What to do with JalapenosHere are some great recipes to use up your Jalapeño popper harvest! One of the best parts about growing jalapenos is eating them! Here are some of our favorite recipes to use with your homegrown chile peppers: Chile Pepper Recipes for Stews, Casseroles & Side Dishes:Jalapeno Popper Dip Recipe »Vegan Jalapeno Poppers Recipe »Jalapeno Pickles Recipe » Pickled Jalapenos Recipe » Pickled Banana Peppers Recipe » Salsa Recipes:Carolina Reaper Salsa Recipe » (you can use Jalapeños in this reci...
Wholesale Seed PacketsWholesale Seed Packets from Sandia Seed: Sandia Seed offers Wholesale Seed Packets to shops and plant nurseries around the country! We have a great Wholesale Seed program for plant nurseries, garden centers, gift shops and local hardware stores!Sandia Seed offers Wholesale Seeds for peppers of the world, including over 100+ pepper seeds and some of our favorite 44+ tomato seeds including lots of heirloom and organic varieties from around the world. Sandia Seed specializes in New Mexican C...
Cilantro SeedsDo you grow cilantro? Love it or hate it? We love it, it goes so perfectly with hot peppers and tomatoes to make the best salsas! We find that salsa just isn't as good without the punch of that amazing cilantro flavor. Even many of those who hate cilantro think salsa with cilantro is delicious! Something is magical about how the flavors combine with tomatoes, hot peppers, garlic, lime juice, onion and cilantro... fresh homemade salsa is definitely one of our favorite foods!Try some Cilant...
Why do you call your seeds Hatch?Here is a question asking why we call some of our seeds Hatch: “I'm curious about how your Hatch varieties compare to the peppers we have successfully grown that do not have the Hatch designation: Numex Sandia Select, Anaheim Heirloom, Big Jim Heirloom. We've had good luck with them and find the Numex, especially, great for roasting. But, I'm intrigued by the Hatch designation. How would they be different for us. We garden in southeast Utah (near Moab) at about 4500 feet. I'm ...
Best Hatch Chile Seeds ReviewAnother happy customer review, thanks for sharing, Michele!We love hearing stories of gardeners growing our Hatch chile seeds all over the country! Because if you can't live in New Mexico, at least you can grow a little New Mexico in your garden, right?! “Hello — Last year, a friend gave me...and I purchased several packages of Hatch green chile, Big Jim & Anaheim seeds. I planted them as suggested indoors about 8 weeks ahead of spring...then planted the small seedlings when the r...
Orange Peppers with Black SeedsThese Manzano peppers are HOT and delicious! The Manzano Pepper is the only chile to have black seeds. The flowers are a stunning purple and the plant has fuzzy leaves. It is part of the Capsicum pubescens species from the Andes region making it a cool climate chile pepper. It prefers to grow in a protected spot out of fierce sunlight and wind, such as on your patio. Provide it with a large container and a climbing trellis. If protected from frost it can live for 15 years and grow a vine over...
Best Tomato CagesWhat are the Best Tomato Cages?Sturdy ones. We like using the sturdier thick cages, but they're a little harder to find. If you grow tomatoes, they're probably one of your favorite crops, like ours, and you want to ensure that the plants are healthy and supported so you get a great harvest. What kind of Tomato supports do you use?Those darned flimsy wire "tomato cages" that are sold at hardware stores are useless once a tomato plant gets large, as you can see in these photo...
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...
Can seedlings get too much light?Can seedlings get too much light? Yes. Can grow lights be too bright? If you have super bright lights and they are placed too close to the seedlings, you can burn seedlings.A recent lesson learned: Above is a photo from a couple weeks back, we got a new 100W Sansi LED floodlight that was recommended by a pepper grower and thought, "Wow, this super bright light is going to really get those peppers growing big before putting out in the garden!" Unfortunately, our shelf that we were...
Why are my pepper plants so small?We have this question quite often: Why are my pepper plants so small? There is a number of reasons that your peppers may not be growing larger. TOO BRIGHT LED LIGHTS Recently, we had an experience (see the sad & small pepper plants above) where we had placed a super bright 100W Sansi Floodlight above our transplanted seedlings about 8" away. Sadly, it was TOO bright – if we had it farther away, such as a couple feet, the seedlings may have been fine. But, since they were fairly clo...
Spicy Pickles RecipeGrow and make your own spicy pickles! Here's a couple recipes: Spicy Refrigerator Dill Pickle Recipe » Jalapeno Pickles Recipe » Spicy pickles are one of the easiest ways to preserve your cucumber harvest for year-round enjoyment. You can make spears or slices so you can use them on sandwiches, burgers, or just as a snack anytime. Of course, we think spicy pickles are the best, and we like to experiment with using different chiles to flavor them. Try adding Hatch Chiles for a Ne...
Free Seeds for Lettuce!NOTE: This offer is expired, stay tuned and signup for our newsletter for future deals.Now through June 30, 2021, you can get Free Seeds for Lettuce from Sandia Seed with the purchase of any of our Get Real Gardening vegetable seeds. We will add a free seed packet of our delicious Little Gem Lettuce in with any vegetable seeds in our Get Real Gardening collection. Looking for more more seed deals? Check out our Discount Seeds » Chef's love Little Gem Lettuce as it is a cross between ...
Red Chile is Green ChileDid you know red and green chiles both grow on the same plant? Every red chile begins as a green chile and then matures to red. We often refer to both the red and green chiles as green chile. There are dozens of different varieties of green chile and some of them are better to use when red. Varieties that are designated as red have less flesh and a smoother heat with more robust flavor. They will dry quickly in the sun and can be used at any time. For example, the dried pods can be reconstit...
What to do with Jalapenos
Here are some great recipes to use up your Jalapeño popper harvest! One of the best parts about growing jalapenos is eating them! Here are some of our favorite recipes to use with your homegrown chile peppers: Chile Pepper Recipes for Stews, Casseroles & Side Dishes:Jalapeno Popper Dip Recipe »Vegan Jalapeno Poppers Recipe »Jalapeno Pickles Recipe » Pickled Jalapenos Recipe » Pickled Banana Peppers Recipe » Salsa Recipes:Carolina Reaper Salsa Recipe » (you can use Jalapeños in this reci...
Wholesale Seed Packets
Wholesale Seed Packets from Sandia Seed: Sandia Seed offers Wholesale Seed Packets to shops and plant nurseries around the country! We have a great Wholesale Seed program for plant nurseries, garden centers, gift shops and local hardware stores!Sandia Seed offers Wholesale Seeds for peppers of the world, including over 100+ pepper seeds and some of our favorite 44+ tomato seeds including lots of heirloom and organic varieties from around the world. Sandia Seed specializes in New Mexican C...
Cilantro Seeds
Do you grow cilantro? Love it or hate it? We love it, it goes so perfectly with hot peppers and tomatoes to make the best salsas! We find that salsa just isn't as good without the punch of that amazing cilantro flavor. Even many of those who hate cilantro think salsa with cilantro is delicious! Something is magical about how the flavors combine with tomatoes, hot peppers, garlic, lime juice, onion and cilantro... fresh homemade salsa is definitely one of our favorite foods!Try some Cilant...
Why do you call your seeds Hatch?
Here is a question asking why we call some of our seeds Hatch: “I'm curious about how your Hatch varieties compare to the peppers we have successfully grown that do not have the Hatch designation: Numex Sandia Select, Anaheim Heirloom, Big Jim Heirloom. We've had good luck with them and find the Numex, especially, great for roasting. But, I'm intrigued by the Hatch designation. How would they be different for us. We garden in southeast Utah (near Moab) at about 4500 feet. I'm ...
Best Hatch Chile Seeds Review
Another happy customer review, thanks for sharing, Michele!We love hearing stories of gardeners growing our Hatch chile seeds all over the country! Because if you can't live in New Mexico, at least you can grow a little New Mexico in your garden, right?! “Hello — Last year, a friend gave me...and I purchased several packages of Hatch green chile, Big Jim & Anaheim seeds. I planted them as suggested indoors about 8 weeks ahead of spring...then planted the small seedlings when the r...
Orange Peppers with Black Seeds
These Manzano peppers are HOT and delicious! The Manzano Pepper is the only chile to have black seeds. The flowers are a stunning purple and the plant has fuzzy leaves. It is part of the Capsicum pubescens species from the Andes region making it a cool climate chile pepper. It prefers to grow in a protected spot out of fierce sunlight and wind, such as on your patio. Provide it with a large container and a climbing trellis. If protected from frost it can live for 15 years and grow a vine over...
Best Tomato Cages
What are the Best Tomato Cages?Sturdy ones. We like using the sturdier thick cages, but they're a little harder to find. If you grow tomatoes, they're probably one of your favorite crops, like ours, and you want to ensure that the plants are healthy and supported so you get a great harvest. What kind of Tomato supports do you use?Those darned flimsy wire "tomato cages" that are sold at hardware stores are useless once a tomato plant gets large, as you can see in these photo...
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...
Can seedlings get too much light?
Can seedlings get too much light? Yes. Can grow lights be too bright? If you have super bright lights and they are placed too close to the seedlings, you can burn seedlings.A recent lesson learned: Above is a photo from a couple weeks back, we got a new 100W Sansi LED floodlight that was recommended by a pepper grower and thought, "Wow, this super bright light is going to really get those peppers growing big before putting out in the garden!" Unfortunately, our shelf that we were...
Why are my pepper plants so small?
We have this question quite often: Why are my pepper plants so small? There is a number of reasons that your peppers may not be growing larger. TOO BRIGHT LED LIGHTS Recently, we had an experience (see the sad & small pepper plants above) where we had placed a super bright 100W Sansi Floodlight above our transplanted seedlings about 8" away. Sadly, it was TOO bright – if we had it farther away, such as a couple feet, the seedlings may have been fine. But, since they were fairly clo...
Spicy Pickles Recipe
Grow and make your own spicy pickles! Here's a couple recipes: Spicy Refrigerator Dill Pickle Recipe » Jalapeno Pickles Recipe » Spicy pickles are one of the easiest ways to preserve your cucumber harvest for year-round enjoyment. You can make spears or slices so you can use them on sandwiches, burgers, or just as a snack anytime. Of course, we think spicy pickles are the best, and we like to experiment with using different chiles to flavor them. Try adding Hatch Chiles for a Ne...
Free Seeds for Lettuce!
NOTE: This offer is expired, stay tuned and signup for our newsletter for future deals.Now through June 30, 2021, you can get Free Seeds for Lettuce from Sandia Seed with the purchase of any of our Get Real Gardening vegetable seeds. We will add a free seed packet of our delicious Little Gem Lettuce in with any vegetable seeds in our Get Real Gardening collection. Looking for more more seed deals? Check out our Discount Seeds » Chef's love Little Gem Lettuce as it is a cross between ...
Red Chile is Green Chile
Did you know red and green chiles both grow on the same plant? Every red chile begins as a green chile and then matures to red. We often refer to both the red and green chiles as green chile. There are dozens of different varieties of green chile and some of them are better to use when red. Varieties that are designated as red have less flesh and a smoother heat with more robust flavor. They will dry quickly in the sun and can be used at any time. For example, the dried pods can be reconstit...
