Jan 23rd ... Starting Tomato and Pepper seeds indoors ... with Mr. Smush Face's supervision

I'm maybe a week or two behind when I wanted to start, but it is time to start seeds indoors for all of your Peppers, Eggplants and Tomatoes that you are planning to grow this spring.

When it comes to DIY fruits and veggies, I like to grow stuff that is either hard or impossible to find in most grocery stores or that is VERY EXPENSIVE to buy!

Don't go through all the effort of growing regular Jalapeños yourself when they cost just a couple of cents at the store!

This is what I'm growing this year:

Peppers:
Padron Peppers (first time, but they are delicious roasted with olive oil and sea salt!)
Hot Shishito Peppers (they did extremely well last year)
Paprika (fresh paprika is awesome sauteed and mixed into meatballs)
Chocolate Habaneros
Golden Cayenne
Red Cayenne
Miniature Chocolate Bell Peppers
Miniature Red Bell Peppers
P. Alaku (they looked cool from pictures so I'm experimenting)
Yellow Marconi

Tomatoes:
I'm not doing as many varieties as I normally like to plant this year because I have a squirrel problem :/ and they love ruining all of my hard work... This year... fewer plants with better protection from these critters!!

Green Vernissage
Tigerella (beautiful, prolific and tasty!)
German Bicolor
Tasmanian Blushing Yellow (best tasting large tomato I've ever had!)
Blue/Gold Cherry
Yellow Tomatillo
Purple Tomatillo
Ground Cherries (really tasty little tomatoes, taste almost like pineapple)

Start by filling up your containers with a Seed starting mix that you either purchased or made yourself

Make sure to label each row where your seeds are going in... because in 2 months you definitely won't remember which is which!
if you don't have any labeling sticks... make your own!
I use just regular printer paper, scotch tape and toothpicks

Then place 1-2 seeds if the seed packets are new or up to two years old... if older do 3-4 seeds just in case some have gone bad!

Cover and water thoroughly!

That is it for now... I will keep updating you on how they do... tomato seeds usually take 7 days to sprout while pepper seeds take anywhere from 7-16 days.

Next post we will talk about lighting and where to store.

Thanks for taking the time to read, Are you starting your seeds as well??

What are you growing?

Let me know in the comments below as well as any questions!

Love,
Chef Alejandra