The word chipotle, which was also sometimes spelled chilpoctle and chilpotle, comes to English originally from the Nahuatl word chilpoctli by way of Mexican Spanish. The Nahuatl word chilpoctli means “smoked chile” (source). The people who made up the word didn’t even specify that it had to be a red jalapeno. It just has to be a “smoked chile”. In fact, you can even use serranos, habaneros, new mexican chiles, hungarian wax chiles and habenero chiles.

Traditionally, chipotles are made with red jalapenos at the end of the growing season. The demand for red jalapenos is not as great as green so most American jalapeño growers just till the red jalapenos into the ground to prepare the fields for the following growing season. Mexican growers use a more sustainable approach and harvest the red jalapenos for smoking into chipotles.  There are a few differences between red and green jalapenos other than just the color. As the jalapeno ripens it turn from green to dark red, black and then finally to bright red. The bright red jalapeño has a thinner skin and the meat of the jalapeño has also thinned. The thin flesh makes it easier to achieve a smoke dried jalapeño. The green jalapeno will take longer than the red to smoke dry at low temperatures. Bottom lime is farmers can get more money for green jalapenos so they sell those for top dollar. For the backyard grower with more jalapenos then they know what to do with, chipotles can be made from either green or red jalapenos. By all means, if you can sell your green jalapenos for top dollar, then only use the red. Otherwise, go ahead a smoke up some green chipotles.

Let me know how your chipotles turn out by leaving a comment.

I have been testing the first component of the DIY black soldier fly larvae self harvesting bin. The first component is the harvesting system which allows mature larvae to naturally migrate out of the food waste via two migration ramps. The larvae can be collected and used as chicken or fish feed.

This homemade bsfl compost bin can be made in a few hours with materials that can be sourced from any hardware store. Click here for more info…

This is a snap shot of the square foot garden a few months ago. The tomatoes have all died from the heat and a nasty fungus, but the basil and jalepeno peppers are loving the hot weather. It is taking lots of water to keep the alive! If you look closely at the photo you can see the fungus and some leaf miner damage on the leaves of the tomato plants.

snapshot: basil, big boy tomatoes, S100 cherry tomatoes and jalepeno m peppers

I drilled holes in the bottom of a cool whip container, filled it with pancakes and strawberries and placed it on the compost pile. Black soldier fly larvae love strawberries. For more info on soldier flies and the beneficial larvae, check out the links below.

Links: Black Soldier Fly – Wikipedia | The BioPod | Black Soldier Fly Blog 1 | Black Soldier Fly Blog 2

Opening your compost bin and finding these critters can be quite a surprise. The BSFL are in my DIY compost can. I also had these black soldier fly larvae in my outdoor worm bins. I spent hours trying to get these guys out of the worm bins. I ended up searching google for “white worm maggots”, “compost maggots”, “white bugs in compost pile”. It turns out that the black soldier fly larvae are great composters and the red wigglers like to eat what the black soldier flies leave behind. The black soldier fly larvae are beneficial to the composting process. They help to compost kitchen scraps in very small amounts of time. As an additional bonus, the adult flies don’t carry pathogens and are not interested in entering your home like normal house flies. For more info on soldier flies and the beneficial larvae, check out the links below.

Links: Black Soldier Fly – Wikipedia | The BioPod | Black Soldier Fly Blog 1 | Black Soldier Fly Blog 2

This is a great compost thermometer for under $20 and with free shipping… Mantis Compost Thermometer