Chili Peppers

Like many gardeners I console myself on these short,
cold days by planning which seeds I will be starting in
just a few months. One plant that I will be growing
more of next year is chili pepper.  While my sweet
peppers were struggling along this summer, the chili
peppers were booming.  Chilis are beautiful plants, too! I'm planning to use them next year as I would use an ornamental plant, with some in containers and some mixed in with perennials.
                                             

Here is a photo of our peppers - fresh, dried, and crushed.  The crushed pepper flakes have some kick!  They are twice as hot as our store bought flakes.
Making your own crushed pepper flakes is simple. You can dry your peppers either by hanging them up for a few weeks or by cooking them in the oven on the lowest setting - about 170 to 200 degrees.  If you are starting with fresh peppers it will probably take a good 8 or 9 hours to dry them in the oven.  I hung my peppers, but decided to cook them in the oven about a week or so later, so my peppers took about 5 hours to cook. 
When your peppers are dried just put them in a plastic bag, cover with a dish towel, and use a rolling pin to crush. Voila.  One small pepper plant provided us with enough peppers to fill the two containers in the photo.