I had an extremely good chili pepper harvest last year. It was almost the only plant that kept giving and giving while everything else was eaten by slugs. The plants had a yield going until the sun was lower and it was really late in the season.
Last year I got these seedlings at Dutch chili fest which is like a market/festival for everything and everyone that is into eating spicy. So when this year chili fest came around, it was again time to drop by for a little in and out for getting some seedlings.
Where last year I walked throughout the whole market and even witnesed a chili eating competition, for me this year it was all about the plants. I headed straight for my goal, but so was the rest of the crowd. It was busy there and I think these guys will have sold out very fast
It was a different stand here compared to last year and also the seedlings were a lot more expensive than last year. Where last year the seedlings were $3 per piece, this year they were $5 or even $7.50 for the more special ones.(Heck, I wish my salary would have this type of increase.) Maybe I should start a pepper seedling business as well?
But then again, growing little plants is intensive and especially these fragile chili ones. As you can see, the variety of the plants was big. Like big and I think they had like 20-30 types of plants with them.
My first thought was that I needed to get these Chinese 5 colour peppers again as these were absolutely fantastic. Apart from the cool colours that they had, the taste was also perfect as 1 chili lighted up a whole dish without burning you to the ground.
But I could find those as it was a different store but what I did find were these 'Dragons Breath' bangers with a decent 2.4 millioon on the Scoville Heat Unit scale, which is absolutely ridiculous
And yeah...I got one as well.....馃敟
Since there was such a variety of seedlings and different types of chilies, we kind of went a bit big on buying. Fair enough, this was also because a friend had intention to get some seedlings as well, but hee didn't make it.. So we thought to get some plants as a gift as well for in the mean time.
Now to decide which ones to give away, because that choice is not easy!
Yeah it wasn't only hot and super hotter. As you can see here on the image above there were also a bit more mature plants already and those were including the more 'mild' chilies with just 40.000 SHU. So also got some of those with even more cool names like the 'Aji Angelo' and the 'Thunder Mountain Longhorn' chili. I also just got a 'regular' Habanero of 100.000 SHU.
But also like I had last year the 'Bhud Jolokia Chocolate' of a serious 800.000 SHU for some serious flames in there.
The market was already crowded even though I was there quite early and I didn't feel like tasting all of the hot sauces in the morning. Hot sauce in the morning in general, I find it a bit too much if you ask me.
But there were some awards winning sauces there which I am sure were perfectly fine to buy blindly..It was just a bit too crowded.
And most of all...where to start. Dutch chili fest is a really cool showcase of a diverse scala of hot sauces also from small entrepeneurs, but it also means there is so much to choose from.
So no hot sauces were chosen this year. Just seedlings and plants.
Now let us just hope again that at the end of the season the hot sauce factory here in the house can start again after having awesome yield. Fingers crossed!馃敟
