If you’re a person of a certain age, you may recall the tongue-twister about Peter Piper and his peck of pickled peppers. My mom taught us that one and some selling of seashells, and that darn fuzzy bear named Wuzzy. The one about Peter always comes to mind when I am planting, watering and picking my peppers. This fall, for the first time, I decided I was ready to do some canning.

The weather turned on us in the last few days and I knew it wouldn’t be long before my cayenne peppers shriveled up and fell onto an icy and muddy grave. I was determined not to miss out on any of that cayenne capsaicin with all of its medicinal properties.

I had already lost one pepper to a nosy and hungry squirrel. I do believe it will stick to the acorns and black walnuts after tasting that heat.

In previous seasons, I had frozen some cayenne peppers to add to soups and dishes. However, I like eating the peppers, not just using them for seasoning.

Maybe ten years ago I purchased a water bath canner and a few accessories (that I cannot find now!). Until this month, I had only used the pot for homemade chili and soups, and for parboiling greens to put in the freezer. The old ways of our parents and grandparents live on in our house.

Canning recipes vary depending on the vegetable or fruit type, and many can be found online. Common to vegetable canning is salt, 5% vinegar, the primary vegetable, and some secondary nibbles, such as garbanzo beans, green beans and carrots. This is the recipe I used, with my own modifications of course!

The basics are to have clean jars, fill the jars with hot contents, seal with bands, boil the jars and let them cool for a period before eating.

The peppers turned out great and like folks say about that one hot sauce brand, I put that * on everything. 😁

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Let’s grow something! (and can it after you harvest it!)