No-Peel Canned Salsa with Apples!We have an apple tree, and this year it was loaded with fruit! While we like apple pie, we like salsa better, so we just made the No-Peel version of this Canned Salsa Recipe, below, and we added a few peeled & cored homegrown apples to the batch, for a bit of sweetness. It's spicy and delicious! We simply peeled and cored the four apples and threw them into the food processor along with the tomatoes and chiles. We had some sample tastes before canning, it was delish! We can't wait...
Harvesting PeppersHarvesting Peppers: How do you know when peppers are ready to be picked? It depends on the pepper, it's good to look at the average harvest time of the pepper you are growing. Next, look at the color, most peppers go through a color change as they ripen. Many peppers turn from green to red, or other colors such as darker or light green, yellow, orange, and chocolate. Read up on the variety you are growing to make sure you pick them at a good ripened stage. For example, our Easter Peppers...
How to Roast ChileHow to Roast Chile Do you grow green chile seeds? Then you probably will have a great chile harvest to roast. Here's our top tips on roasting chile at home: Use your Oven to Roast Chile:Set your broiler to 425°F, use a metal cookie sheet and arrange your chile pods on the sheet in a single layer. Some people opt to lightly coat chile with olive oil and line your pan with foil, but you don't have to do this, it's optional. We have an old pan we use to roast chiles so we sk...
No-Peel Tomato Sauce RecipeYes, you can leave skin on tomatoes when making sauce! Just use a food processor to transform whole tomatoes into sauce. This saves lots of time from having to boil the tomatoes first to loosen the skin enough to peel. We also figure keeping the skins on retains all the vitamins and minerals that the skin contains. The main reason people peel tomatoes for sauce is that if not processed, then you get little curled up skins in your sauce. But a food processor grinds them all up and even makes a...
White Green Chile RecipeHere's a great white chile recipe that uses the amazing flavors of roasted green chile from the garden! During harvest season, we also throw in a few apples if we have an abundance of them, it's a nice way to use up some apples, thickens and adds a hint of sweetness to the chile. White Green Chile Recipe: • 3-4 Cups of white beans, cooked (canned or cooked fresh) • 1 Cup cooked, chopped chicken • 3 cups chicken stock (or bone broth/vegetable broth) • 2 diced potatoes • 1-2+ App...
New Mexico Red Chile Sauce with Fresh Red ChileFresh red chile is a delicacy and is hard to find at supermarkets as it is very perishable. Grow your own red chile for a little taste of heaven in late summer! New Mexico Red Chile Saucewith Fresh Red Chile INGREDIENTS fresh roasted red chile, peeled, de-seeded and chopped (however many you have on hand) 1-3+ Garlic cloves to taste, peeled 1 Tablespoon of Chopped Onion Salt to taste (1/2 teaspoon) Dash of Cumin, Oregano 1 tablespoon of Honey (optional) 1 Tablespoon of Peanut or Light Ol...
Homegrown Sambal Oelek RecipeHomegrown Sambal Oelek Recipe This delicious spicy condiment is delicious on everything from stir fries to soups to sandwiches or even just with some crackers or chips. Kick it up a notch with hotter peppers, and feel free to mix and match hot peppers for a deeper range of flavor. We like to use whatever hot peppers we have on hand! INGREDIENTS 1 pound of homegrown red chile, washed & de-stemmed(use any kind of red chile you are growing, such as Cayenne peppers, Goat Horn peppers, ripe ...
Best Pepper SeedsWe love getting notes and photos from our happy customers! Here's some photos from Bill in Wisconsin, who wrote: “The Best Seeds! Here's an update. Incredible Wisconsin grow this year! This system took me months to plan and put in place and worth every minute.” Wow, what an amazing pepper garden, Bill! Looks like you're making all sorts of deliciousness with your hot peppers. Thanks for sharing!Check out Bill's photos below: We love hearing your stories and seeing phot...
Ornamental Pepper RecipesCan you eat your ornamental peppers?Of course you can! They are usually quite hot, so add them with caution, add a little a time and taste-test your recipe until you get to the desired heat. Ornamental peppers are usually quite a bit hotter than your average Jalapeño, so unless you like it wicked hot, add in small doses until it's just right. Here are some of our favorite salsa recipes to use up your ornamental pepper harvest at the end of the season: Ornamental Peppers Salsa Recip...
Harvest RecipesWe sure do love harvest season!Here are some of our favorite recipes to use up your harvest: Salsa Recipes:Carolina Reaper Salsa Recipe »Trinidad Scorpion Salsa Recipe »Vinegar Pepper Sauce Recipe »Ghost Pepper Salsa Recipe »Orange Salsa Recipe »Tomatillo Salsa Recipe »Hatch Chile Salsa Recipe » No-Peel Salsa Recipe »Green Tomato Salsa Recipe »Salsa Macha Recipe » Chile Pepper Recipes for Stews, Casseroles & Side Dishes:Green Chile Stew Recipe »Hatch Green Chile Gravy Recip...
Zucchini: The most abundant crop!It's open season for zucchini! Do you grow the infamous Black Beauty Zucchini summer squash? Black Beauty produces a huge crop of tender zucchini squash during the summer. Harvest zucchini squash when the fruits are small. This will result in a more tender and flavorful squash. Easy to grow and a great choice for the beginner gardener. These are one of the first of the summer vegetables to harvest, and one of the last – they just keep coming all summer long! And, they're super fas...
Edible Ornamental PeppersEdible Ornamental Peppers These NuMex Easter peppers are absolutely gorgeous in pastel! We'll be making room for these in the garden every year from here on out. They look stunning in containers! Did you know that ornamental peppers are edible? Yes, ornamental peppers like these Easter Peppers are edible! They make great hot pepper flakes when dried after fully mature, or thrown anytime into salsa to kick up the heat. You can also use them to make fermented hot sauce recipes. Many of ...
Harvest vegetables at the right timeKnowing when to harvest vegetables will help you get the best quality vegetables from your garden. Many gardeners allow produce to pass their prime when vegetables are less tender and more fibrous. Below is a guideline to help you determine the best time to harvest vegetables. Pepper and tomatoes are listed first with the Get Real Vegetables information below that. Peppers (bell and chile) can be harvested in three stages. Mature green: Pepper is firm and fully sized. The fruit color is...
Guajillo Chile - Which kind are used for Mole?Here's a question we recently had about Guajillo chile: Question about the guajillo pepper seeds: The site says these are one of the most common dried peppers in Mexico, but I was reading the Peppers of America book by Maricel Presilla from one of your earlier posts and she refers to the guajillo as the dried form of the mirasol chile. I noticed your mirasol pepper description doesn't mention anything about this. What are y'all's thoughts on this nomenclature discrepancy? Two ...
Padron Pepper Seeds ReviewWe were happy to get this beautiful shot of Padrón peppers from one of our happy seed customers, here's what Sam had to say: Greetings to the folks at the Sandia Seed Company!I recently purchased a packet of your padrón seeds. I also happened to get my San Diego garden started early this year as well. As a result I have already had two batches of blackened padróns with coarse sea salt as appetizers for meals. You are receiving a photo of the 2nd batch; ... We all know the first ones di...
Best Salt Substitute: Hot Peppers!Watching your salt intake? One of our favorite ways to spice up a dish without salt is none other than hot peppers! Any spicy peppers are a great way to get your tastebuds excited about anything you eat. We love growing hot peppers and then drying them and crushing into hot pepper flakes or powder so that we can sprinkle flavor on anything including sandwiches, soups, tacos, burritos, wraps, burgers, pizza, you name it!! Clean Salt-Substitute: The great thing about hot pepper flakes is that ...
Ornamental Pepper: NuMex EasterThe Ornamental Pepper NuMex Easter is gorgeous in pastels! Also great for drying at the end of the season for use as hot pepper flakes or to add to salsa. Beautiful and delicious! View more of our Ornamental Peppers » Ornamental Peppers are not only beautiful, they are quite prolific! And, contrary to popular belief, you can eat ornamental peppers! They are perfect peppers for making hot sauces, pepper flakes or powder, or to use in any recipes such as for salsa.
How deep should a container be for Peppers?Peppers have fairly large root systems, so the deeper the container, the better for healthy plants, and larger harvests. We recommend at least 14" deep, with an ideal depth of 18-24" (think whiskey barrel size.) For the best harvests and healthy plants, we like to plant pepper plants in deep beds, we recommend 18-24" of soil depth. Small peppers (less than one foot high) can grow well in two-gallon containers, but bigger plants need at least five-gallon pots, and all peppers th...
Succession PlantingIt is smart to succession plant seeds for lettuce, radishes, beets, carrots, cucumbers, nasturtium, green onions, and peas all season long to keep the harvests coming. Our Little Gem Lettuce is a Chef's favorite! A cross between butterhead and romaine, Little Gem has the unique trait of having romaine’s crunch with the sweetness and small size of a butterhead. It grows 8" high producing a sweet and compact heart that is the perfect size for interplanting with your other veggies! We r...
Grow Carolina Reaper Peppers - Part 1Here is one method you can use to grow Carolina Reaper seeds into big pepper producing plants. Start with great seeds that will grow true Carolina Reaper peppers from a well-established company. Plant them into a deep 72 cell round insert tray with a solid tray underneath to catch the water. Fill the cells with seed starter mix and then gently push your fingers into cells. This will remove any large pockets of air and make the soil level with the top of the cells. A great seedling mix is Co...
So, as a life long BOC fan and an avid gardener who loves the quality of seeds I’ve always received from Sandia Seeds. I just had to have this shirt. It rocks! I ordered a couple more for some fellow BOC fans as well. Great quality and the graphic is outstanding!
I'm going to grow these every year, they are HOT!! They make great poppers and salsa. Very productive, easy to grow, quick germination and fast growing plants. Thank you for the stellar seeds.
I planted several cultivars from wholesale seed. These were prolific. See all that RED (and green)?!? Looking forward to harvesting in a few days. Thank You Sandia Seed!
I pretty much use Sandia seeds exclusively! A few years ago I just happened to order your Jalapeño M. To me it's the perfect Jalapeño! Really nice size! Perfect heat for what we like! Wonderful flavor with a meatyness that's perfect for many different uses! I make my own Sriracha so I wait for them to turn red. They're one of my base peppers for my sauce! I praise them to all my personal friends and to members of groups that I belong to!
Serrano Hidalgo Seeds fromSandia Seed produce even in the HOT drought of central Illinois this year! I love adding a little Mexican kick to my salsa but also tossing these on the grill! They have great flavor and produce all summer long!
I had looked high & low, and searched the web with many word combinations ‘looking’ specifically for my favorite chili, the Dynamite xx Hot… so I could grow my own. The peppers were sold in Colorado at select places during roasting season, but you couldn’t buy seeds for them… anywhere!
Finally, as luck and persistence would have it, I discovered Sandia Seed Company.
Thank you Sandia! I planted them and had a great crop this year. I plan on growing them every year as well as trying some of their other seeds,
There's just something fun about growing a jalapeno that is light enough in color that some people think it's a banana pepper. LOL! I picked these just for color variety, and I'm very pleased that my plants have been loaded with them all season! We donated about 50 lbs of mixed peppers this year from our garden and I still had enough to freeze some and can more jars of recipes than we'll probably be able to use before next season. All my peppers were from Sandia Seed Company. I've never had such great pepper production before using these seeds!!
This spinach germinated well, and produced way more spinach than I'd initially expected. It grew really well, was slow to bolt in the summer, and has a really nice mild flavor for salads or steamed.
This was my first time growing these and I will definitely be growing them from now on. Great germination and very sturdy plants that have withstood some really high winds. Huge long peppers that are excellent green or red, very easy to peel skin.
Growing these in Florida, (Recent transplant of NM).
Lovely peppers. Took a couple weeks is all and wow! I have several budding; 2 large enough to nickname. They're still in their infancy, but I can tell they are going to be great! Love the seeds!
No-Peel Canned Salsa with Apples!
We have an apple tree, and this year it was loaded with fruit! While we like apple pie, we like salsa better, so we just made the No-Peel version of this Canned Salsa Recipe, below, and we added a few peeled & cored homegrown apples to the batch, for a bit of sweetness. It's spicy and delicious! We simply peeled and cored the four apples and threw them into the food processor along with the tomatoes and chiles. We had some sample tastes before canning, it was delish! We can't wait...
Harvesting Peppers
Harvesting Peppers: How do you know when peppers are ready to be picked? It depends on the pepper, it's good to look at the average harvest time of the pepper you are growing. Next, look at the color, most peppers go through a color change as they ripen. Many peppers turn from green to red, or other colors such as darker or light green, yellow, orange, and chocolate. Read up on the variety you are growing to make sure you pick them at a good ripened stage. For example, our Easter Peppers...
How to Roast Chile
How to Roast Chile Do you grow green chile seeds? Then you probably will have a great chile harvest to roast. Here's our top tips on roasting chile at home: Use your Oven to Roast Chile:Set your broiler to 425°F, use a metal cookie sheet and arrange your chile pods on the sheet in a single layer. Some people opt to lightly coat chile with olive oil and line your pan with foil, but you don't have to do this, it's optional. We have an old pan we use to roast chiles so we sk...
No-Peel Tomato Sauce Recipe
Yes, you can leave skin on tomatoes when making sauce! Just use a food processor to transform whole tomatoes into sauce. This saves lots of time from having to boil the tomatoes first to loosen the skin enough to peel. We also figure keeping the skins on retains all the vitamins and minerals that the skin contains. The main reason people peel tomatoes for sauce is that if not processed, then you get little curled up skins in your sauce. But a food processor grinds them all up and even makes a...
White Green Chile Recipe
Here's a great white chile recipe that uses the amazing flavors of roasted green chile from the garden! During harvest season, we also throw in a few apples if we have an abundance of them, it's a nice way to use up some apples, thickens and adds a hint of sweetness to the chile. White Green Chile Recipe: • 3-4 Cups of white beans, cooked (canned or cooked fresh) • 1 Cup cooked, chopped chicken • 3 cups chicken stock (or bone broth/vegetable broth) • 2 diced potatoes • 1-2+ App...
New Mexico Red Chile Sauce with Fresh Red Chile
Fresh red chile is a delicacy and is hard to find at supermarkets as it is very perishable. Grow your own red chile for a little taste of heaven in late summer! New Mexico Red Chile Saucewith Fresh Red Chile INGREDIENTS fresh roasted red chile, peeled, de-seeded and chopped (however many you have on hand) 1-3+ Garlic cloves to taste, peeled 1 Tablespoon of Chopped Onion Salt to taste (1/2 teaspoon) Dash of Cumin, Oregano 1 tablespoon of Honey (optional) 1 Tablespoon of Peanut or Light Ol...
Homegrown Sambal Oelek Recipe
Homegrown Sambal Oelek Recipe This delicious spicy condiment is delicious on everything from stir fries to soups to sandwiches or even just with some crackers or chips. Kick it up a notch with hotter peppers, and feel free to mix and match hot peppers for a deeper range of flavor. We like to use whatever hot peppers we have on hand! INGREDIENTS 1 pound of homegrown red chile, washed & de-stemmed(use any kind of red chile you are growing, such as Cayenne peppers, Goat Horn peppers, ripe ...
Best Pepper Seeds
We love getting notes and photos from our happy customers! Here's some photos from Bill in Wisconsin, who wrote: “The Best Seeds! Here's an update. Incredible Wisconsin grow this year! This system took me months to plan and put in place and worth every minute.” Wow, what an amazing pepper garden, Bill! Looks like you're making all sorts of deliciousness with your hot peppers. Thanks for sharing!Check out Bill's photos below: We love hearing your stories and seeing phot...
Ornamental Pepper Recipes
Can you eat your ornamental peppers?Of course you can! They are usually quite hot, so add them with caution, add a little a time and taste-test your recipe until you get to the desired heat. Ornamental peppers are usually quite a bit hotter than your average Jalapeño, so unless you like it wicked hot, add in small doses until it's just right. Here are some of our favorite salsa recipes to use up your ornamental pepper harvest at the end of the season: Ornamental Peppers Salsa Recip...
Harvest Recipes
We sure do love harvest season!Here are some of our favorite recipes to use up your harvest: Salsa Recipes:Carolina Reaper Salsa Recipe »Trinidad Scorpion Salsa Recipe »Vinegar Pepper Sauce Recipe »Ghost Pepper Salsa Recipe »Orange Salsa Recipe »Tomatillo Salsa Recipe »Hatch Chile Salsa Recipe » No-Peel Salsa Recipe »Green Tomato Salsa Recipe »Salsa Macha Recipe » Chile Pepper Recipes for Stews, Casseroles & Side Dishes:Green Chile Stew Recipe »Hatch Green Chile Gravy Recip...
Zucchini: The most abundant crop!
It's open season for zucchini! Do you grow the infamous Black Beauty Zucchini summer squash? Black Beauty produces a huge crop of tender zucchini squash during the summer. Harvest zucchini squash when the fruits are small. This will result in a more tender and flavorful squash. Easy to grow and a great choice for the beginner gardener. These are one of the first of the summer vegetables to harvest, and one of the last – they just keep coming all summer long! And, they're super fas...
Edible Ornamental Peppers
Edible Ornamental Peppers These NuMex Easter peppers are absolutely gorgeous in pastel! We'll be making room for these in the garden every year from here on out. They look stunning in containers! Did you know that ornamental peppers are edible? Yes, ornamental peppers like these Easter Peppers are edible! They make great hot pepper flakes when dried after fully mature, or thrown anytime into salsa to kick up the heat. You can also use them to make fermented hot sauce recipes. Many of ...
Harvest vegetables at the right time
Knowing when to harvest vegetables will help you get the best quality vegetables from your garden. Many gardeners allow produce to pass their prime when vegetables are less tender and more fibrous. Below is a guideline to help you determine the best time to harvest vegetables. Pepper and tomatoes are listed first with the Get Real Vegetables information below that. Peppers (bell and chile) can be harvested in three stages. Mature green: Pepper is firm and fully sized. The fruit color is...
Guajillo Chile - Which kind are used for Mole?
Here's a question we recently had about Guajillo chile: Question about the guajillo pepper seeds: The site says these are one of the most common dried peppers in Mexico, but I was reading the Peppers of America book by Maricel Presilla from one of your earlier posts and she refers to the guajillo as the dried form of the mirasol chile. I noticed your mirasol pepper description doesn't mention anything about this. What are y'all's thoughts on this nomenclature discrepancy? Two ...
Padron Pepper Seeds Review
We were happy to get this beautiful shot of Padrón peppers from one of our happy seed customers, here's what Sam had to say: Greetings to the folks at the Sandia Seed Company!I recently purchased a packet of your padrón seeds. I also happened to get my San Diego garden started early this year as well. As a result I have already had two batches of blackened padróns with coarse sea salt as appetizers for meals. You are receiving a photo of the 2nd batch; ... We all know the first ones di...
Best Salt Substitute: Hot Peppers!
Watching your salt intake? One of our favorite ways to spice up a dish without salt is none other than hot peppers! Any spicy peppers are a great way to get your tastebuds excited about anything you eat. We love growing hot peppers and then drying them and crushing into hot pepper flakes or powder so that we can sprinkle flavor on anything including sandwiches, soups, tacos, burritos, wraps, burgers, pizza, you name it!! Clean Salt-Substitute: The great thing about hot pepper flakes is that ...
Ornamental Pepper: NuMex Easter
The Ornamental Pepper NuMex Easter is gorgeous in pastels! Also great for drying at the end of the season for use as hot pepper flakes or to add to salsa. Beautiful and delicious! View more of our Ornamental Peppers » Ornamental Peppers are not only beautiful, they are quite prolific! And, contrary to popular belief, you can eat ornamental peppers! They are perfect peppers for making hot sauces, pepper flakes or powder, or to use in any recipes such as for salsa.
How deep should a container be for Peppers?
Peppers have fairly large root systems, so the deeper the container, the better for healthy plants, and larger harvests. We recommend at least 14" deep, with an ideal depth of 18-24" (think whiskey barrel size.) For the best harvests and healthy plants, we like to plant pepper plants in deep beds, we recommend 18-24" of soil depth. Small peppers (less than one foot high) can grow well in two-gallon containers, but bigger plants need at least five-gallon pots, and all peppers th...
Succession Planting
It is smart to succession plant seeds for lettuce, radishes, beets, carrots, cucumbers, nasturtium, green onions, and peas all season long to keep the harvests coming. Our Little Gem Lettuce is a Chef's favorite! A cross between butterhead and romaine, Little Gem has the unique trait of having romaine’s crunch with the sweetness and small size of a butterhead. It grows 8" high producing a sweet and compact heart that is the perfect size for interplanting with your other veggies! We r...
Grow Carolina Reaper Peppers - Part 1
Here is one method you can use to grow Carolina Reaper seeds into big pepper producing plants. Start with great seeds that will grow true Carolina Reaper peppers from a well-established company. Plant them into a deep 72 cell round insert tray with a solid tray underneath to catch the water. Fill the cells with seed starter mix and then gently push your fingers into cells. This will remove any large pockets of air and make the soil level with the top of the cells. A great seedling mix is Co...
