One of the books suggested by Carol for this month's Garden Bloggers' Book Club is "People with Dirty Hands: The Passion for Gardening" by Robin Chotzinoff. While I enjoyed all the stories of the people profiled therein, the ones that most struck a chord with me were the stories about the hot pepper growers and sellers. I read with fascination about large scale pepper production and how it has changed from the old days of drying the peppers on the flat adobe roofs. The reason these stories resonated with me is because, for the first time ever, I'm growing my own hot peppers, 'Mucho Nacho' Jalapenos.
I've grown sweet peppers before, although my first effort at container growing them was a dismal failure, with only 1 pepper harvested, and that in November. I have to grow my veggies in pots because I don't have enough full sun space in the back yard, so they go in containers on the mostly sunny patio. This year's crops are looking to be successes.
Lots of lovely, spicy hot peppers.
I and my Very Indulgent Spouse (VIS) love hot peppers. We love them in burritos, in Nachos, in gardinera. VIS loves them so much, he would eat them straight. When I asked him what we should do with the peppers, eat them raw and fresh or pickle them, he said both. Now I just have to figure out the best time to harvest them. I harvested two a couple of weeks ago, and we discovered that they weren't hot enough yet. And so we wait, we know not how long, for the peppers to ripen. Someday soon I'll harvest another. They're starting to smell spicy already.
*This is a saying of one of the girl's favorite literary characters, Skippyjon Jones, a Siamese kitten who thinks he's a Chihuahua. See "Skippyjon Jones" by Judith Byron Schachner.