Today's harvest..chili peppers

[Mare]

These are California chilies that we grew this year and although I have preserved many..roasted and frozen, Tim has been bugging me to do something with what's beginning to rot and fall to the ground,,before the first freeze. After the first freeze, all will be mush.

These are still viable and I'm going to make some "Ristras", (a way to hang and dry chilies), I'll show you when I'm done. Has anyone else ever done this? I just learned on YouTube:). Wish me luck!

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[kendrafitz]

They are very pretty! Are Ristras a decoration or something to eat?

[Mare]

They are both, Kendra. They are sometimes used as decorations and are said to bring good health and good luck, when hung in your home. Personally, I'm just wanting to dry them to put in sauces for later down the road :)

[Dragonlady2]

I have never tried drying peppers. I'll be interested in how they turn out. I might give this a go myself next summer if you are successful Mare.

[Mare]

Helena, I YouTubed how to dry chili peppers. I'll try and post a pic after I have them hung up.

[luckyandjenn]

Great harvest ill also have to look into drying peppers ..

[Mare]

Great harvest ill also have to look into drying peppers ..

The Ristras YouTube video I watched was good. I had the string and jute twine I needed but I made the mistake of cutting many of the peepers off the bush, rather than pulling them off. This gave me too short of a tail that was needed to tie the string to.

I ended up using the other method for drying chilies which was stringing them with a needle and thread, through their stem, then hanging to dry.

[Lady]

Interesting, I think the would look great hanging but would they give off a smell too? As you can tell I have no ideas about what it would be like to have hanging chilies around the house.

[Mare]

Interesting, I think the would look great hanging but would they give off a smell too? As you can tell I have no ideas about what it would be like to have hanging chilies around the house.

They are beautiful all strung up but yes, they should be left to dry outside and hung, outside. Sorry I didn't mean to say hang them in your home but around your home. We have bought them in the open markets of Mexico and our Central Valley of California. I like to hang them from the rafters on our deck.