plowing the wind will dry the soil.
Just received our collard seed, yes, we are going to try collards this year. If they don't sell good at least we will have plenty to eat. I do like greens and collards are the best (my opinion) But you got to have smoked pork jowl and cornbread with them.
Can you tell this is a Southern Blog????

Sweet Onions

The weather finally let up. We got our onions planted. Just in time to. It has turned cold and started to rain. I like a shower just after planting. I think it settles the soil around the plants.
We haven't started the other plants yet (greenhouse) but need to. I am holding off as long as I can. It cost a lot of money to heat a green house. We maybe a little late this year but our funds are kinda short, I know you can relate to that. This last year was a bummer as far as making any money. But there is always another year. That is what makes us farmers. Photos later.

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