Instead of tp, in the desert you have two options:

rabbit brush or sage

Sage leaves are soft and smell nice, especially after it rains.

heh heh

What's soft & velvety? The desert, the sage or something else...?

Good idea, though: herb-infused toilet paper might be a real goer. I can imagine a nice bit of basil would spark up the old nether regions quite nicely

Wow, Kelly, you're starting to sound like a super-girl; like Ashley, Jen & Marnee all rolled into one. Jeez, wouldn't that be a handful! I'll have to put you in my little black book

Last year, I grew jalapenos, serranos, hot hungarian wax (bananas), cayenne, anaheims (New Mexicans) & bell peppers. Plus I had basil, tarragon, thyme & eggplant.

I'm not a soil-tiller so I put them all in pots, which is good for the chiles as it keeps their roots warm. There's nothing like a warm root...

So, I harvested *at least* a thousand chiles, and I've got a good 300 frozen, mainly jalapenos. The hungarians and anaheims, although large, are too thin fleshed for freezing, plus they went straight from the plant and into my mouth I also dried all my cayennes and will make my own chile powder in the next few weeks.

Next year I shall grow more varieties with my favorite jalapenos leading the way; I had three plants this year but will go for six next time. Also, I'm keen to try habaneros and poblanos. I'm also keen to grow my own ginger and have a real desire for wasabi, but it's a tricky little bugger requiring a very particular environment so that'll be a long way off.

I buy imported Mexican chiles especially anchos (dried poblanos), pasillas, and chipotles (dried & smoked red jalapenos). I want to give smoking my own jalapenos a try next year and will try to import some mesquite for the smoker. Also, I'd like to grow poblanos, not to turn into anchos, but because I've heard great things about their taste.

I also want to make my own smoked paprika, which requires a red pod that can be dried well. I think there's a specific paprika chile but I also believe you can use any sweet, red pod.

People who aren't into chiles get the wrong idea about heat versus flavor. I can take heat, and love it at times, but I go more for the great flavor or different varieties. The pruney, berry nose of anchos is just out of this world.

Before I cook with thick-fleshed pods like jalapeno, I usually set them in the oven for an hour on low heat to soften them up. Then I split them and scrape out the seeds & placenta (the white ribs). It's actually the placenta that contains the capsaicin, which then finds it's way into the seeds. The pepper at this point is sweeter and is better in the meal. I like enough heat that I get a little prickle of perspiration on the forehead, and as I have a fairly large forehead, it's a real blast

Interestingly, capsaicin is an irritant for mammals but not birds. This allows the birds to eat the pods and seeds, then deposit them in their droppings away from the mother plant. Evolution at work.

It's the shortest day here, and cold, but in only ten weeks it'll be spring and I'll be germinating my seeds in the hot water cupboard. Then they'll sit in the sun inside until they've got a few leaves and by that time it'll be warm enough to put them outside in their growing pots, around the last week of October. By February I should have a bumper crop.

It's a hell of a lot of fun!

Hungarian Hot Wax (about 6" long)

Red Jalapenos on the grill

Poblanos (my new friends )

I have to side with the majority here on the question of sage. Fortunately I'll have no need of it in the desert, which is a perfectly immoral place. Adding sage to scorpions and cactuses and death is even worse.

Kelly, I'd suggest keeping your zucchini safe from any and all purveyors of such dreadful things.

Well Marnee, at least I now know one good use for sage! It certainly isn't useful for making a lovely Southern Thanksgiving dish (dressing) into some god awful sagey Yankee concoction (stuffing).

Jennifer, you know I'll trade you a pile of zuccini for some truffle oil. In fact, by the end of the summer, I am usually willing to give away some truffle oil to anyone who will take my zuccini. (Maybe that should be in Solo Thrust as well!)

Kelly

I learned from a desert survival article I read once that desert sage is the best thing to use when "going to the bathroom", ya know, in the desert because its soft, velvety.

I'm just sayin'.

it's all about chile red or green and grown only in New Mexico. If you ever get a chance to dine on New Mexico chiles I highly recommend it.

A pox on both of your houses! How can you resist the velvety texture of sage???

Kelly, I was enamored with your garden last year, as it was so lovingly constructed and cared for. Despite your need to configure things differently this year, I'm willing to bet you'll still have gorgeous vegetables. I'll trade you for some truffle oil.

We've had problems with waterlogged tomatoes the past couple of summers, so I hope we fare better this year. Note that I'm using the royal "We," which is really my mother and sister, as I'm the one in the family who tends to kill anything planted. Hey, I can't be good at *all* things food. I am proud to say that my fern "Herbert," however, has been alive and resistant to death since 1999. Woot!


Jennifer


-- Food Philosophy. Sensuality. Sass.

From one sage-hater to another: Thank you!