My first habanero pepper is growing

Well here it is! My first habanero pepper growing in late December!

I took this photo on Decemeber 24th, 2010. Althought were are in a hard freeze warning currently, up until today it was very warm; into the low 80's.

Finally some habenero pepper flowers show up!

I've had this great looking habenero pepper for a few months without ever getting any habenero peppers to show for it. I just found these three habenero pepper flowers last night! I hope to be eating super hot habenero peppers soon :)

Heat and wind is a combo for leaf wilt

So today is the first real day of wind for us over here on the West side of Arizona. I woke up to the sound of our bamboo wind chimes hitting rather harder than usual. Monsoons? Maybe soon....

Take a look at what 110 degree heat combined with 10-12mph off & on winds can do to a lovely habanero pepper plant. This is normal for Arizona. If your plant is looking good in the early morning hours and only looks wilted like this during hot part of the day, then your fine. This is a natural protection and water conservation technique that leaves will do when things get hot and windy like this.

A few peppers drying in the west side window

A few Anaheim peppers drying in a sunny, west facing window. The longest pepper is approx. 6" long. They are really good in eggs and salsa.

P.S.- I chopped up and ate ONLY ONE small, very small jalapeno pepper on some nachos the other day and almost burned my tongue right out of my mouth! lol

Make sure you wear your gloves when picking these hot peppers like jalapeno, habanero, serrano and others.