So, we’ve mentioned that sometimes we struggle with our pepper trials. But, sometimes we find something that doesn’t just work, but works incredibly well.
A few years ago, you would have never found Cayenne on any subarctic pepper growing recommendation list. We decided to give it a shot in our trials since it was theoretically able to produce in the 70 day range. That is usually our minimum target for any pepper trial we might conduct.
And to say that it has impressed us is an understatement! In the four years we’ve been growing Cayenne, it puts up very little fuss. It produces moderately to heavy loads, typically with more being produced in those warmer seasons. More importantly, they consistently ripen, even when the temperatures cool down. Even last year, which was a miserable pepper year, we still walked away with a pretty decent cayenne harvest.
What’s most challenging with growing peppers at 65 north is finding those varieties that will fully ripen in cooler climates. It’s great that we can grow those basic jalapenos, hot wax and all sorts of peppers that are considered “ripe” when they are still green. But, there’s something that happens when the pepper fully ripens, the flavors evolve quite significantly. So, for proper diversity, we really want to find those that can mature in our short and typically cool seasons. That’s a big part of what our pepper trials are all about!
We learned many years ago that growing super hot and other niche peppers was pretty much out of reach in the subarctic. Even in the greenhouse. We’ve been exploring a lot of the more basic varieties and have had a surprising amount of success with them. We’re not even sad that we can’t achieve a “zillion” Scoville, we’ve found we can get plenty of heat with a few basic hot pepper types.
Even with a pepper like Cayenne, we’re still fairly well “up there” on the Scoville scale. On average, Cayenne are going to come in around 5 to 20 times hotter than your average jalapeno. You’re going to notice it in those dishes you put them into. Even if you’re a pepper head like us that thinks jalapenos aren’t spicy and habanero peppers are mild.
Our favorite preservation technique for peppers is, of course, freezing. We used to do things like hot sauces, ferments and occasionally other various projects. But, we’ve kind of realized that it’s better to leave that “art” to places and people where pepper growing is exceptional. For us, simply having some peppers sliced or diced, at the ready, has been great for our cooking needs throughout the year. We often just want to spice things up a bit and frozen peppers are yet another way for us to get there.
We’re really happy to have found that Cayenne works well for us. We escalated it up to our “tried and true” pepper variety list earlier this year. So, if you’re looking for something that’ll put off some heat and is fairly easy to grow, this is one of those varieties we can get behind!
Oh, and if you’re wondering where you can get that tried and true variety list? Check out the link the comments!
