A Taste of Padron Peppers

We decided it was time to pick a few of our Padron Peppers. They're about the size of my thumb and still quite young and green but appear to have stopped growing in size.

I'm sure that the longer you leave them the hotter they'll get and although most of them are relatively mild about 1 in 50 is reckoned to be fiery hot. I think we had one really hot one and the others had a bit of a kick but not too much.

We cut them in half, sprinkled with oil and sea salt and grilled for a few minutes - very nice.

We grew these from seed and they've not been too much trouble so I think we'll be growing more in the future.

Plentiful Padron Peppers

Very pleased with the number of little Padron Peppers growing here.

You may recall these are the type where about 1 in 50 is really hot. I doubt we'll get as many as 50 from our one plant but still makes me nervous thinking about it. It'll be quite a while before they're ready to eat.

Padron Pepper and Fungus Gnats

The Padron Pepper we are growing from seed is doing ok. We have planted it into a bigger pot and with a covering of sand it's looking quite tropical and is currently being visited by some tourists - ('Tourists' by Duane Hanson 1970 - http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2003/jan/16/art.artsfeatures )

To be honest though, the sand is not for aesthetic purposes, it is to try and combat a massive infestation of Fungus Gnats affecting most of our plants. We were spending hours every day trying to get rid of all the pesky flies. If we had an outdoor space it wouldn't be so bad, we could encourage other wildlife and let nature deal with it organically. Of course that's not an option here but a good layer of sharp horticultural sand which was a tricky and messy job appears to have made a vast improvement.