Late summer is pepper season. Farmers are harvesting everything from sweet bell peppers to peppers so hot they’ll take the skin off your tongue.
Corinna Garmon of Garmon Family Farm in Whitesburg, near Carrollton, was looking for some extra-hot peppers. She competes in an annual chili competition, and while her chili was good, she was looking for an extra edge to make her chili as hot as possible while still remaining edible.
Garmon bought a selection called “Volcano in a Box” from Pepper Joe’s and sowed the seeds. She’s still waiting for those plants to mature. Apparently, truly hot peppers take longer to bear fruit. Pepper plants are perennials, so if she doesn’t have a harvest this year, she plans to pot them up and overwinter them indoors, hoping for that truly hot pepper harvest next year.
Fortunately for her customers, Garmon’s jalapenos and cayennes are producing just fine, so she has at least two kinds of hot peppers for sale at the Wednesday morning Dunwoody Green Market.
Unlike her “Volcano in a Box” peppers, jalapenos are generally ready to harvest about two months after seeding, and the peppers themselves go from green to red on the plants in about two weeks’ time.
“The longer the pepper ripens on the plant, the hotter it will be. You can buy green jalapenos, but if you can find peppers that ripened to red before being harvested, they will be sweeter as well as hotter,” Garmon said.
For most of her customers, hot peppers are not a huge volume item.
“People buy one or two hot peppers unless they’re planning to can them or make hot pepper sauce,” Garmon said. Her five jalapeno plants can produce a gallon of peppers a week, plenty for her customers and for her own use as well.
Garmon recommends drying the cayenne peppers and grinding them to make your own dried red pepper flakes. For the jalapenos, she likes to can them, cook with them and use them fresh in all kinds of dishes.
She also warns her customers that if you’re handling hot peppers, you should wear gloves. The super-hot varieties can even blister the skin, so it pays to be careful. She particularly recommends gloves for those who wear contact lenses.
“The oil will stay on your hands no matter how well you scrub, and even the next day, there can be enough oil left to burn your eyes,” Garmon said.
Garmon suggests the best way to store hot peppers is to freeze them. Just put them in a freezer-proof container, no preparation required. Then as you need hot peppers throughout the year, just remove the number required and allow them to thaw a little before chopping for your recipe. This works for all varieties of hot peppers.
Cooking demos:
6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 6. Chef Seth Freedman of Forage and Flame. East Atlanta Village Farmers Market, Atlanta. www.farmeav.com
9:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 8. Chef Drew Belline from No. 246 working with sweet peppers. Morningside Farmers Market, Atlanta. www.morningsidemarket.com
10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 8. Chef Hugh Acheson of Five and Ten. Peachtree Road Farmers Market, Atlanta. www.peachtreeroadfarmersmarket.com
For sale
Vegetables and fruit: apples, arugula, African squash, Asian greens, beets, cantaloupe and specialty melons, carrots, chard, corn, cucumbers, edamame, eggplant, fennel, field peas, figs, garlic, ginger, green and yellow beans, green onions, herbs, kale, komatsuna, lettuce, long beans, Malabar spinach, muscadine grapes, mushrooms, okra, onions, pea shoots, peaches, pears, peppers, pole beans, potatoes, spaghetti squash, spinach, sweet potato greens, tomatoes, turnips, watermelon, yellow squash, zucchini
From local reports
Wahoo Grill’s Jamaican Jerk Potato Salad
Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes plus cooling time
Serves: 8
Wahoo Grill’s chef Scott Davis created this Jamaican-inspired potato salad, available for a limited time to meet your late summer cravings. The addition of the yucca is a nice tropical touch, but be sure to buy your yucca from a store that has a good turnover. No habanero on hand? You may substitute a whole ripe jalapeno if you like. For the photo, Wahoo Grill garnished the salad with a few grilled mini peppers and a grilled scallion.
2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/4 pounds), cut into 2-inch slices
1 yucca (about 1 pound), peeled, cut into 2-inch slices
1 medium red bell pepper, diced (about 1 cup)
2 green onions, thinly sliced (reserve a few slices for garnish)
1 tablespoon Jamaican jerk seasoning
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1/2 habanero pepper, finely diced
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon tamarind paste
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
Salt and pepper
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and add sweet potatoes and yucca slices. Boil, covered, until tender, about 10 minutes. If potatoes are done before yucca, remove slices and allow yucca to continue to cook. Move cooked slices to colander and drain. When cool enough to handle, remove peel from sweet potatoes and dice potatoes and yucca into bite-size pieces.
While potatoes are cooking, in a large bowl, toss together bell pepper, green onions, jerk seasoning, thyme and habanero. Set aside.
In a small bowl, make dressing by whisking together coconut milk, mayonnaise, sugar, ginger, tamarind paste and lime juice. Stir dressing into peppers in large bowl.
When potatoes are cooled and diced, stir into vegetable/dressing mix. Season to taste. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving. Garnish with slivered green onions.
Per serving: 174 calories (percent of calories from fat, 34), 3 grams protein, 27 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 7 grams fat (4 grams saturated), 1 milligram cholesterol, 58 milligrams sodium.
