Cowboy Candy

A forecast for freeze and frost prompted the final gathering from the garden, so I pulled the remainder of the peppers out yesterday afternoon. I also picked a few habanero, bell, and banana peppers for seeds along with tomatoes, beans (Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake), okra, and basil that I’ll use in next years garden.

By far the jalapeno’s were the most plentiful and I pulled right at 200 of them that were roughly 3 inches long by 1 inch wide (at the stem side). I decided to can these as ‘Cowboy Candy’. After slicing and simmering them for 15 minutes in apple cider vinegar, a massive amount of sugar, garlic, turmeric, crushed red pepper, and celery seed I was able to put up 6 twelve oz jars and 3 eight oz jars.

Before placing them in a hot water bath for 15 minutes I pulled a spoonful out and let it cool down. The many articles I read on this treat said that the sugar knocked down some of the heat of the peppers and I wanted to see if that was so. Yep, it knocked the edge off of them without overly diminishing the spicy flavor.

These little boogers will be great come Thanksgiving time!

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