The first pepper planted.

This was one of the seed swap peppers that we received from @earthymrsrice

After reading a comment on rareseeds.com from a lady in Toronto I thought I should start these guys earlier than I would have otherwise. She started her plants indoors in January and planted them out in May. I’ll have to wait until after June 1 here (that’s our last official frost date) unless I cover them.  She grew them up a trellis and by July they were 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide producing tons of peppers. The packet of seeds I received says to expect 50-75 peppers per plant. 

Seed started February 2, 2021

It was supposed to be February 1, but my potting soil in the shed was frozen solid. I had to bring it in the house and let it thaw overnight.

Size:

6 feet high or more, by 3 feet wide

Location:

full sun, at least 6 hours

Matures in:

90 days

Native to:

The baccatum pepper species originated in Peru, but this variety was domesticated in Brazil.

Why did I Choose it?

Seed swap win. This pepper looks like a lot of fun and sounds delicious. 

Uses?

Fresh, hot sauce, salsa, dried. 

Specifics:

Unique, star-shaped fruit. 

Brazilian starfish boasts complex floral and fruity tones that are perfectly offset by medium heat. Expect surprises when snacking on this pepper. The fruit varies in heat but is often medium spicy, sometimes exceeding that of jalapeños (30,000 SHU).

Fruit is always juicy and quite sweet. Curious-looking fruit reaches 2 inches in width, ripening to brilliant red at maturity. 

Plants are vigorous and unusual, having an almost weeping, vine-like habit. Slow to yield but, by the end of the season, amazingly prolific.

Planting them close together will also help them to grow better.  Tea made from hot peppers is a good insecticide.  

Companion Plants:

Buckwheat repels European corn borer that can devastate pepper plants. 

Basil repels fruit flies and some beetles. 

Alliums deter aphids and beetles.   

They thrive in the sun but prefer cool, moist roots so any low ground cover can work such as strawberries, oregano, and marjoram. 

They have root exudates that prevent root rot so plant near plants that can benefit from this. 

They also like cucumbers, eggplant, swiss chard, squash, parsley, and rosemary.

Avoid: 

Beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and fennel.

Personal Notes:

Last year my peppers didn’t turn out very well. They were slow to get started because our house was too cold. 

This year we have seed heating mats that should help the peppers germinate better and produce stronger, healthier plants. This way they won’t take as long to settle in when we transplant them outside and we should get peppers ripening faster, not at the end of the season only to be killed by the frost before they were truly ripe. 

We interplanted strawberries last year as a recommended companion plant to keep the soil cool and moist. It worked very well as a ground cover to keep the weeds down. They were just runners so we only got a pound of strawberries or so but hopefully this year they will be well rooted and produce more. In this way we get two crops from the same space. The strawberries first and then the peppers.

As a side note, and a bit of a rant - 

Enid, one of my Beltsville Small White turkeys lost a toenail today. 

There was blood everywhere. Losing a toenail in the poultry world is actually incredibly graphic and macabre. But don't worry, I separated her and cleaned her up and it will grow back. 

However, if ever anyone tries to tell you that chickens are vegetarians, please tell them to come see my little cannibals.

Which brings me, tangentially, to chicken feed companies touting completely vegetarian protein sources for their feed. If you see anything about your chicken, or chicken products being vegetarian fed ask yourself this question:

What exactly do chickens eat naturally?

Because isn’t that the point of buying my free wheeling, run wherever they please just please not on the road, eggs? Because they are farm fresh ... a life lived in the sunshine and fresh air ...  better for you ... more natural?

Natural for a chicken is an omnivore diet, not vegetarian. 

They are incredible foragers and that means grass and flowers and berries and my vegetables if they can make it into the garden, but also bugs and worms and frogs and mice and well … a lot of living things. I saw this crazy video once, of a hawk that made it into a coop and the chickens attacked it! If he hadn't flown back out he would have been lunch, instead of the other way around.

That’s why we supplement our chickens' feed with alfalfa hay and black-oil sunflower seeds and freeze dried mealworms. Plus the odd field mouse, I’m sure, if it decides to try and get into the chicken feed. It may sound gross but that’s actually naturally what they eat. Interestingly some studies have shown that vegetarian fed chickens are deficient in methionine, an essential protein-based amino acid. They need it, and we need it. 

So if your eggs say they’re from vegetarian fed chickens isn’t there a little bit of animal cruelty going on there? They are not getting fed what they need, and what makes them happy. Believe me, my chickens know when the mealworm bucket comes out and they freak out!

We have had one of those “free range” chicken boxes put up nearby. The chickens are “free”, but there is no fresh air and sunshine. No bugs. No odd frog or mouse. The eggs will be sold in the grocery store as “free range” and “cage free” and most people will think that they are a good thing. And believe me, they are so much better than the awful conditions of caged birds on battery farms (don’t Google search pictures, it’ll break your heart). 

I just wish that they actually got to scratch through the grass, sunbathe in their favourite dusthole, flock together when their rooster makes that special call that means I have just found the most delicious bug ever (I’ll try and capture it on video for you one day).

That is cage free. That is truly free range. 

My hens salute you for your excellent choice in truly natural eggs.