The Twilights are fully ripe when they hit the red stage. And yes, that is a Numex Twilight plant. They start purple, then yellowish, then orange and then red and several combination colors in between. They are generally grown as ornamental peppers and are not usually grown for eating, although they can be eaten and are relatively hot. You will find they have a thinner skin but are chock full of small seeds. It is one of, if not my favorite ornamental.

I am not sure the variety of the first plant, but I know what you mean about not wanting to let them go to waste. I prefer the dehydrator method for drying peppers. Some peppers work OK to simply air dry, but those look like thick skinned peppers and they don't do as well with air drying. An oven would work fine too as long as they are not super hot peppers like Ghost peppers. Those would turn your kitchen/house into a gas chamber. The dehydrator can be placed outside in a garage or even just out on a porch if necessary. You can get ones that pretty reasonably priced and would be a good investment if you feel like you will want to continue drying peppers or a multitude of other fruits and vegetables.

I picked 1.5 lbs of Thai Dragons a couple of days ago and I just got around to slicing them and putting them in the dehydrator. THey are destined to become my replenished supply of pepper flakes.

Funny thing about them is that I picked some of the early ripe ones and they had absolutely no heat. I tested one a few weeks later and that was heatless as well. But these late season ones do have some significant heat. Nothing crazy, maybe about Jalapeno heat and should be perfect for sprinkling on food. I was just going to toss them but I am glad I didn't.

I had never had a plant that didn't have any heat at first but finally got hot later on.

esox

Thank you for taking time to explain.

In your 2nd post you mentioned slicing them - do you slice them into 'rings'? I was thinking about cutting the pods in 1/2 lengthwise, leaving seeds in (that's what I read), and discarding just the stem.

I didn't taste them...I do not mind little 'heat' but am thinking these will be more than just a little...I did give one of the first that got red to a friend and he complained that it wasn't hot. But I gave him few more recently, and they were quite hot according to him :)

I do have a small plant that is apparently decorative pepper called Christmas lights (?). It has purple leaves & stems and the pods look same as Twilights, color and shape.

When I mention slicing them in this instance, I mean lengthwise like you thought. That is for dehydrating. The big thing is just to get them opened up so they can dry from the inside out.

I cross slice my Hot Hungarian Wax peppers for cold canning however.

Here is a photo of my Thai Dragons on the dehydrator. You should be able to click the photo below for a larger version.

esox

Many thanks again...

Bruce: Thais will dry easily with no slicing and just plain air drying. But if one has a dehydrator, TIME will definitely be saved.

Rina: oven drying is fine. I use a toaster oven. I've never had a problem with even superhots releasing too many fumes to make me gag(cough). You just wouldn't want to start actually cooking them... 150F is fine. Makes the house smell awesome!

Kevin

Kevin, are you married? Maybe a dehydrator makes it worse with the circulating air, but we nearly spent a night in the local motel after I left a dehydrator full of superhots going while we went out one day. My wife threatened my pepper growing hobby on that one. I figured it was a wash because we didn't see any mice that winter in the house. I think we fumigated it with the peppers.

My non-insulated garage even gets hard to take with a dehydrator full of Super Hots.

I know I wouldn't have to slice the Thai Dragons, but I want them to dry to the max. Otherwise, they tend to clump after I grind them up. But the fact that they are thin skinned is one of the main reasons I used them for drying and grinding. They give a good overall aroma with out fumigating the place.

Kevin

Thank you, I was thinking of using the toaster oven. I'll try, just to be sure- will probably set it in an uninsulated breezeway. Or attic?...

Not sure about how hot my peppers are, but need to sleep here, lol.

What do you use to grind them? Is immersion blender OK to use?

For flakes I have a small cusinart food processor thingy my sister gave me several years ago. But, if you want powder, you should look at a basic Coffee grinder. They can be had at a Walmart for about $15 and will turn your dried peppers into fine powder. Just make sure you don't use it to grind coffee beans after using it to grind hot peppers. :)

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hamilton-Beach-Fresh-Grind-Coffee-Grinder/15758915

Bruce: No. Not married, but roommate is extra sensitive to the fumes.

"I figured it was a wash because we didn't see any mice that winter in the house. I think we fumigated it with the peppers."

LMAO....that reminds me of when I used to air dry my peppers in the garage, but I noticed mice were eating the milder ones like Thai et al. Then I dried some Bhuts--- they were barely just nibbled on...I could only laugh as I imagined a tiny mouse running out of the garage screaming for some milk.

Rina: an immersion blender would be a total PITA. Take esox's advice.

Kevin

Thank you all for tips, again.

I dried most of them in toaster oven, so far so good (have to double check tomorrow am to make sure they are dry enough). I also made some pepper jelly...using green and yellow sweet from my garden and few of the red in original pics...it is very hot, I only tasted tiniest bit and am glad I was so careful. I was surprised, while washing equipment, how much fume was being given out by hot water - had to keep my eyes turned away :)