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Welcome to 7 Pot Club.

I'm Rob.

🎵I grow hot peppers 🎵

Today is the day before the big day.

We're out in the front yard picking hot peppers so we can select 12 each of three

varieties to enter into competition at the Minnesota State Fair.

We need to have them ready by this evening, because tomorrow we'll be up bright and early.

We need get to the Agriculture building and have our peppers registered and arranged by

9 a.m.

There are a lot of peppers to pick, so I'd better get busy and pitch in.

Let's get started!

We did an episode back in July where I agonized over whether or not to submit our hot peppers

for judging this year.

I'll include a link to that video at the end of this episode.

My biggest fear was that I might not win any ribbons, and that I would have to admit that

failure to my treasured 7 Pot Club viewers here on YouTube.

Let's review the judging criteria for the MN State Fair Vegetable Crops competition.

The same four judging criteria are used for all vegetable crops.

1) True to variety class 2) Proper maturity 3) Quality and 4) Uniformity of size, shape

and color.

In the late summer, we do a complete harvest twice a week.

We have so many plants this year, and it takes hours to find and collect all the ripe peppers.

As we pick, we bring them into the dining room and lay them out on the table and label

them.

There are so many ripe peppers that we had to add a leaf to the table to make enough

room for the harvest.

It was dark by the time we finished.

It's always really hard to choose which peppers to take to the fair.

Aji Charapita seem too small to get the judge's attention.

With many varieties, like Jay's Red Ghost Scorpion, we just didn't have the required

dozen.

Wenk's Yellow Hots look too much like wax peppers, and the judges might not understand

they are a smaller, unique variety.

The Brainstrain Yellows are spectacular, but like most superhots, the fruits show a lot

of size, shape and texture variation.

The Carolina Reapers are amazing this year, but I only got 3rd place two years ago with

a beautiful batch of these.

I was really worried that none of our peppers would be uniform enough to win.

It was late, so we went to bed and postponed the final decisions to the next morning.

Here are our final selections for the three categories we entered.

For Class 636, Peppers, Small Hot, Small, we chose Jellybean Habaneros.

I realize there are 14 here, so we will have to remove two before we exhibit them.

That one with the stubby stem will definitely have to go.

For class 637, Peppers, Small Hot, Large, we're going with these Bhut Jolokia Strain II.

They're the right size, and fairly uniform, so I think this is our best shot.

Finally, class 639, Habanero or Scotch Bonnet.

I'd like to enter a variety that exactly matches the description, like Habanero Vietnam,

but they peaked earlier and we just don't have enough.

So we settle on 7 Pot White.

These are very large and dramatic, and look more like habaneros than most other superhots.

I picked out the best 12, but wished they were a little more uniform in shape and size.

Our selections completed, we packed them up, got in the car, and made the drive to the

fairgrounds.

Here's a heavily Photoshopped photo of the Agriculture/Horticulture building where the

competition is held.

We immediately headed for the staging room where we checked in and transferred our peppers

to provided styrofoam trays, trying to arrange them in the order that made them look the

most uniform.

Finally, we entered the exhibition room and placed our exhibits on the shelf.

Our fate was now in the hands of the judges.

The Vegetables room is closed to the public until after the judging is completed, which

is usually around lunch time.

I was very nervous while waiting.

I got much needed hugs and encouragement from these friendly sriracha and Tabasco bottles.

We passed the time checking out farm animals, fine art, food, parades, crop art,

and some hip African jazz.

I could see the Vegetables room from the outside, so I checked periodically to see if the judging

had been completed.

Finally the room was opened to the public, and I rushed in to learn my fate.

Where were our exhibits?

Everything was a blur.

Finally, Cat pointed me in the right direction.

Look.

That ribbon is blue.

I am Minnesota State Fair king of Peppers, Small Hot, Small.

The mini Jellybean Habaneros were the right choice.

But that's not all.

We won Second Premium for the Bhuts in Peppers, Small Hot, Large.

Not bad.

And finally, Third Premium for the 7 Pot Whites.

Those are some beautiful peppers and I'm so sorry they will never be eaten.

Every vegetable in the room gets composted Tuesday night so the next group of veggies

can take their place on Wednesday.

We leave the fair among the most happy and satisfied of the 184,716 who attended today.

We're finally going home with the blue.

Actually, not going home with it.

in about a month, we'll get the ribbons in the mail, and if my calculations are correct,

a check for a whopping $15.

This was a good day.

That's it for this episode.

It's the day after the fair, and I'm happy but very tired, sitting here with all the

peppers we didn't enter in the competition.

Don't worry, none of them will go to waste, and you will see some of them put to use in

upcoming episodes.

It was so satisfying to finally win that blue ribbon.

Even if I don't believe that uniformity is the best way to judge exotic hot peppers,

we gave them uniformity and it paid off.

It's a useful reminder that if you play someone else's game, you need to play by

their rules if you want to win.

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There's a new video every week throughout the growing season, and you won't want to

miss an episode.

Hard to believe, but there's only a month or so left in this year's growing season,

and it's almost time to start planning for next year.

Please, send us your episode suggestions in the comments.

For 7 Pot Club, I'm Rob.