An Abundance of Peppers

This year I planted one of those plants that yields the beautiful, red peppers you see in the Southwestern United States. You know, the kind you see strung and dried in New Mexican farmers markets. This one plant yielded more peppers than hubs and I can possibly consume during growing season. Having been raised by Depression-era parents, I have a waste not/want not way of looking at the world. I simply had to do something with all those peppers.

I always thought those pepper wreaths displayed in the Southwestern markets were meant to be decorative. So I Googled how to string them and learned how easy it is. A few weekends ago I excitedly told hubs I was going to make some pepper decorations.

Me: I have so many of these peppers, I’m going to make those strung-pepper stringy thingies to decorate the kitchen, just like they do out West.

Hubs: Those aren’t decorations (rolls eyes). People string those to dry them, then eat them or cook with them all winter.

Me: Oh.

So I got to work and strung, strung and strung some more.  I gave a bunch to my brother-in-law because hubs reported he loves spicy food.

This is one of the shorter strands I put together. I think they’re so pretty!

And so now we have peppers we can cook with all winter long. I’ve mentioned before how much I love gardening and using the ingredients I grow in my cooking. Winter is soon coming and I won’t be harvesting each night before I make dinner. These peppers will give me satisfaction of eating from my garden until Spring.

Gardeners, what are your tricks to enjoying your harvest in the winter time? Any canners out there?