Garden Update + Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe

by Katie Poppe

Our very first main growing season has come to a close. As with any new garden, we learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t.

There were some difficulties and failures this season: Many of our tomato plants were taken over by disease and attacked by tomato hornworms (gross!), some of our cucumber plants were uprooted when a big stormed knocked over the trellises, our potato harvest suffered because I planted too late, I planted way more herbs than we could ever need, and the list could go on. We learned a lot from these challenges that will benefit our garden in years to come. Because every garden is unique in its location and soil type, trial-and-error is an important part of gardening success!

We also had great successes in the garden despite our setbacks: We had some of the most delicious tomatoes I’ve ever eaten, our eight varieties of peppers thrived, and we gorged ourselves on lots of zucchini, radishes, beets, and more!

Even though the garden has been cleared and the soil has been tilled, the Clem&Thyme garden keeps on giving with Fall vegetables. At the end of September, we planted strawberries, radishes, collard greens, mustard greens, and spinach. All should be ready to harvest in November except the strawberries, which will be ready to harvest next summer along with the garlic we planted last week. Check out our Fall garden plan here.

Radishes

Spinach

Collard greens

Mustard greens

Strawberries

Garlic

 

 

Habanero Hot Sauce from All Recipes

What do you do when your garden gives you lots of habanero peppers? Make hot sauce! I quadrupled the recipe below because we had so many peppers! It’s incredibly flavorful and so easy!

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 cup chopped carrots
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 5 habanero peppers
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 cup lime juice
  • 1/4 cup white vinegar
  • 1 tomato
  • salt and ground pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Heat the oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. Cook and stir the carrots, oil, onion, and garlic in the hot oil until soft, about 5 minutes; transfer to a blender. Add the whole habanero peppers, water, lime juice, white vinegar, and tomato to blender; blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  2. Transfer mixture to a saucepan, and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes. This gives the sauce a more liquid consistency.

Experience my hot sauce-making adventures with the photos below!

 

Thanks for following along on our gardening and cooking adventures. As always, leave a comment if you have any tips or suggestions for us! We love that! 🙂

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