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.
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. The basil stems were so big I had to use the loppers to cut them at the base.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. LeafhopperTrue bug nymphJumping spiderPraying mantisWe had several little friends come in on the basil. All were released back into the shelter of adjacent plants outside.
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. Some peppers, like these apple peppers, were at a stage where I’ve just extracted their seeds to save. 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.
Garden ingredients are garlic, saffron and Corbaci pepper. All other veggies except carrots were from the farm share. Shrimp and rice from the grocery store.
Shackleton inspected sweet peppers as I brought them in on a red tray. The long skinny red peppers are Corbaci sweet peppers. The round dark purple peppers are Purple Beauty sweet peppers.
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.
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.