Gardening with Xpress: Preserving peppers, growing Brussels sprouts and saving squash seeds

Rains and cooler weather have finally arrived, which means our heat-loving crops are on their way out, while fall goodies are taking a sigh of relief. Send me your gardening questions at gardening@mountainx.com, and I’ll be happy to answer them in October before we take a break until early spring.

Pepper projects

My sweet peppers and chiles took forever to get going, and now I’ve got more than I know what to do with. Any suggestions for preserving peppers?

Peppers and chiles are indeed crops that require patience. Even when you start seeds as early as February, you’ll need to wait several months to begin harvesting. But, once they get going, they’re really generous. Here are some of my favorite ways to preserve sweet peppers and spicy chiles.

Roast sweet peppers over a fire, on a gas grill or under the broiler in the oven until their skin blackens. Place them in a metal bowl covered with a pot lid or baking sheet. (This helps the skin separate from the flesh, making it easier to remove.) Once the peppers have cooled a bit, gently peel off the skin, occasionally dipping your fingers and the peppers in a bowl of cold water. Also pull out the seeds and inner pith. The roasted pepper flesh can be bagged and frozen for later use, like adding to dips, spreads, soups or salsas. It’s best to wait until you have a significant number of peppers to do this, as it’s a bit of a project.

Both sweet peppers and spicy chiles can be pickled in vinegar and water-bath canned. Since they are low-acid foods, it’s not advisable to can peppers or chiles without the acidification of vinegar, unless you plan to pressure can and/or add citric acid. Peppers and chiles can be pickled whole, as slices or rings, or made into tangy relish.

To make lacto-fermented hot sauce, fill a glass jar with coarsely chopped chiles plus whatever other flavorings you desire, such as sweet peppers, carrots, garlic, ginger, etc. Make a salt brine by mixing a ratio of 1 1/4 teaspoon of fine salt per 1 cup of water to make the amount needed for your jar(s). Pour the brine over the veggies and place a clean weight on top so all the veggies remain fully submerged.

There are many fancy weights and fermentation lids you can buy, or you can just use an appropriately sized rock that’s scrubbed clean or a zip-close bag filled with water. When you keep the veggies in the brine and not exposed to air, they lacto-ferment with the help of good bacteria into something yummy, rather than rotting into something yucky.

Place the jar in a pan or plastic container to catch any overflow, and let it sit at room temperature for five to 12 days. After the helpful microbes have done their thing, you can strain out some of the brine and blend the fermented veggies into your hot sauce, adding back in more brine and/or apple cider vinegar until you reach your desired texture. For a homemade sriracha-style hot sauce, add a sweetener like honey or maple syrup.

Another simple way to preserve chiles and peppers is to create a seasoning salt. Blend the chiles with enough salt to make a paste. Spread the paste on a dehydrator tray and dry it until it’s brittle. Once the mixture is completely dry, use a blender or food processor to turn it into powder and store in a sealed container.

Fussy Brussels

Can we grow Brussels sprouts in Western North Carolina?

The short answer is yes, it’s possible to grow Brussels sprouts in our region, but I don’t personally know any home gardeners who do it regularly. This veggie requires a long season, a lot of space and fertility, and is “fussy like cauliflower,” according to one of my favorite sources for seeds and growing info, FedCo Seeds.

If you really love them and want to have an adventure growing them, here are some tips: Start seeds by mid-May, either in flats or in the ground; give them plenty of water and fertility, otherwise they will likely make tiny sprouts. Pinch off the growing tip when the lower sprouts are between a half inch and three-quarters of an inch in diameter, usually in early fall — this tells the plant to put more energy into sprouts and less into green growth. Give the plants plenty of space; each one needs about 9 square feet.

Experimenting with Brussels sprouts could be a fun and potentially tasty way to use up extra garden space if you happen to have a surplus. If you have a small garden, it might not be worthwhile, and I would suggest a smaller-stature cabbage, like Early Jersey Wakefield, or a sprouting-type broccoli like Piracicaba instead of big, fussy Brussels sprouts.

Seed-saving sense

Can I plant the seeds from inside my winter squash?

Winter squash are one of the wonderful crops that we harvest at full maturity, meaning the seeds inside them are ripe. What a miraculous thing, the cycle of life! However, there are some considerations to keep in mind.

All winter squash varieties are in the Cucurbitaceae plant family, and in the genus Cucurbita. Within this genus, there are three main species: maxima, pepo and moschata. Varieties within each species can cross with one another, while varieties in different species won’t cross. Meaning, if you grow delicatas at the same time as zucchinis (both pepos), they will most likely cross, so their seeds will grow into plants that are some combination of delicata and zucchini — probably not what you’re going for. On the other hand, if you grow delicatas and butternuts, they are different species (pepo and moschata, respectively), so they won’t cross with one another.

Squash flowers are pollinated by insects, like bees, that can travel long distances. So, even if you just grow one kind of squash, it’s worth paying attention to what’s growing in neighboring gardens and fields.

Another factor to consider is whether you’re growing open-pollinated or hybrid varieties. Open-pollinated varieties have been developed using traditional plant-breeding techniques. These plants will grow “true to type,” meaning they’ll be the same as their parent plants (unless they’re allowed to cross with another member of their species).

Hybrids (usually denoted by “F-1” in the variety description) have been developed with intensive inbreeding and crossing techniques. Seeds from hybrid plants will not grow true to type; they will be different from the parent plant, even if they don’t cross with another variety. Hybrid crops are not the same as genetically modified (GMO) crops, which also won’t grow true to type and, in some cases, have been manipulated so their seeds won’t grow at all. GMOs aren’t yet showing up in garden vegetables — let’s keep it that way!

If all of this is overwhelming, never fear. You can just save some seeds from a squash you harvest, plant them and see what happens. You may end up with something wonderful! However, I wouldn’t suggest depending on that crop for next year’s squash harvest unless you take these considerations to heart. For more information on seed saving, check out an oldie-but-goodie book called Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth.