Chilli string

[BroadRipple]

Reet I am SO impressed and frankly envious...none of my home chillis have produced a single damn flower, let alone a fruit...and my office chilli (yes i'm obsessed) has managed one proud green one, and no sign of anything else.
where have I gone wrong? I tried so hard...gave them all the best opportunities...nourishing food...educational games...hardly any television...and this is how they repay me.

[BroadRipple]

Reet and other chilli-drying fans...can you tell me what to do? my yield has been pathetic but I have a few plus a mixture from Riverford...and I want to try.
a)do i need to wait until they're ripe or will my e.g. pale green Hungarian Hot Wax work? and as my others are tiny and dark green, and they're not likely to ripen much given the sun we're not having, what about those?
b)do you just thread them and hang them up?
c)what on EARTH did you use for the thread?
thank you and ariba
whaddya think?

[Cummings]

Can I jump on too??

I have a great collection of Scotch Bonnets - has anybody dried these using string before? I've read they may not be suitable..

If not - what on earth will I do with them all!

[kizkiz]

From what i have read, cutting a slit on the more moist chillis will aid the drying process and stop them going mouldy. Plenty of people also freeze chillis.

My ristra

[Florence Fennel]

Think it's called a Ristra and is supposed to bring a house good luck. I'm the same as Reet, I sew them with a needle through the green stem, not the actual chilli and I wait until they are ripe. They'll ripen if you bring them indoors. As far as the vodka is concerned, I just prick the chillies with a needle and pop them into the bottle before storing in the freezer. The hotter the better for my son, so this year I'm trying Scotch Bonnets in there. There is a bonus. You can drink the displaced vodka.

[reetnproper]

I've only strung up my cayennes because they have a nice long stalk (apparently this is vital). My smaller, patio chillies (hardly any stalk at all to speak of), I leave to air dry in a dish in the kitchen. This has worked for the last couple of years, although I have also dried some in the warming oven on my old Rayburn before and they lasted forever.

Over the last couple of years, when the chilli plants start to show the signs of colder days and nights (dying off that is ), I have pick all the chillis on the plant and left them on a plate to continue to ripen, which they did. Mind you I don't think they are ever as hot when ripened like this but they do turn red.

These are the chillis I harvested in 2009:



Reet
x

[northepaul]

Cool! I'm gonna have a go at this too - I can hang them next to my garlics!!

[BroadRipple]

thanks for explaining, chilli fans. strangely moving idea isn't it, all over Britain a few plucky grapes sewing their chillis in perfect harmony...definitely the future for world peace if only we could get Cameron on board.
Reet am SO impressed with your frankly scary chilli display. i took a mad photo today of some of my (less impressive) produce and now need to summon the courage to show it to you lot.
ok another question - if you're meant to slit them, why do you think you thread them through the green bit not the flesh? wouldn't piercing the flesh achieve something similar? prob is i haven't seen one in real life so not sure how they look down mexico way.
also, do you think i'd be mad to try the greenies? i think some just ARE green, maybe...

[Florence Fennel]

I think the Ristra proper BR is done without the needle and thread, a bit like stringing onions/garlic. I put the needle through the stem rather than piercing the flesh of the chilli, figuring that this may start decomposition rather than drying IYKWIM? You don't need courage to show us the photo you daft a'p'orth, we'd love to see what you've grown. Personally, I'm not keen on chilli and gave myself an OMG moment when I tried one of my green ones. I think the flavour develops as they ripen and while they are green you only get the heat, but I'm no expert.

[kizkiz]

They will get hotter as they ripen. They also,apparently, will be hotter if they ripen on the stem rather than after being picked.

http://www.chillisgalore.co.uk/phpBB...e4e5cfef9c4afc
This is a great forum for chilli heads.
There is a thread in the preserving forum giving great advice about ristras and preserving, but you have to register to read it

[reetnproper]

Lol, BR I didn't think about the composition of my picture at the time, it was only after I'd taken it that I realise how strange it looked . Let's have a look at your chilli pic' then - being nosey (well I am ), we Grapes love a good gander at each others veg.

Another thing I was told (and it appears to be true based on my totally unscientific experience) is that if you let the chilli plants get a little thirsty between waterings, while the chillis are ripening, the chillis get hotter.

Reet
x