How to Pick Red Hot Chili Peppers

Pick your peppers at the height of ripeness to enjoy the best chiles from your garden.

Whether you intend to use your red hot chili peppers fresh, dried, ground, or even as decoration, pick them at the height of ripeness to ensure the tastiest and most aesthetically pleasing results. Your chili peppers will turn from green to red as they mature and need a close eye kept on them to stop the difference between ripe and overripe, so plan to check on your peppers often as you reach harvesting time.

Things You'll Need

• Rubber gloves

Instructions

1. Check your peppers frequently as they start to turn red, as they can quickly progress from ripe to soft or moldy, especially in wet weather.

2. Put on a pair of rubber gloves before handling mature red hot chili peppers, as they can burn your bare skin.

3. Examine the red hot chili peppers for ripeness. They are ready to pick when they are red, firm, and crisp, not mushy or wrinkly.

4. Pull the entire plant out of the ground if you plan on drying small chilies. Hang the plant upside down in a room with good ventilation.

5. Pull the stem of individual peppers free of the plant with a firm tug to pick individual peppers. Lay the peppers in a single layer or hang them by thread through the stem to dry.

6. Store whole dried chilies in airtight glass jars or grind them into chili powder.

References

• Vegetable Gardener Magazine: Red Hot! How to Harvest, Dry and Store Mature Red Chiles