2015's Season of Super Hots

It's time for gardening again, finally! This summer we are again growing some super hots at The Little Lake House after taking a summer off and growing only the "milder" Serrano, Habanero and Jalapeno peppers. Instead of going with more ghost peppers, Cayennes or Aji Limons we are trying some new varieties instead.

Thanks to my good friend Paul Quick, from Quick's Hot Spice, which by the way is a website you really need to check out, we have several pretty exciting varieties to grow this year. Paul makes his own hot pepper seasoning blends and has some pretty big-name local customers! Anyway, over chatting about the upcoming garden season I mentioned that I had not started any hot pepper seeds in time, and would be stuck seeing what the local nurseries have in stock, and Paul offered some of his extra seedlings! Folks, I tell ya, it's all about who you know!

Pretty fantastic selection of pepper plants!

So what do we have growing this year? Hang on to your antacids folks. It's about to get warm in here.

First up, the Kraken Scorpion. The Kraken Scorpion comes from Fords Fiery Foods. This pepper is known as an F3 chocolate scorpion x bhut assam jolokia. The pods are LARGE and brown in color, often larger than a baseball or small bell pepper. I am super excited to grow this guy! Pictures I found online are gorgeous big shiny peppers, and from what I hear, ridiculous heat!

Hot banana peppers from a couple summers back

The Infinity Naga is next on the face-melting list. Of all the peppers in the world, this one surprises me the most, for the mere fact that it was created by a British chili breeder. My experience with British foods, in the years I lived there, was bland and unexciting so I was quite surprised to read that in Lincolnshire, Nick Woods created this pepper that held the Guinness World Record for the hottest pepper for a whole two weeks before being unseated by the Naga Viper. Topping out at 1,067,286 on the Scoville Scale, this little pepper is not playing around. Serious heat!

Our first successful ghost chili in the garden in 2013.

I have been planning on growing unusual tomatoes, like blue cherry tomatoes, brown tomatoes, so of course, I was thrilled to find Paul had included a chocolate brown pepper, the Black Congo. This Caribbean pepper is quite a striking beauty with it's dark and shiny skin and deep chocolate color. It's a Habanero, but is much hotter and larger than the common Hab we see in the stores. Apparently it's a favorite in fruit salsas but I think I'd prefer it in a savory dish.

Paul always adds a little sample of his spicy pepper seasoning
blends- you need to get on the website and get some!

Peppers not only taste delicious but many of them are quite decorative as well. In my hunt for odd colored veggies, purple peppers kept appearing in the garden catalogs, and also in my goody package from Paul! I can't wait to see the Morango. This Portugese pepper is probably one of the most exciting varieties I have ever grown. Little peppers grow in clusters like little bouquets of pepper happiness. They are purple too! This is going to be so much fun for me!