moving to Finland from US

podzap · Post by **podzap** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:43 pm

soledad wrote:Stuff to bring to Finland? Decent hot sauces, and corn tortillas of course. Can't get em, and Tabasco does not count as hot sauce selection.

You can make your own hot sauces. I make them all the time. Salsa, hot sauce, etc.

Peppers grow quite well in Finland. Last summer, I grew more cayennes than I could shake a stick at. Two plants produced several hundred large, red, hot peppers. Also grew two really big habaneros, and got about 20 little pumpkins off each one. This summer, I plan to grow jalapenos.

Maybe I should grow more and start selling hotsauce from a website

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Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:29 pm

Uuhh ohhh... I had a batch of homegrown chillies I'd been drying. Ground them and then made some chili oil with some, rest are in a jar. Need to grind them down still, a bit too big flakes there. Anyways made some fried rice and put... some... seasoning on it. Definitely works... had to drive home my car window open...

soledad · Post by **soledad** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:50 pm

Hm.. hadn't thought of growing our own hot peppers... but if the jalopeños grow in Finland as well, I should really grow some here.

All I am growing now is a pineapple, and I can't wait to put it grow out for hte summer.

podzap · Post by **podzap** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:11 pm

soledad wrote:Hm.. hadn't thought of growing our own hot peppers... but if the jalopeños grow in Finland as well, I should really grow some here.
All I am growing now is a pineapple, and I can't wait to put it grow out for hte summer.

I don't know yet how well jalapenos grow here. I tried some last summer, which were a northern climate breed, but they didn't start flowering until very late in the summer.

The biggest problem with growing peppers in Finland is the aphids. The aphids are really bad in this climate during the summer. And you can't buy insecticides in Finland to stop the aphids...

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:55 pm

Well, yes you can and buy raid and use a flower-house dood!

Apart from which you usually grow the chilies inside in a pot...

soledad · Post by **soledad** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:56 pm

Well, not growing them in Finland for sure..

they have still snow there don't they? It's +8 c out here now. So as it will get warmer, they should grow out fine ...

podzap · Post by **podzap** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:21 pm

Hank W. wrote:Well, yes you can and buy raid and use a flower-house dood!
Apart from which you usually grow the chilies inside in a pot...

Aphids will infest peppers even when they are started from seed and grown in the house in the middle of the winter. I honestly do not know where the hell they come from.

Did you know that Raid(tm) is nerve agent? For real. It contains the same stuff as VX nerve agent, and works in exactly the same way - absorbs through the skin and shuts down the central nervous system by inhibiting cholinesterase (the electrical bridge across nerve synapses). That is not exactly the type of stuff I want to spray on something which I plan to eat. I was thinking of something a bit safer... Actually the best thing to use against aphids (kirvojaa) is neem oil, but it is _very_ difficult to find it in Finland and then when you do, the prices are sky freakin' high.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:25 pm

Aphids are in the soil. If you have an infestion in one plant int gets around. Starting to put new soil in the spring usually gets a little buzz about and around... you can get special stuff for say roses for the "kirva" as well... but stuff to be used inside... hmmm...

smilesalot · Post by **smilesalot** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 11:26 pm

soledad wrote:Stuff to bring to Finland? Decent hot sauces, and corn tortillas of course. Can't get em, and Tabasco does not count as hot sauce selection.

You can buy masa hareina and make your own corn tortillas as well as the hot sauces. If I had to bring anything it would be the peppers, only choice Ive found so far are Jalepenos and the little chinese ones. Peanut butter can be made with a blender as well. Chedder cheese is from enland and is usually sharp. I have found Jack cheese equivalent. Vanilla extract is difficult to find, especially Mexican vanilla or Tahitian vanilla. Ive found chocolate bars that are equivalent to chocolate chips. Gelatin is here as well.

to expand on the pepper problems

podzap wrote:
soledad wrote:Hm.. hadn't thought of growing our own
The biggest problem with growing peppers in Finland is the aphids. The aphids are really bad in this climate during the summer. And you can't buy insecticides in Finland to stop the aphids...

Its funny but there are a couple of natural alternatives, one is good old soap or if you want to enhance it use peppermint oil in it, someone mentioned cayenne pepper you can make a spray with that as well which works on aphids. Tea tree oil as well as Neem oil are great for aphids, but most of the time I just search the net for natural alternatives for aphids. Iv'e tried them all being Im a Frangipani junkie and a CRFG member before I experienced the wild pleasures of the North;)

smilesalot

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