Warming the cockles
Well against all the odds I finally got a (just about) ripe chilli on my ‘Carolina Reaper’ – the hottest chilli you can grow even though it has been pipped as the hottest of all chillies – but you can’t get the seeds of that. *
I managed to get three plants through the ‘slug amuse-bouche‘ stage and one was a bit stronger because it was from my first sowing – the other two from a later sowing when only one of the originals survived. But they grew away OK and flowered and have set more fruit than I will ever need. For some reason the other two plants, which have yet to show any ripe fruits, have produced more ‘typical’ chillies, with the scary sting in the tail while this one looks almost tame and is not very wrinkly either. It may develop wrinkles as it ages. After all why shouldn’t it when I have to.
The problem now is that I am too scared to try it!
Even in what was notably a sunless and wet summer I am too chicken risk the heat !
Much more practical is that the apples have all been picked. Many have been stewed and, in desperation to find another way to use them, we made apple butter which worked out well. Some is in jars and some in the freezer. Cooked in the slow cooker, it is just apples, sugar and cinnamon (one batch with vanilla and cloves too ) and because it is lower in sugar than jam has a short ‘cupboard life’ so I am hoping freezing will keep us in apple flavour through winter.
But some of the apples are not yet ready to eat so are in the garage to mature/ripen. These include ‘Ross Nonpareil’ which is not a looker but a nice eater, ‘Pinova’ (Piñata) which has had its first decent crop this year, and is similar to ‘Pink Lady’ and ‘Winter Gem’ which we always enjoy once it is ready. Some ‘American Mother’ need using up too and are going a bit soft but they smell so good and they may produce some ethylene to help the others mature. (I know they should be removed really).
I am not sure whether to feel awful that I have so many plastic buckets or virtuous that I feed the birds so much! At least the buckets get used again and again. (I do buy fatballs in boxes where I can).
*Pepper ‘X’ is now the hottest chilli in the world but the breeder, Ed Currie, who made little money from creating ‘Carolina Reaper’, is not letting his new creation be grown by others.
*’Carolina Reaper is from 1.5 to 2.2 million Scoville, about 250 times hotter than a Jalapeño.
The Biking Gardener 
We made an attack on our picked apples the other day and lightly stewed enough to make a number of Apple Crumbles as required. We squeezed a lot to make juice and have held on to Cox’s Orange Pippin for eating as it seems to store well and is also a good one for Tarte Tatin as it holds its shape through cooking.
I have a slow juicer but it takes an age and can’t quite face that yet. The sun is out and I am washing the greenhouse ready for winter instead – needs doing.
We bought a kit two years ago, both manual. One reduces the apples to a pulp and the other is a simple press the juice. We then heat the juice to pasteurise it and we then bottle it.
That is very organised and sensible. The apple trees are still young and we don’t have a huge surplus yet but with luck we will get to the stage you are enjoying soon and then I will have to consider a press.
I’ll be intrigued to see what you do with the Reaper. I love spice and heat but it’s got be enjoyable, not a feat of endurance! Something very Autumnal and comforting about the buckets of apples ripening.
I agree. I think I will use some apples and make chilli jam/jelly. The apples smell good in the garage too.
There are too many good edible peppers to grow to grow one that is so unpleasant to eat.