Now that I have a yard again I planted a couple of pepper plants. As a kid
we'd grow our own fresh jalapenos, slice them and put them in a jar of
vinegar and use them over the next couple of months.

Now I also have all these cayanne, Hungarian yellow, and sweet banana
peppers coming off that I'm not cooking with. I'm trying to just pickle
these whole for later use.

Question is, should I puncture the skin so vinegar gets inside?

And how does one go about smoking a pepper -- like chipotles? How long are
they good for and how do you store them?

Feel free to describe any method you use to keep peppers (fresh, dried,
pickled or otherwise) throughout the year.

Thanks,
John