Pepper Update

The tomatoes may be waning, but the peppers are still going gangbusters. I had so many anaheim and carmen peppers ripening at the same time that I felt sure that they were going to be a one shot deal, and that I would get one bumper crop all ripe at the same time and then that would be it.

But, we've been establishing since April all the ways in which I don't know everything, so it'll come as no surprise to you that these beautiful and healthy plants are putting out new peppers as we speak, and they show every sign of keeping on coming.



So my baskets these days are mostly peppers and green tomatoes, or tomatoes that have barely started to ripen that I am picking to let finish ripening inside.

I made a batch of green tomato relish this past weekend, and you know what? It was SCRUMPTIOUS. Google the recipe on Cooks.com (I think). I didn't have any celery seed or mustard seed left (all those pickles I made....) so I actually put a tsp of thyme and a 1/2 tsp of turmeric in instead. The only thing I will change for the next batch is that I will include more hot peppers, as many serranos and jalepenos as I have on hand. I hope to make more this weekend. I have eaten one 1/2 pint jar (I canned them all in little jelly jars) as a relish with sausage, and honestly I could just eat that relish out of the jar with a spoon. It is GOOD.

I decided to stay local with my plants this fall, unless I can't find any local cauliflower. I may order that from the Tasteful Garden if they still have it, specifically because it's self-blanching which is one less thing I will have to figure out this fall. I suspect the cauliflower I planted last year, bought locally, died because I didn't blanch it, since I had no idea what that was or that I was supposed to do it. If you don't know either, I believe this means that you have to tie the leaves together around the new head and let it develop inside this little cocoon. My guess is that the cauliflower that TG sells will kind of naturally wrap its leaves itself, and I'm real interested to see that. So I may do that at the last minute.

All of which is to say that while I'll be looking for plants locally this coming spring too, and hopefully doing a better job of starting seeds inside myself for as much as I can, I think I'm going to get heirloom tomatoes and peppers from TG again because they've really just been wonderful.