Got Giant Zucchini? Carve them into Jack-o-lanterns!Carve your Zucchini! Save a couple of those giant zucchini to make fun Jack-o-lanterns this Halloween! So if you accidentally grow a giant zucchini, don't throw it away! Big zukes are great for making spicy fritters, stuffed zucchini boats, soups, curries, burritos, casseroles, and so much more. Don't let them go to waste! And, if it's late in the season and you have more than you can eat, save a couple of the big ones to carve into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween! Just cut them i...
Can you leave skin on tomatoes when making sauce?Can you leave skin on tomatoes when making sauce? Yes you can with our no-peel tomato sauce recipe. When you have a ton of fresh homegrown heirloom tomatoes from the garden, save some time and skip the tedious peeling of tomatoes step. Just core, and grind the tomatoes up in a food processor, then cook them down in a pot. This leaves us more time for pickling and gardening. You can can or freeze the sauce in freezer-safe containers for winter use. NO-PEEL TOMATO SAUCE RECIPE:INGREDIENTS:•...
Dragon PeppersGROW DRAGONS IN YOUR GARDEN! We're excited to be offering two new Dragon Pepper seeds for all you chileheads out there! These wicked hot beasts are new to our Peppers of the World collection, and are sure to make great hot sauces and salsas! These two new Dragon Peppers are now for sale*! The Komodo Dragon Pepper is super hot with a Scoville of 1,400,000 – which means it's WICKED HOT! This dragon is sure to please any spice-lover and it will make a great fermented hot sauce. ...
Sunscald on PeppersWhite spots on peppers?Do you have peppers with white, rotten spots on them this year? We seem to be having a lot of this on some of the chile peppers on our plants – we suspect it's sunscald combined with the super hot and dry weather we've been having! Regardless, we chop off the bad part and throw it in the compost, and use the rest of the pepper in all sorts of recipes. Nothing goes to waste! Preventing sunscald on peppers:You can plant Bush Beans around your peppers to pro...
Powdery Mildew on ZucchiniGot Powdery Mildew on Zucchini, Squash and Pumpkin Plants? This happens to all our pumpkins, squash, zucchini and cucumber plants every summer late in the season, treatments like milk or baking soda sprays don't seem to help. We usually prune off the worst affected leaves to give it more air circulation, but have learned to accept that this is the natural late-season stage here in the West. So don't worry, the squash, zucchini and pumpkins will still ripen! One thing about powder...
Zero Waste GardeningBest Zero-Waste Gardening Ideas: • Store your veggies in glass dishes! We steam our fresh roasted chiles in our favorite pyrex cooking dish, no plastic needed! Works great, and you can reuse it again and again. Don't have one? Go buy one at a thrift store, they have tons of these beautful, long-lasting dishes that you can use to store cooked vegetables without the use of plastic.Fresh-roasted homegrown green chiles are the BEST!! Any glass dish with glass lid will work, we love ...
Pumpkin Spice Ain't Got Nothing on Roasted Chile!Pumpkin Spice Ain't Got Nothing on Roasted Chile! The aroma of roasting chile in the autumn months is a heavenly delight! And adding roasted chile to anything just makes it better! We love chile in salsas, stews, sandwiches, dips, salads, burgers, pizzas... you name it—green chile goes with it! We've even seen green chile flavored beers and ice cream... but we tend to lean towards the hot and savory dishes when it comes to chile. You?Happy October harvest season! Stay tuned with ...
NEW Super Hot Pepper Seeds!That's right, we're offering BRAND NEW Super Hot Pepper Seeds in late 2020! Here's a sneak-peek at some BRAND NEW super hot peppers we're getting ready to put on our website... stay tuned!We know you've all been waiting for the famed Dragon's Breath Pepper Seeds, and we finally have acquired a stable strain that is, indeed SUPER FIREY HOT! Stay tuned, we'll be adding them to our website for purchase soon in fall 2020. So if you're looking to gro...
Plant Vegetables in July!Did you know that July is the PERFECT time to get things outside for the fall season for many growing regions? It's not too late to add to your garden!Sandia Seed is excited to share that we just added lots more Vegetable Seeds to go with all of our 140+ different types of chile pepper and tomato seeds! July is a great time to plant any of the leafy greens like lettuce and spinach, and other veggies like carrots, beets, radishes, beans, scallions, and broccoli. July and August are a gre...
Container PeppersContainer Peppers:Yes, peppers can be grown in containers and pots! It's good to choose varieties that do well in containers, see our list below.Container Size for Peppers:Plant peppers in the largest container possible, we recommend using pots that are at least 5-Gallons and 10-12" across in size so there is plenty of soil for pepper plants to grow roots into. Plastic pots hold in moisture better, which is good if you are growing them in hot dry conditions. Full Sun:Make sure your p...
Spicy Refrigerator Pickles RecipeThis is a simple recipe that you can make in smaller batches to use up your cucumbers and some peppers in the summer months. Quick and easy, you don't have to water bath these delicious spicy pickles, just store them in your fridge. We find that these refrigerator pickles are much crispier than their preserved cousins, you have to eat them a little faster as they don't last as long and they must be kept refrigerated, but don't worry, they're so good that won't likely be a ...
Short Season PeppersGrow Short-Season Peppers! We often wish summer would last forever... that way, we can grow more peppers. For those of us in short-season climates, it's great to grow the fastest growing peppers so you can harvest lots of peppers sooner than later. Even if you live in areas with longer growing seasons, these are also great to grow as they come to harvest sooner – and who doesn't want peppers sooner? Also, be sure to check out our Short-Season Tomatoes » If you have a short gardeni...
Green Chile Quinoa Salad RecipeHere's a delicious healthy spicy salad that is perfect for summertime! Green Chile Quinoa Salad Recipe Ingredients: 1 cup of Red Quinoa, cooked 1/2 cup+ Green chiles, roasted, peeled and diced 2-3 cloves of garlic 1 cup of diced tomatoes 6 chopped green onions 1 cup of chopped fresh spinach 2 cups of roasted corn 2 cups of black beans 1 cucumber, diced Bunch of chopped cilantro (stems are ok, too!) 2 Limes, juiced 4 tbsp olive oil Salt and Pepper to taste 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp red peppe...
Short Season TomatoesIf you live in a short season climate with early frosts, rather than growing tomatoes that have a long growing season, it's best to pick short season tomatoes so that you'll get your harvest before the cold weather arrives in autumn. Want to grow Short Season Heirloom Tomatoes? An heirloom tomato is an open-pollinated, non-hybrid heirloom cultivar of tomato. Check out our list of our favorite short season heirloom tomatoes »The tomato is a tender plant that is easily damaged by cold w...
Cilantro Pesto RecipeCilantro tends to come in all at once (it's good to keep sowing it throughout the season as it bolts quickly once the summer warmth arrives, no matter what you do!) So, preserve your precious Cilantro harvest and make Cilantro Pesto! Cilantro pesto with almonds, olive oil, lime juice, fresh garlic or garlic scapes, and spicy green chiles like Jalapenos or serranos is awesome. :) Great with chips, or tossed with pasta or vegetables. Simple Spicy Cilantro Pesto Recipe: Ingredients: ...
Fermented Jalapeno Hot Sauce RecipeFermented Jalapeno Hot Sauce Recipe Ingredients: 6-8 jalapeños (or any hot pepper) 1 bell pepper (or any sweet pepper) 1/2 of a white onion 3-6+ Cloves of Garlic, peeled 1 tablespoon of salt (no iodine) 32-oz Canning Jar with lid* (Or use a Pickle Pipe or a fermentation crock to avoid the need to burp!) *You can use any size glass jar that will fit the ingredients, it depends on the number of peppers and size of the onion you use. The main thing is to make sure there is about an inch or l...
Easiest Vegetables to Grow From SeedSandia Seed has chosen our Easiest Vegetables to Grow From Seed in our new Get Real Gardening collection. These are 20+ of our favorite easy vegetables to grow from seeds that you can grow in your garden. Some of these are easy vegetables to grow in pots as well, such as lettuce and radishes. Get Real Gardening seeds are perfect for the beginner gardener because they are dependable varieties that will grow well in a wide range of conditions. You can grow your own food at home and start enj...
Grow a Victory GardenGrow Lots of Food This Year!If you haven't started your vegetable garden yet, now is a great time! Here are our top tips on How to Start a Garden: 1. Grow a Variety of Seeds! Growing different types of vegetables is a great way to harvest over a longer season! While peppers and tomatoes are great for summer growing for fresh eating, pickling, and lots of recipes to use year-round, you can also grow other veggies throughout the seasons. Lettuce, onions, cabbages, radishes, kale, cila...
Fastest Growing TomatoesDiscover our Fastest Growing Tomatoes so you can get to eating those juicy gems from your garden earlier this summer! Whether you're planting late, or live in a short season climate with late spring frosts and early fall frosts, growing short season tomatoes that harvest in under 75 days can really make a difference! What tomatoes have the shortest days to maturity?All of these short season tomatoes have the least amount of days to harvest so if you're looking for more tomatoes soo...
Chili Oil RecipeHomemade chili oil is a thoughtful, flavorful gift and kitchen staple that’s easy to make and looks beautiful in a jar! If you grow your own chiles, this is a great way to use them long after the season is over. There’s something special about giving a homemade gift that people can actually use — and a bottle of chili oil adds a fiery, aromatic touch to any kitchen. It’s perfect for drizzling over noodles, pizza, burritos, eggs, or grilled vegetables. See a couple recipes below, plus lots of ...
Got Giant Zucchini? Carve them into Jack-o-lanterns!
Carve your Zucchini! Save a couple of those giant zucchini to make fun Jack-o-lanterns this Halloween! So if you accidentally grow a giant zucchini, don't throw it away! Big zukes are great for making spicy fritters, stuffed zucchini boats, soups, curries, burritos, casseroles, and so much more. Don't let them go to waste! And, if it's late in the season and you have more than you can eat, save a couple of the big ones to carve into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween! Just cut them i...
Can you leave skin on tomatoes when making sauce?
Can you leave skin on tomatoes when making sauce? Yes you can with our no-peel tomato sauce recipe. When you have a ton of fresh homegrown heirloom tomatoes from the garden, save some time and skip the tedious peeling of tomatoes step. Just core, and grind the tomatoes up in a food processor, then cook them down in a pot. This leaves us more time for pickling and gardening. You can can or freeze the sauce in freezer-safe containers for winter use. NO-PEEL TOMATO SAUCE RECIPE:INGREDIENTS:•...
Dragon Peppers
GROW DRAGONS IN YOUR GARDEN! We're excited to be offering two new Dragon Pepper seeds for all you chileheads out there! These wicked hot beasts are new to our Peppers of the World collection, and are sure to make great hot sauces and salsas! These two new Dragon Peppers are now for sale*! The Komodo Dragon Pepper is super hot with a Scoville of 1,400,000 – which means it's WICKED HOT! This dragon is sure to please any spice-lover and it will make a great fermented hot sauce. ...
Sunscald on Peppers
White spots on peppers?Do you have peppers with white, rotten spots on them this year? We seem to be having a lot of this on some of the chile peppers on our plants – we suspect it's sunscald combined with the super hot and dry weather we've been having! Regardless, we chop off the bad part and throw it in the compost, and use the rest of the pepper in all sorts of recipes. Nothing goes to waste! Preventing sunscald on peppers:You can plant Bush Beans around your peppers to pro...
Powdery Mildew on Zucchini
Got Powdery Mildew on Zucchini, Squash and Pumpkin Plants? This happens to all our pumpkins, squash, zucchini and cucumber plants every summer late in the season, treatments like milk or baking soda sprays don't seem to help. We usually prune off the worst affected leaves to give it more air circulation, but have learned to accept that this is the natural late-season stage here in the West. So don't worry, the squash, zucchini and pumpkins will still ripen! One thing about powder...
Zero Waste Gardening
Best Zero-Waste Gardening Ideas: • Store your veggies in glass dishes! We steam our fresh roasted chiles in our favorite pyrex cooking dish, no plastic needed! Works great, and you can reuse it again and again. Don't have one? Go buy one at a thrift store, they have tons of these beautful, long-lasting dishes that you can use to store cooked vegetables without the use of plastic.Fresh-roasted homegrown green chiles are the BEST!! Any glass dish with glass lid will work, we love ...
Pumpkin Spice Ain't Got Nothing on Roasted Chile!
Pumpkin Spice Ain't Got Nothing on Roasted Chile! The aroma of roasting chile in the autumn months is a heavenly delight! And adding roasted chile to anything just makes it better! We love chile in salsas, stews, sandwiches, dips, salads, burgers, pizzas... you name it—green chile goes with it! We've even seen green chile flavored beers and ice cream... but we tend to lean towards the hot and savory dishes when it comes to chile. You?Happy October harvest season! Stay tuned with ...
NEW Super Hot Pepper Seeds!
That's right, we're offering BRAND NEW Super Hot Pepper Seeds in late 2020! Here's a sneak-peek at some BRAND NEW super hot peppers we're getting ready to put on our website... stay tuned!We know you've all been waiting for the famed Dragon's Breath Pepper Seeds, and we finally have acquired a stable strain that is, indeed SUPER FIREY HOT! Stay tuned, we'll be adding them to our website for purchase soon in fall 2020. So if you're looking to gro...
Plant Vegetables in July!
Did you know that July is the PERFECT time to get things outside for the fall season for many growing regions? It's not too late to add to your garden!Sandia Seed is excited to share that we just added lots more Vegetable Seeds to go with all of our 140+ different types of chile pepper and tomato seeds! July is a great time to plant any of the leafy greens like lettuce and spinach, and other veggies like carrots, beets, radishes, beans, scallions, and broccoli. July and August are a gre...
Container Peppers
Container Peppers:Yes, peppers can be grown in containers and pots! It's good to choose varieties that do well in containers, see our list below.Container Size for Peppers:Plant peppers in the largest container possible, we recommend using pots that are at least 5-Gallons and 10-12" across in size so there is plenty of soil for pepper plants to grow roots into. Plastic pots hold in moisture better, which is good if you are growing them in hot dry conditions. Full Sun:Make sure your p...
Spicy Refrigerator Pickles Recipe
This is a simple recipe that you can make in smaller batches to use up your cucumbers and some peppers in the summer months. Quick and easy, you don't have to water bath these delicious spicy pickles, just store them in your fridge. We find that these refrigerator pickles are much crispier than their preserved cousins, you have to eat them a little faster as they don't last as long and they must be kept refrigerated, but don't worry, they're so good that won't likely be a ...
Short Season Peppers
Grow Short-Season Peppers! We often wish summer would last forever... that way, we can grow more peppers. For those of us in short-season climates, it's great to grow the fastest growing peppers so you can harvest lots of peppers sooner than later. Even if you live in areas with longer growing seasons, these are also great to grow as they come to harvest sooner – and who doesn't want peppers sooner? Also, be sure to check out our Short-Season Tomatoes » If you have a short gardeni...
Green Chile Quinoa Salad Recipe
Here's a delicious healthy spicy salad that is perfect for summertime! Green Chile Quinoa Salad Recipe Ingredients: 1 cup of Red Quinoa, cooked 1/2 cup+ Green chiles, roasted, peeled and diced 2-3 cloves of garlic 1 cup of diced tomatoes 6 chopped green onions 1 cup of chopped fresh spinach 2 cups of roasted corn 2 cups of black beans 1 cucumber, diced Bunch of chopped cilantro (stems are ok, too!) 2 Limes, juiced 4 tbsp olive oil Salt and Pepper to taste 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp red peppe...
Short Season Tomatoes
If you live in a short season climate with early frosts, rather than growing tomatoes that have a long growing season, it's best to pick short season tomatoes so that you'll get your harvest before the cold weather arrives in autumn. Want to grow Short Season Heirloom Tomatoes? An heirloom tomato is an open-pollinated, non-hybrid heirloom cultivar of tomato. Check out our list of our favorite short season heirloom tomatoes »The tomato is a tender plant that is easily damaged by cold w...
Cilantro Pesto Recipe
Cilantro tends to come in all at once (it's good to keep sowing it throughout the season as it bolts quickly once the summer warmth arrives, no matter what you do!) So, preserve your precious Cilantro harvest and make Cilantro Pesto! Cilantro pesto with almonds, olive oil, lime juice, fresh garlic or garlic scapes, and spicy green chiles like Jalapenos or serranos is awesome. :) Great with chips, or tossed with pasta or vegetables. Simple Spicy Cilantro Pesto Recipe: Ingredients: ...
Fermented Jalapeno Hot Sauce Recipe
Fermented Jalapeno Hot Sauce Recipe Ingredients: 6-8 jalapeños (or any hot pepper) 1 bell pepper (or any sweet pepper) 1/2 of a white onion 3-6+ Cloves of Garlic, peeled 1 tablespoon of salt (no iodine) 32-oz Canning Jar with lid* (Or use a Pickle Pipe or a fermentation crock to avoid the need to burp!) *You can use any size glass jar that will fit the ingredients, it depends on the number of peppers and size of the onion you use. The main thing is to make sure there is about an inch or l...
Easiest Vegetables to Grow From Seed
Sandia Seed has chosen our Easiest Vegetables to Grow From Seed in our new Get Real Gardening collection. These are 20+ of our favorite easy vegetables to grow from seeds that you can grow in your garden. Some of these are easy vegetables to grow in pots as well, such as lettuce and radishes. Get Real Gardening seeds are perfect for the beginner gardener because they are dependable varieties that will grow well in a wide range of conditions. You can grow your own food at home and start enj...
Grow a Victory Garden
Grow Lots of Food This Year!If you haven't started your vegetable garden yet, now is a great time! Here are our top tips on How to Start a Garden: 1. Grow a Variety of Seeds! Growing different types of vegetables is a great way to harvest over a longer season! While peppers and tomatoes are great for summer growing for fresh eating, pickling, and lots of recipes to use year-round, you can also grow other veggies throughout the seasons. Lettuce, onions, cabbages, radishes, kale, cila...
Fastest Growing Tomatoes
Discover our Fastest Growing Tomatoes so you can get to eating those juicy gems from your garden earlier this summer! Whether you're planting late, or live in a short season climate with late spring frosts and early fall frosts, growing short season tomatoes that harvest in under 75 days can really make a difference! What tomatoes have the shortest days to maturity?All of these short season tomatoes have the least amount of days to harvest so if you're looking for more tomatoes soo...
Chili Oil Recipe
Homemade chili oil is a thoughtful, flavorful gift and kitchen staple that’s easy to make and looks beautiful in a jar! If you grow your own chiles, this is a great way to use them long after the season is over. There’s something special about giving a homemade gift that people can actually use — and a bottle of chili oil adds a fiery, aromatic touch to any kitchen. It’s perfect for drizzling over noodles, pizza, burritos, eggs, or grilled vegetables. See a couple recipes below, plus lots of ...
