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Sunday, February 02, 1997     Page: 1G

Spice up your winter with peppers that are pretty and petite and above all
hot

Last Sunday wasn't enough to contain all my personal plant picks for 1997.
So here are a few morePeppers are still "hot" and nothing is hotter than the
new Red Savina habanero. (Shepherd's Garden Seeds, address listed below.)
Pepper heat is rated in Scoville heat units (SHU), and this new chili
supposedly -- and significantly -- surpasses its orange predecessor, plain old
scorching hot habanero.

To put things in a numeric perspective, jalapeno peppers rate from 3,500 to
4,500 SHU.

The traditional habanero was top ranked between 200,000 and 300,000 SHU.
Red Savina habanero -- at an incendiary 350,000 to 500,000 SHU -- is suitable
for only the most iron-clad of mouths.

HOT, HOT, OU-EEE HOT!

The 1988 All America Selection (AAS) Super Chili (Shepherd's) pepper
performs a triple play in my garden. It's delightfully ornamental, deliciously
hot and darn-right gorgeous dried for decorations.

Only a foot tall, it is loaded with 2-inch, shiny, pointed fruits.

Like the color purple? Pretty in Purple (johnny's Selected Seeds) is a
standout. The petite peppers are purple, though they eventually turn orange
and red amid the compact purple-tinged plant. Perfect!

For those of you who can't stand the heat, there's always the dependable
"sweets" such as Gypsy and New Ace. Even a tamed jalapeno called Senorita
makes a polite pepper popper for faint-of-palate senors.

Last year my Tea Garden tested a sweet corn variety for National Gardening
magazine. Colossal Yellow (Stokes Seeds) is an extra early (58 day) corn that
was in the top 10 of the 23 plant varieties tested by growers for the
magazine. I was impressed by the meatiness of its kernels that stayed tender
and very sweet past its prime picking date.

For all you displaced Southerners, Cajun Delight (Park Seed) is a new
hybrid okra that is a 1997 AAS choice suitable for our Northern climate. This
may mature as early as 53 days after transplant, but keep picking because this
okra will stop producing if pods are left on the plant. I don't use a lot of
okra in my cooking, but I do use several plants each year for the lovely
hibiscus-like flowers and the interesting Christmas ornaments I fashion from
the mature, dried pods. (More about that in another column.)

I make sauerkraut every year, so I don't mind those cabbage patch behemoths
that laugh at little refrigerator vegetable drawers. But for all of you who
don't process your own food or don't have a root cellar to winter-keep your
garden's excess, Dynamo (Stokes Seeds) might be right for you. Another 1997
AAS winner, this downsized cabbage weighs in at 2 to 2 1/2 pounds and has the
added benefit of being resistant to the nasty habit of splitting open the day
before you want to harvest it.

One of the prettiest and tenderest of butterhead lettuces is Sangria
(johnny's and Stokes), a 49-day, fancy bi-color, mild flavored, slow bolting
beauty. My advice: grow it!

Beets so often get a bad rap -- I just don't understand it. How can you not
like a vegetable that is naturally super sweet and a power house of nutrition?
Maybe their blood-red appearance frightens humans. I don't know, but I have
converted a few picky eaters by serving the yellow-fleshed variety, Golden
Beet (Fedco Seeds). Try a food trick on your favorite beet-hater by cooking up
some freshly harvested "goldens" in Roasted Beets with Pinenuts (see
accompanying recipe) and change their mind. Help beet the bad rap!

Want to grow the cutest little summer squash to impress your friends? And
enemies? Sunburst (johnny's and Fedco) is a yellow scalloped darling with a
green dot at the blossom end. Picked tiny, with the blossom attached, or later
at 4 inches, it stays tender and is suitable for steaming, sauteeing, stuffing
or simply displaying.

If you're short on space in the garden but love green beans, Emerite
(Fedco) is a climber that yields 7-inch straight filet-type beans and takes up
little space. It performed well for me last year, was very uniform in
appearance and had a good beany flavor.

I could go on and on about my old favorites and new hopefuls for the
garden, but that would take up too many columns, so I'll end my Personal Picks
for 1997 with this tip:

Plant some flowers in your vegetable garden, especially alyssum. These
tiny-flowered annuals attract the tinier beneficial insects that are so
important to a well-designed, diversified and earth-friendly organic garden.

And happy, healthy harvests.

Roasted Beets with Pinenuts

4 medium beets, roasted

2 tablespoons virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest salt and pepper (optional)

2 tablespoons toasted pinenuts chopped parsley or cilantro

Trim and wash medium-sized beets, wrap in foil or put in covered casserole.
Roast in 350-degree oven until tender when pierced, about 1 1/2 hour. Cool.
Peel and dice into 1/2-inch pieces. Prepare a vinaigrette with lemon juice,
zest, olive oil, salt and pepper. Toast pinenuts quickly in dry pan until
browned Do not burn! Garnish with parsley or cilantro.

Makes 4 servings.

Sources

30 Irene St.

Torrington, Ct. 06790

1 Parkton Ave.

Greenwood S.C. 29647

Foss Hill Rd.

Albion, Me. 04910

Box 548

Buffalo, N.Y. 14240

PO Box 1626

Augusta, Ga. 30903

PO Box 520

Waterville, Me. 04903

Judi Segebarth is a master gardener and owner of an organic, educational
garden center near thoroughly Zone 5 Wyalusing. Write to her in care of the
Arts &amp; Leisure Team, The Times Leader, 15 N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre, PA
18711-0250.

PHOTO COURTESY JUDI SEGEBARTH Pining for purple peppers? Pretty in Purple
is a standout.

Spice Up Your Winter With Peppers That Are Pretty And Petite And Above All Hot