I did it !!! I made paprika using peppers from my own garden.
The Peppers
These particular seeds, SWEET PAPRIKA, came from William Dam Seeds. There is another variety that I want to find and try. I think they are called Alma (which means apple, in Hungarian). The Alma peppers are little ball shapes and one research said that they are the variety traditionally grown in Hungary for paprika.
Growing Season
A number of factors gave these plants a late start in the garden. The poor little things were stuck in little cell packs for far too long. But eventually they did make it into the garden.
I chose to grow them in self-watering bins and they seemed to like it. Well, the ones at the south end of the Hoophouse liked it. The ones at the north end, not so much. My guess is that there was a mist from irrigation of the field behind our property that may have had some herbicides in it that my plants didn’t like. But that is just a guess.
Anyway, they grew and they produced peppers.
When the paprika peppers were bright red and lovely, I harvested them and the journey began.
Preserving the Paprika Peppers
I washed the peppers.
Cut them in half and removed the seeds.
I placed them on a freeze-dryer tray and put them in the freezer, waiting until I had a full load to freeze-dry. (Note: it would have processed faster if I had diced the peppers instead of just cutting them in half)
They went through the freeze-dryer.
I, then, put them in my KitchenAid food processor and ground them to a powder.
I stored the paprika seasoning in a glass milk jug.
And there you have it- homemade paprika from scratch.
Next year, I need to grow a lot more pepper plants as I use a LOT of paprika in a year. But, this is a start! - Debbie
