Reap What You Sow

Get the nitty-gritty details on what to do with your bountiful harvest. Plus, a brilliant gift idea!

- Ed Currie

AS THIS ISSUE GOES TO PRESS, IT’S PEPPER TIME, SERIOUS PEPPER TIME.

Though we get to enjoy peppers here in South Carolina year-round with a little effort, the late-summer/early fall season really is the optimal time for harvest.

At PuckerButt, my pepper company, we're concentrating on 28 different varieties for our own and our customers’ production needs. Smokin Ed’s Carolina Reaper is at the forefront, but the other varieties are amazing in their own right. We're also growing about 560 other varieties for seed stock, and to top that off, are conducting ongoing experiments with new and stable crosses. In South Carolina and in nine other states, we’ll be documenting this year’s growth with photos and videos; we’ll keep you posted on how things turn out later this year.

The question I get asked the most is, What are you going to do with all of those peppers? But really, most often, the question people mean to ask is, What am I going to do with my peppers? I still do the same things I’ve always done, it’s just on a different scale and with different equipment now. With that in mind, here are a few things you can do with your peppers at home.

CULTIVATE YOUR SEED STOCK.

We tell everyone to save their seeds— there is no need to buy them year after year. Since we sell seeds, we have between four and 5,800 of each variety set aside for stock, but peppers are self- pollenating for the most part; all you need is one plant to get the ball rolling.