Tag Archives: Habanero chilli

The Chili Reaper

8 Oct

The habanero plants are gone, and in its place is a more palatable chili plant. The habaneros were too spicy for us. So no point in planting something that we cannot eat. And lately, there’s been a new visitor to our garden to enjoy the chili as well.

The new chili plant has provided lots of chilis, and now and then, we will give our bumper harvests to our neighbors, friends, and family. Sometimes if hubby does not harvest the chili, the Chili Reaper comes along to eat the chili!

The Chili Reaper is specifically the Yellow-vented Bulbul, and this bird eats only the red chilis! Not the green ones but the red ones. It would perch on the branches and peck away at the ripe chilis.

The Bulbul chili reaper!

I can’t decide whether it is a friend or foe. After all, the chili is in abundance. But it irks us that the bird gets the first choice on the red chilis. Then again, this is one garden visitor who does not wait on us to feed them–like the doves–it just helps itself to what the garden has to offer.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I Have Been Gardening, Part 2

8 Feb

The will to relandscape the garden continued despite the weather changing from cool to hot and humid. It was not pleasant, but we had to finish what we started. Hubby order two flower racks to rearrange the mess at the kitchen window site. And it is looking so much better now.

The mess (above) before and after the transformation (below)

The plus side of this – I get to see all the different bromeliads, at almost eye-level, every morning when I stand over the kitchen sink. Nice! If I don’t go out to the garden, the garden comes inside to me. Maybe it’s high time I learn to appreciate plants and all those bromeliads outside.

The root blobs of the two remaining red palms remain untouched. Somehow the momentum to unearth them has stalled. Instead, we channeled our energy into painting the whole stretch of the back garden wall. A spanking brand new white wall now is such a sight to enjoy.

The back wall

I even took the liberty to create a little space for some of his potted collection. Previously this spot was occupied by the habanero plant, and it grew too monstrous and messy. So hubby got rid of it. I removed all the Creeping Charlie weeds, leveled the designated spot with sand, and added stones to separate the area. I should pat myself on the shoulder, for it looks neat and very organized now.

The little sand spot. Yes, there’s a stack of stones for a Zen look. Heheh.

The front lawn also had further changes. After trimming the hedges, we decided to remove them totally and replace them with something more colorful. All in all, the outdoor activity has been good. Some sun is better than no sun, with both of us developing a good tan with healthy doses of Vitamin D, albeit an uneven one, from this bout of gardening.

Top: hedges before the chop, Middle: unearthed the overwhelmed garden light, Bottom: new plants to replace the old hedges

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Too Spicy to Handle

4 Aug

The Habanero plant in our garden may not be the Habanero that we initially thought. Hubby says what we have is the scotch bonnet peppers instead, which are slightly sweet in the overall taste. If you’re not a pepper expert, it’s hard to tell them apart because these peppers are cousins. The only difference being the Habanero is about an inch bigger.

The spiciness or heat level of all peppers is measured according to the Scoville Scale in Scoville Heat Units (SHU) and both these species are right up there on the chart. But there seem to be contradicting readings I see on the internet.

One site listed our scotch bonnet pepper at 445,000 SHU and the Habanero at 260,000 SHU only while another site says both are on the same level at 100,000–350,000 SHU. Well, it doesn’t matter which exact reading, our scotch bonnet certainly burns the tongue and even fingers if we are not cutting them carefully! Sometimes even the green ones are enough to numb the senses, what more eating the ripe red ones.

Scotch bonnet peppers are an excellent source of phytochemicals and vitamins such as vitamin A, vitamin C (ascorbic acid), iron, vitamin B, carotenoids, niacin, riboflavin, dietary fiber, flavonoids, and magnesium but I don’t eat them all the time. Too spicy to handle and too much to consume.

Puny green peppers towards the end, so plant #1 had to be cut down.

Hubby had to trim the first plant because it has grown too tall. At more than eight feet, it’s too taxing to produce plump healthy peppers. The puny harvest, evident in its loss in strength. Eventually, the plant was removed.

Plant #2 is out of control, growing tall and wide!

Now we get our supplies from the second and third plants. And the second plant has grown to become such a monstrous blob, it’s rather unsightly. It is now six feet tall, but its yield has been superb. We have had an abundance of scotch bonnet peppers and have been giving them away to friends because they’re too spicy for us to handle.

Tags: , , ,

Nothing Goes to Waste

2 Jun

Ever since the MCO started, hubby learned how to bake and as such, the eggs in the fridge are used up very quickly. It used to take forever to finish them but now, they are always on the grocery list to be replenished.

The best part of this is recycling the eggshells as fertilizer for the garden instead of just throwing them away. And I seem to enjoy fussing over the eggshells.

I’d remove the membrane first before pounding them up with my mini mortar and pestle. Fine but not too powdery, the eggshells act as a good deterrent for the slimy snails in the garden. They are also a good source of calcium especially for the habanero chilli peppers and it shows with the healthy harvests.

Besides the eggshells, other food waste is also recycled to be natural fertilizer for the garden. Rice water for instance. Whenever I wash rice grains before cooking, the water from the washing is kept a day or two in a container to be fermented before being used.

Occasionally if there are juice pulps from juicing, these are instantly sprinkled around the garden amongst the plants. And banana peels are always fed to the staghorn fern for nutrition. Nothing goes to waste in our home.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Garden to Plate

25 Oct

It’s the wet season again but this has not stopped hubby aka Green Fingers from working the garden well. Besides the habanero chilies that are holding up despite the rain, all of a sudden the papayas sprouted too. Or maybe it’s been growing healthily but I never knew considering I hardly venture out to the garden.

The pesticide-free care for the papaya tree has yielded two fruits so far and we ate one already – so sweet I tell you. We await the second fruit to ripen before enjoying it.

img_5976

Top: eaten with satisfaction; Bottom: measured, weighed and waiting for it to ripen.Yum!!!

As I write this, the third fruit, by far the biggest one is just a matter of time before it can be harvested. It’s so nice to have a garden to plate from our own efforts, or should I say his effort mostly and none of mine.

Tags: , , , , ,

Be Silly or Be Happy

11 Jun

Today’s the day we leave! But there are worries, silly ones and several of it…

Silly #1: my cocoon is still hanging on the front tree and it’s been seven weeks since the giant caterpillar morphed into it; way overdue from what I checked online to be at this stage. Why is the moth not emerging? Is the constant rain stunting its metamorphosis? Is it even still alive and okay? I dare not climb up the ladder to check because it’s way too high. Whatever it is, looks like we will miss the moth emerging from the cocoon if it does decide to come out during our time away.

img_2439

It’s nice in here, I’m not ready for the world

Silly #2: my 1000 and more Days trek on the Daily Bonus for Candy Crush Soda on the retired iPhone5S will be broken because I am not bringing the phone along. And will the iPhone XR and iPad Mini have the trek broken too being in different time zones? I told myself I should stop this obsession but I just can’t shake it off. Silly.

img_2470

Day 1016 for the iPhone5S and Day 1023 for both the iPad Mini and iPhone XR

Silly #3: will Rooney, official pet number one miss us?

img_2398

Should I chew on it or not? Hmm…

Silly worries aside, there are some happy reasons too…

Happy #1: the pineapple in the garden. It’s been more than two years that hubby’s been taking care of it, and thank goodness it decided to ripen on time before we leave. Harvested last Friday, the fruit of labor and love weighed a whopping two kilos! Needless to say, the juicy and home-grown pineapple was thoroughly enjoyed.

img_2351

Juiciest pineapple ever!

Happy #2: the constant rain seems to be good for the habanero plant for it has thrived well and we had a bumper harvest. So much chillies! I ate a little on Wednesday night and oh my goodness, almost died from the fiery burn. This batch is super duper spicy.

img_2350

The spicy level of the reds win hands down over the greens

Happy #3: we will be meeting up with M2 in Amsterdam! Yes, our baby will fly tomorrow from Ireland to meet us at Schiphol. And she will miss a few days of Summer classes which unfortunately can’t be helped. I feel it’s important for her to attend her only sister’s Commencement ceremony, hence the plan as such.

Happy #4: we will finally be seeing M1. The last time the family unit was complete was when she came back for Christmas in 2017, so that’s like a year and a half since we last saw our firstborn in person. The weekly Skype video sessions do not count. Can’t wait. A 12 hours and 40 minutes flight for the first leg, then a four-hour transit before the second leg of 10 hours and 17 minutes flight (hopefully no delays) before the family will be whole again. Yay!!!

I guess with the happy reasons outweighing the silly ones, I shouldn’t be too silly and just be happy.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Munch Pot 2.0

12 Mar

Our garden is just a wonderful place for the creatures that come visiting. Birds, treating our place as their private kitchen, come daily to feast on the bird seeds put out for them. There’s also squirrels that bound through the hedges happily like their little playground. One of the squirrel, a rascal, will eat official pet number one’s leftover dog food or boldly come into the house and help itself to bananas (if we have this) on the kitchen counter.

img_0831

The garden thrives because hubby has the green fingers, not me. I hardly venture out because I stay indoors in my little area to do my carving. Even if I do go out, it’s more at the terrace to do mostly sawing, hammering, cutting or drilling, never beyond the tiled boundary for gardening. So it was a bit of a surprise when I discovered the habanero plant has grown as tall as me! And the chillis are plentiful. I have shared so much of our harvest with friends and family.

The thriving garden also had us discovering a new caterpillar! This time on the Calamansi Lime tree at the side. I wouldn’t have known if hubby didn’t tell me. You could say it’s Munch Pot 2.0.

img_0835

This time I decided to take its measurement with a ruler to keep track of its growth. As of now, it’s 2cm long. I hope this little fella will grow well and won’t disappear mysteriously like Munch Pot who used to be at the Calamansi Lime tree in front of the house.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

We Have to Be Patient, Part 2

18 Oct

We are getting two chillies a week and not more. The habanero chillies are growing ever so slowly but thank goodness all those harvested can be refrigerated. There are several more green ones on the plant and one on the verge of turning red soon. We reckon another week or so before we can harvest all.

Do I plan to eat them all? Of course not! I’d share them with friends and let them have a fiery experience of tasting these hot babies.

img_5540

 

Tags: , ,

We Have to Be Patient

9 Oct

The habanero plant has grown but it’s fruiting very slowly. Last week, we had only two precious chilli to show, plucked a day apart, compared to the last harvest. Currently, there’s a bunch growing and we are hoping the rain won’t affect their growth as rainy season has kicked in. Keeping our fingers crossed.

img_5411

How many chillies can you see on the plant?

Tags: , , ,

Unexpected Harvest

20 Jul

It’s obvious I am not a garden person. I hardly visit our garden and you won’t see me outside especially when the weather has been so darn hot. Sheepishly I can’t tell you what we have except all those air plants, potted plants, the frangipani tree, the hedges, more potted plants, several red palm trees and even more potted plants, and of course the habanero chilli.

Two days ago, a couple of habanero chillies fell from the plant. Worried that the rest may follow suit, hubby decided to harvest the remaining six. Now this plant, it’s the original plant that yielded all those lovely mini Christmas-ornament looking habanero chillies I mentioned last month. Because I hardly visit the garden, I got it wrong when I wrote that the new plant has sprouted new chillies when in fact, it’s still the old plant! The ones that failed to grow were additional attempts by hubby. My bad.

We decided to give the unexpected harvest to friends who missed out trying them from the previous batch. Hopefully, they can take the level of the heat. But we suspect these green ones may not be as super hot as the red riped ones. Regardless, I am pretty sure we will hear from our friends once they have savored these hot habanero chillies.

img_4256

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries