10/30/2023 last peppers

The last peppers of the season piled on the gray ceramic kitchen table. There are long curly skinny yellow corbaci, big red bell, green bells, and brown-purple bells, and two little triangular apple peppers.
Before the hard freeze I cut down all the pepper plants (plus a few stray and unfortunately sized okra) and put them in the garage. The next day when I had time, I sorted and weighed them. we got a good last bunch of all our pepper varieties for this year! Paula notes of the sweet peppers, the apple peppers were sweetest when both red and green. The California wonder bell and chocolate bell were both more bitter when young/green. The Chef likes the thin and easy to cut corbaci peppers.

10/29/2023 first freeze forecast tonight

Piles of vegetable greenery on a concrete front poor with a black double door in the background
So, in spite of rain all day and temperatures in the 30s F, I went out and cut all the plants. That’s the giant pile of cut basil on an overflowing Rubbermaid tub and assorted cut off pepper plants nearby. The rest of the day was getting basil leaves off the stems.
An inch thick basil stem cut off, with my hand nearby for scale.
The basil stems were so big I had to use the loppers to cut them at the base.
A blue-gray rubber made plastic tub almost full of bright green basil leaves
3608 grams of basil leaves. This is 7.95 pounds. Yes, we did tare the tub weight. Yes, it is a lot of basil. No, I don’t even know what’s going to happen.

09/02/2023 behind on peppers

A peeling white enameled metal colander full of red, orange, brown, and yellow peppers of various shapes and sizes.
I got very behind on the garden and the blog the last few weeks with my household humans on a trip. The cats said they needed feeding and it just kept happening! The long skinny peppers in the colander are Corbaci peppers. The upper left conical red one is an Apple Pepper (I assume it’s named for the shape). The lower left orange one was California Wonder bell. The lower right brown one is a Chocolate Bell.
Peppers seeds and a wrinkly whole red apple pepper in a white bowl with black stripes bordering the rim.
Some peppers, like these apple peppers, were at a stage where I’ve just extracted their seeds to save.
Tomato sauced bow tie pasta is heaped with veggies and feta cheese, with a side of buttered sourdough bread on a white plate with stripe and square black border.
Mom made a delicious dish of veggies, pasta, and beans for dinner during her and Dad’s visit! From the garden, it had apple peppers and California Wonder peppers (both sweet bell-ish types) in it, as well as fresh basil and oregano.

10/11/2022 and other recent foods

Tonight contains garden onions.
The Brussels sprouts in the left side are topped with sweet Corbaci peppers from the garden.
Paula made a bean and potato chunky soup. The giant beans are Royal Corona beans, a type of runner bean, which came in our first Bean Club shipment.

Wednesday harvest and other friends

A lot of blue lake green beans.
Several tomato varieties are ripening.
UF garden gem was fine but all of the UF “W” at a similar color rotted and molded. Perhaps they don’t like the endless rain? I will watch more closely for ripening now too.
The Chef tied all the onions up for storage.
The mini bell peppers are more mini than I expected.
Corbaci peppers. I think the three little ones aren’t ready, but their plant died.
A mini bell pepper plant died too, in the same way, a rotting brown at the base.
This mushroom looks like it should be named lemon chiffon something.
Weighing the dried garlic.
Pseudothyris sp. moth resting on strawberry leaf.