Re: [CH] Bacterial Wilt? And Jalapeno recipe
danceswithcarp (dcombs@bloomington.in.us)
Wed, 14 Jul 1999 17:58:22 -0500 (EST)
On Wed, 14 Jul 1999 EHarts5782@aol.com wrote:
> The plants are growing fast and producing fruit. Then,
> certain plants suddenly wilt
> while maintaining their green color -- no yellowing at all. Nearby plants
> are not affected. When I pull the plants, the root mass is only about 3 to 4
> inches in diameter. I have been burning the wilted plants, just in case.
Are the plants actually dead? I've had mysterious wilts before a hunnert
and fifty or so miles north of you in a drought, sometimes for days. I
just water the crap out of them and a lot of times they come back. I
would wait until those leaves are *crisp* before I pulled them. I've lost
a few this year due to wilts, but this wilt makes the leaves look kind of
oily. Even then I wait until the leaves dry out to yank them. We've got
about 400 in the ground.
Bread and Butter Jalapenos
1 gallon of sliced jalapenos, onion bulbs or sweet onion chunks, and a
couple of fresh red cayenne-types per jar. Soak for an hour in cold water
after slicing (this will help float out some of the seeds)
7 1/2 cups of 5% acid white vinegar.
3 cups (24 oz) of honey.
3 teaspoons powdered ginger
3 teaspoons mustard seed
3 teaspoons celery seed
1 1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder.
Put the above fixings in a big pan/pot and bring to a slow boil. Simmer
for 10 minutes. Dump in jalapenos, onions, & cayennes and heat mix back
up to a simmer and stir and turn mix for 10 minutes.
Pack peppers in canning jars putting a couple of cayenne-types in per jar,
and leaving 1/2 inch head space. Pour the hot sweet mix in on the
peppers, again leaving 1/2 incxh head space. Seal and immerse fully in a
simmering hotwater bath at 180F (not a roiling boil) for 10 minutes.
Remove and after cooling put in a dark cupboard for 6 weeks for aging.
Serve on Ritz kind of crackers (subliminal "Sex" written on crackers only
makes them better) or as a stand-alone relish; Best danged home-canned
jalapenos you'll ever munch.
addendum: you can add alum at the rate of 1/4 teaspoon per pint jar when
you are packing the peppers, but I've never been able to tell that this
keeps them crisper so I've stopped using it.
You can also mix in cucumber chunks or slices at whatever replacement
ratio you'd like as this recipe was adapted from a bread and butter
cucumber pickle that my aunt made. This is my third year using it. The
10 minute simmer bath is still going to leave you with a kind of mushy
jalapeno, but if you don't overboil the jars it's not as bad as it could
be.
carp