





In 2024 Garden Notes, I told you I would share more about the peppers.
In my previous post, I shared about growing peppers vertically in GreenStalk planters, as well as growing and fermenting jalapeno peppers and Hungarian Hot Wax peppers.
I also shared about overwintering peppers for the first time. And guess what? We overwintered a cayenne pepper plant too!
A cayenne plant lived in the greenhouse over the winter, produced more this year, and now we will see about overwintering it for another season.
These pictures were from last year’s cayenne pepper harvest. We harvested most of the cayenne pepper plants and hung them to dry, and saved one cayenne plant for overwintering.
Jeff loved using the whole, dried cayenne peppers when making fermented pickles, usually one per jar. Along with jalapenos and garlic, it gave the pickles a spicy kick.
I am a fan of hot peppers. I love ferments with habanero peppers, and I really love fermented jalapenos, but the pepper I consume most often is cayenne, in the form of cayenne powder.
Since I use cayenne powder on meals all the time, I wondered about making some from our very own homegrown cayenne (wouldn’t that be cool?), but felt a bit intimidated about grinding up dried peppers in a blender…
I could just imagine myself in a cloud of pepper dust, blinded and trying to crawl to the door for fresh air and survival. <hilarious to picture, but not quite fun sounding>
Perhaps with some gloves and goggles? Have any of you made your own cayenne or pepper powder before?
I do love cayenne. It’s more than a delicious addition to meals, it’s a powerful medicine, and so good for circulation! It’s also good for the heart, the digestion, and the immune system. Cayenne can even be used topically in salves etc. for pain relief.
(I love all the information shared about cayenne in one of my favorite books, Rosemary Gladstar’s Medical Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide. I felt like mentioning it here because it’s such a gem of a book!)
There have been times that I have bought spendy supplements and did not notice any difference or improvement, even after taking them for awhile.
Then there were other times when I bought an inexpensive, common kitchen ingredient to begin using regularly and noticed positive effects right away. That was definitely the case when I started sprinkling cayenne on many of my meals!
If I wanted a good dose of cayenne, I would sprinkle extra on my meal separately, in case the rest of my family didn’t want anything quite so spicy. I noticed an improvement in my circulation immediately when I started adding more cayenne to meals.
Sometimes our bodies don’t need anything fancy in a pill, but simply something straight from the earth.
That being said, each body is different. A medicine for one person might not be a medicine for another. There are also different stages we go through, when the needs of our bodies change. I simply want to share things that I have personally found helpful, in case others find them helpful too.
Cayenne can be another great medicine to add to our kitchens! And if you live in a climate where you can grow cayenne (it can grow in a pot on a balcony or deck), perhaps some homegrown cayenne can make it’s way there too!
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