meansoybean

No group picture (again) this week.. it’s been busy. As you can see, I got some Jalapeño peppers, garlic bulbs and onions. The peppers were, as my CSA calls it, in bulk so partners can take as much as they want, in reasonable quantities. I walked away with way more onions than pictured. I figure it amounts to about two small paper bags full, but onions keep and they’re a good fridge staple. Other basket goodies included: Japanese eggplant, cabbage, lettuce, water melon and tomatoes.
Want to hear a funny story?

A funny thing happened with the Jalapeños. A workmate told me once that she puts her Jalapeños in the freezer. They can be added to a pasta sauce very easily this way. I decided to cut and de-seed them before freezing. Only after about 30 minutes did my hands start burning. I tried cleaning my hands with rubbing alcohol, which worked many times before, but the hot sensation stayed with me for about 12 hours. If I got my hands too close to anything warm it was amplified many times over. I made pizza for dinner, so you can imagine how that felt.

Anyways, on a whim, while cutting, I decided to save some of those devilishly hot Jalapeño seeds. It’s quite simple, really. Just remove all the seeds from the inner ribs of the pepper into a bowl. Fill the bowl with water, give them a swirl and let the seeds settle. You’ll see that some float. Those ones need to be poured off since they’re no good. If you run out of water while pouring the bad ones out just add more, let settle and pour again. Once you’re left with the good seeds you’ll need to spread them on a paper towel placed on a rack and leave them to dry completely.

You won’t be able to pick out the dried seeds off the paper towel, so fold it up and store in a dry place for next year. When you’re ready to plant, just tear off a piece of paper towel with seeds and plant as normal. Volia!