PEPPERS

Saludos y Feliz septiembre!
Following the tragic end to two new cameras, I have been depressed (and apprehensive) about posting anything without photos. However! from the dusty confines of a storage box comes an archaic yet fully functioning Sony Cyber-Shot. HALLELUJAH!
Though it is September and the end of many planting seasons up north, another Nica season is only just beginning.
Without further ado, I must address the starlets in my garden: Bell Peppers!

Out of the eight hearty plants that i transplanted from seed boxes and are now tucked cozily in a garden bed, SIX have peppers! The seed packet, a mixed bag if you will, promises a certain percentage of 4 or 5 different varieties. I've been waiting eagerly for each plant to show off some distinct color or shape, an inkling to it being an Orange Sun? a Chardonnay?

a Diamond...

or a Big Red??

Personally I don't know what any of these varieties truly looks like, aside from the photo arrangement on the packet. Deducing the implication of a "bull's horn" from this nombre italiano, i'm fairly certain i've got a Sweet Corno di Toro

The peppers all start off green, regardless of their eventual hue, leaving the gardener the choice to harvest early or to allow the peppers to ripen on the vine. The dilemma, (there always is one), is that the plants are known to produce more heavily if they are harvested earlier. You can then ripen your peppers in a brown bag or other cool dark place. If you hope to save seeds however (which i do), it is important to leave the fruit adequate development on the plant so that the seeds fully ripen. ha! what to do?

Keeping with the mixed bag theme, I gently clipped a pepper or two from several of the plants, encouraging them to continue busting out blooms and fruit, and the others i am allowing to patiently develop their perfect pepper potential.

the line-up

After 2 days in a dark box:

In celebration, i featured the latest harvest in my favorite cuisine, pictured here along with the other homegrown ingredients (lemon, lemongrass, chiles)


And for comparison, a scene of the extranjero foods:

Thai Coconut Curry Soup!

*home-grown basil and beet greens added at finish