Pepper Poser

[cdbva]

I'd like to grow some peppers this year -- the kind you can stuff with ground meat & onions, put in salads, etc.

Could someone please answer a couple of questions? First, of course, I'd like to know some varieties that work well.

I'm also wondering about the growing season. Do they bear all at once and then quit, or do they produce all season?

Any input you have will be greatly appreciated and mulled over, and will give me something cheerful to think about when I should be working.

I hope this is not as irksome a question as "what tomato should I grow?"

Christine

[newatthiskat]

Hmmm..do you like hot or sweet? I like to put sweet banana peppers in my food. My daughter likes things like Hot banana pepper. She likes more heat than I do. One of my other friends eats Habanerros (SP) in her food. She likes a huge amount of heat. SO to narrow it down would be a big help.
Kat

[robin303]

The Jimmy Nardello's, Hungarian Hot Wax, Napoleon and the Sweet Banana are my favorites are good sweet not hot peppers. They are great in a Wok.

[Barbee]

Bell peppers are what I've always used to stuff with meat and rice. Very mild and they come in a variety of colors. I use them for cooking and raw, as they add lots of color and texture to food. I also plant a lot of pimentos. I make a canned pimento cheese sauce with them, but they are also good stuffed. They don't stand up like the bells, so they would be sideways stuffers

[shelleybean]

I have not grown bells for several years now. I really prefer the pimentos types. The cheese peppers usually have a flat bottom and would make good stuffed peppers, though they're smaller than a bell. They're really versatile. I use them raw, cooked and pickled. I'm growing Sheepnose again this year.

I also like frying peppers, especially on the grill. I tried Golden Treasure last year and really liked it, so it's coming back, too.

[shelleybean]

Sorry, Christine. Forgot to answer your other question. They should produce until frost.

If you're in Falls Church and you want to start from seed, it's time to get busy.

[WVTomatoMan]

For stuffing you'll probably want a sweet bell pepper. California Wonder is widely adapted and does well in the mid-atlantic region. Keystone Giant is another possibility. I also like Ariane. I'm still looking for the right combination of taste and earliness. This year I'm trying World Beater, Kevin's Early Orange Bell, and Yellow Belle. I've been led to believe they perform well in the mid Atlantic region.

For salads I like Sweet Banana, Corno Di Torro, Jimmy Nardello, and Giant Marconi.

Peppers continue to produce throughout the season.

Good luck.

Randy

[JerryL]

My pick for a stuffer is Fat & Sassy. It’s a hybrid but man is it good. Plenty large enough to cut off the top and fill with all kinds of good things.

It ripens from a bright green to a beautiful red.

It’s a good producer all season long. I grow about 6 plants each year and feed the whole neighborhood.

[cdbva]

Some good things to think about and research; thanks, everyone.

Someone walked by me at work today muttering "I'm going to tear out my hair and jump off a cliff!" Thoughts of tomatoes and peppers do help to stave off those impulses. Maybe I should have mentioned it to her.

Basically what I want to do is stuff peppers with ground meat & onion. (My mother used oatmeal instead of rice, but maybe I'll try each to see what we like best.)

Hot peppers, well, can you stuff them? I do like a chili relleno with cheese, but that's a tad on the fattening side. Better not even learn how to do that.

Ooh, could you stuff a hottish pepper with something besides cheese?? That might be incredible.

Yep, time to get the seed out. Thank goodness spring is fast approaching.

Christine

P.S. Shelley, I didn't even know pimentos were peppers! Why do you like them better than bells?

[shelleybean]

I like them because they have thick walls like most bell peppers and they're extra sweet when ripe. They don't get that yucky fungus inside like the bells. Have you seen that gray fuzz on the inside of a bell pepper before? Sometimes you even get one from the store like that. Anyway, the pimentos have been easier to grow and more reliable for me than bells. I also prefer to grow things that aren't so easy to find in the store. The two varieties I mentioned above, Sheepnose Pimento and Golden Treasure (the fryer) are both available from SSE. www.seedsavers.org

Have fun!

[Woodchuck]

Beaver Dam is a great tasting pepper that's excellent for stuffing.

http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=1041



<Woodchuck>

[bluelacedredhead]

Purple Beauty, Sweet Chocolate, Quadrato Asti Giallo are favourites of mine, although Purple Beauty I'm told turns a disgusting gray colour when it's pickled, so do not attempt that at home, Blech!

Also pimento peppers...but I usually just eat them like candy. Who can resist?

And for a cheap and easy way to have a colourful garden, why not just seek out Grand Bell Mix (American Seed Co) at your local Ace or Wallyworld I believe...

[WVTomatoMan]

Poblano (Ancho) peppers are the standard chile rellenos peppers. I'm trying NuMex Big Jim this year for chile rellenos.

JerryL - I've thought about the Fat and Sassy before I might try it (next year) on your endorsement. Thanks.

Randy

[cdbva]

You all make me want to grow all of them! Wish my yard weren't so small. Or at least that my neighborhood weren't so respectable. I'd fill up the front yard with vegetables.

We do have one little old man down the street who fills up his yard every year with different sorts of flowers and shrubs, so that it looks like a jungle. Then he rips everything out and starts something completely different (in the jungle vein) the next year.

He also had, until very recently, a huge lump of cement with the stump of a street sign sticking out of it. I suspect he kept that just to irritate his next-door neighbor, who seems to have an OCD thing going with perfectly circular mulched beds around his trees, golf-course quality lawn, and a picture-perfect little cottage. I told him once that his yard was perfect, but he shook his head sadly and said "No, no, it's far from perfect..." (In fairness, the house is very charming, and makes the new mini-mansion next on the other side look cheap.)

In fact, I like both yards. I even tried to respect the little man's right to own a chunk of concrete, but I'm glad he got rid of it.

Where were we? Oh, peppers. Well, I'm thinking a couple of sweet bells and a couple more of something else. Maybe poblanos or pimentos. But darn, that Beaver Dam looks awfully good, too.

Christine

[newatthiskat]

I am putting some pepper plants into my flower beds. Nobody has to know they gasp.....produce anything other than just flowers.
Kat