Spices Don't Get Any Fresher Than This

Each year we plant a couple Criolla Sella Pepper plants in the garden.  I raise them from seed normally, but this year a couple plants came up volunteer from last year so I just transplanted them where I wanted them.  They produce prolifically and keep us busier than Peter Piper harvesting the peppers.

At first they are green .

And then when they are ripe they are bright Jack O'Lantern orange.  That bright color against the green foliage means they are easy to spot when picking.  You can see the small white blooms next to my pinky finger.

I'll pick a bucket and bring them inside, wash them, cut them in half and put them on the food dehydrator trays and let them dry overnight until they break in half easily with  snap.

I use an old potato/carrot peeler blade to insert into the pepper and de-seed them.

Normally I'd throw them into the food processor and pulse until the peppers turned to powder, but I was feeling like doing it the old fashioned way tonight.  I pulled out Tricia's molcajete.  That is the Mexican version of the mortar and pestle.  It works nicely for grinding.

With a little effort the dried peppers are pulverized into ground pepper.  I wish you could smell the 'smoky-hot fragrance' of the freshly ground pepper.  Wonderful!

The bright orange-colored pepper against the white plate makes a stark contrast.  It kind of makes black pepper boring, don't you think?

We funnel it into pepper containers and use all year long.  We'll make batches of fresh ground Criolla Sella peppers as long as the plants produce - that will be until winter.

Sorry McCormick.  Criolla Sella fresh ground pepper beats the pants off of store bought ground black pepper.