Pepper Palace

Lilac Bell Peppers

We are at that point in the summer where many tomato plants are beginning to slow down. If your garden is anything like mine, you probably know this to be true. Although the heirlooms are still pumping out some fine produce, the hybrid plantings are all but done. However, this does not mean the end of the summer gardening season. If your garden is anything like mine, a significant section of it is just getting started.

The proof of this is located to the right. That, my gardening friends, is a bell pepper. In fact, it's many bell peppers. This particular plant that I've chosen to show off is called the Lilac Bell Pepper. It has been growing right next to the tomato garden all summer long. It has now decided to put on a right fine show. But, it's not the only pepper plant that looks like this.

If your pepper garden is anything like mine, it should be riot of color at the moment. It's a veritable rainbow of colors. They range from orange to red, brown to green, and all colors and points in between. They are all in different shapes and sizes. Unike tomatoes, however, the taste can range from "very sweet" to "blowtorch hot." Fans of the blowtorch hot varieties would like my pepper garden this year. There's a great deal to choose from. I did not plan this, by the way. It's just the way that it turned out.

Ghost Pepper

Proof of this accomplishment in the blowtorch hot variety is located to your left. That my good friends, is called the Ghost Pepper. The more formal name is Bhut Jolokia. At one time, this variety held the distinction of "hottest pepper on the planet." It has since been dethroned of that lofty title by other pepper varieties, but the Ghost Pepper still remains as one of the most unique pepper varieties you can grow in the garden. Provided you enjoy the sensation of burning your tongue and lips clean off. I'm not really a fan of this you understand. But, this is the sensation that will greet you should you make the mistake of biting into one of these flaming red bad boys. The Ghost is nothing to fool around with.

Still don't believe me? Check out this collection of Ghost Pepper Challenge videos on Youtube. Yes, it's true. Some people will do anything to get clicks.

Orange Habanero Pepper

So, why grow it? Why submit my tastebuds to this kind of horrific damage? Because it's not permanent. Secondly, there are some pepper afficianados who actually enjoy munching on these. They cannot get enough of them. They are also highly desired peppers for canned salsa efforts. Unlike other peppers in the "hot enough to cause blisters" category, the Ghostie doesn't lose its punch when you put it through the pressure canning process. Other hot peppers, such as the Orange Habanero, do. They can turn into pipsqueaks on the Inferno Scale with the type of pressure processing that some salsa creations require.

Home canned salsa is a real treat. But it's also nothing to fool around with. There are salsa-specific garden recipes to follow when crafting a delicacy like this, and the salsa creator must get that acidic and non-acidic balance just right. Otherwise, you're just creating a jar full of death, or a really bad stomachache. The assignment is tougher than it sounds. You can cook up the perfect salsa creation with a heat factor that is "just right" in the world Goldilocks, only to have that ultimate taste and balance vanish after 30-minutes in a pressure-canning device.

Pepper Garden

Speaking of the Orange Habanero, yes the Ghost Pepper plant has a "friend." I just happened to come across the Orange Habanero starter plant earlier this spring, so I planted it and the Ghostie together. They are part of the "hot stuff" collection in this year's garden. There are other varieties in this collection, and some of them are peppers that I do enjoy. One of these varieties is called the Cinnamon Jalapeño.

C'mon now! Am I really telling you that there is a Jalapeño variety that carries the name of cinnamon? Yes, I am. It also goes by the name of Pumpkin Spice. Does it really taste like cinnamon or even pumpkin spice? No, it does not. At least, not the Jalapeño peppers coming out of my garden. I suppose that the marketing team that came up with this name could possibly be referring to the color of this particular pepper when ripe. Then again, maybe not.

Pho Ga with Peppers

These are, however, the types of flamethrower peppers that my stomach agrees with. Plus, I've always been partial to that Jalapeño taste. The Ghost Pepper can be a bit bitter in my opinion. But the Jalapeño is not. I will usually harvest one to three of these types of Jalapenos for various dinner creations, such as the Chicken Pho (Pho Ga) soup I recently put together. It carries the right amount of heat to make this dish interesting, but not put me in the hospital attached to a stomach pump. Jalapeno peppers are also good additions to hamburgers cooked over a grill. YUM!

So, why grow Ghost Pepper if I really cannot eat or enjoy them like I once did? Part of it is the challenge, I suppose. Ghost pepper plants are not easy to grow. You need the right kind of weather and the right kind of soil. Even with those two combinations, a myriad of things can still go wrong. I cannot begin to tell you how many beautiful Ghost pepper plants I've grown from year to year in the garden, only to have them produce one to three peppers. That's a pepper-pathetic production job. Yet, it happens with this variety. This year, however, is the exception. The 20-bright red Ghost Peppers I've pictured above are about a tenth of this year's crop. Yes, it's been a very good year indeed. Someone close to me is going to enjoy some Ghost Peppers. At least, I hope they enjoy them.

King of the North Bell Pepper

Most of this year's pepper garden, about 24-plants in all, are of the sweet variety. The vast majority of them are bell peppers. But not all of them. There are a few Doux D. Espagne pepper plants in the mix, which produce very big, cylindrical sized peppers. Like most peppers, they start out green and turn a pleasing shade of red when ready to harvest. There's a Japanese Shishito in the mix, plus several varieties of other bell peppers that will turn to a dark shade of purple when ready to harvest. Some are so dark they appear to be black.

I have a myriad of uses for home grown bell peppers. I will grill some of them until they turn soft and process those softened peppers into a soup broth creation. Peppers are also great when they are stuffed with meats like hamburger or chicken. You can also chop up a bunch and freeze them for winter-time soups, stews or other home-cooked creations. If you don't have a package of peas and carrots in the freezer, a bag of multi-colored peppers works great in a pinch!

Etiuda Orange Bell Pepper

I will be honest with you. All of the pepper varieties that I've mentioned here were not purchased as starter plants in local big box stores or nurseries. All were grown from seed. Seeds are really easy and cheap to acquire, if you know where and when to look. The Sacramento County Library system, for example, is a great place to look for unusual pepper seed varieties. Other sources are local gardening groups on Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites. You can find gardening clubs in nearly every community, and those clubs sometimes offer seed-swap events.

You local Dollar stores even get in on this act. Unfortunately, in California, it's more like a $1.25 store. But it's still a good way to collect and store seeds for future uses. Green Acres Nursery is a fantastic location to shop for pepper seeds. Even the local big box stores can offer a surprise find. It all depends upon when and where you look. Best of luck!

The Most Interesting Tomato Plant of the Month! AUGUST 2024 Edition!

The Most Interesting Man in the World

If the collective voices of the gardening world that is on Facebook are to be believed, many backyard growers are not having the best of gardening seasons, In fact, some are reporting epic failures. If the heatwave that struck California in late June and continued through most of July wasn't bad enough, gardeners have been forced to do battle against hordes of rats intent on stealing every last bit of delectable summer garden goodness.

If this describes your gardening experience this summer, my most sincere apologies. Trust me, I've been there. I remember one summer with ZERO production from eight plants that I had placed into one of the first raised gardening beds that I would build. If I wanted a tomato that year I had to buy it from someone else. Then came the rat raids that decimated past gardening efforts. If I am describing your experience this year, I have these words of advice: Don't give up. Try, try again. You have learned much, young padawan. Apply these harsh lessons to next year's effort, and the year after, and the year after that.

Pink Ping Pong Tomatoes

In time you will begin to apply these harsh lessons into growing vegetable gardens that you never dreamed possible. It doesn't happen overnight. But if you keep at it long enough, as I have, it does happen. Case in point? The Most Interesting Tomato Plant of the Month -- which happens to be the month of August, 2024. The most interesting plant also happens to be one of the most productive. But, I will also warn you that this isn't one of the easiest varieties to grow. In fact, I've experienced more misses and flops with the tomato plant to the left than I've had hits.

So, why grow it if it's so unreliable? Because I enjoy garden failures? No, not really. It's the challenge, I suppose. I also recall the one good year I've had with this variety, which was most excellent and a massive stroke of luck. I handed out bags of cherry tomatoes to all of my friends at work that year, and it's this one that many of them cited as their most favorite in the collection. It is called Pink Ping Pong. It is the most interesting tomato plant for the month of August in my Citrus Heights garden. It also happens to be the most productive at the moment and may continue to hold onto that lofty spot through September (although there will be other challengers).

Pink Ping Pong Plant

Pink Ping Pong is an heirloom tomato variety. What is an heirloom? Heirloom = OLD. Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of information regarding exactly where it came from or how it came to be. The story, related by several growers, is that the seeds for this variety were first collected by Andrew Rahart. Yes, this is the same Andrew Rahart who was also responsible for the tomato plant variety known as Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red. Which is also another heirloom. Rahart lived in upper New York state as the story goes and collected seeds from tomatoes that he considered to be unusual. Long before the age of the World Wide Web, he would farm these seeds out to others via snail mail. That is how Pink Ping Pong really caught on.

The variety caught the attention of another famous grower in New Jersey. Dr. Carolyn Male was so impressed with this tomato that she included it in her heirloom tomato bible, a must-have book for any tomato plant afficiando: 100-Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden. If you do not have a copy of this book, get one. You will not regret it. Carolyn, unfortunately, passed some years ago. But her experience lives on. Understand that there are literally THOUSANDS of heirloom tomato varieties. Carolyn tested many of them. She had the farm acreage to do it. So, getting on her "Top 100" list is quite the accomplishment.

Pink Ping Pong Production

"Pink Ping Pong is aptly named," she writes. "It's about the size of a ping pong ball and has a soft pink color. The taste is very sweet, smooth and juicy. I don't grow cherry tomatoes for taste alone. They are fantastic for salads and snacking."

My Pink Ping Pong effort this year was the product of a seed starting effort in a spare bedroom. Seeds were planted in a red solo cup and got enough winter sunshine through a closed window to germinate. Like any tomato plant started in this way, the seeds that sprouted grew quite leggy and weak, a development was not rectified until the hardening off process started in earnest this past spring. Although I had better starter plants to choose from (a tomato growing friend gets great results from his greenhouse), I kept the leggy starter plant that I grew and farmed out the leftover Pink Ping Pong plants to other gardeners.

It anchors "Cherry Row." This is a row of five cherry tomato varieties that include Super Sweet 100, Sun Sugar and Sugar Lump, among others. Although it got off to a slower start than the other, stronger cherry varieties, it soon caught up. My Pink Ping Pong is now over six feet tall, handled our famous heatwave this summer like most heirlooms do, and set a fabulous crop.

Cherry Tomato Plant Row

The biggest harvest from this one plant, which came approximately two weeks ago, resulted in 20 vine-ripened Pink Ping Pong fruits. Which I promptly bagged up and handed off to various neighbors. But not before I snacked on three or four of them. I look forward to the next harvest of 20 or more, and the one after that. I don't care how hot it gets around here. Blistering temperatures do not shut down productive heirloom tomato plants. Ever. That's why people grow them.

This is the best Pink Ping Pong plant I've managed to grow since a volunteer plant sprouted out of an old North Natomas clay-muck soil garden and set a surprise crop of delicious tomatoes. That was many moons ago. But I have not forgotten that experience. Oddly enough, this "volunteer" sprang from a massive failure of an experience the previous summer. I think that plant grew all of three tomatoes. One of which obviously hit the ground and managed to drop a few seeds. The plants that sprouted from that gardening failure turned out to be some of the best and most productive that I ever grew.

Dumb luck? Maybe. It does happen in the garden. But it also results in an experience that you work to create again and again. Because, it's just that good.

Grow tomatoes, my friends. The payoff from efforts like Cherry Row is well worth the effort.

The HIKE

Sisters Deborah (left) and Mary (right)

"Let me make this really clear," she said with eyes that pierced mine, an angry and concerned look on her face. "This is not a video game! There is no reset button! There is no second life! You stay on the marked trail. Do not leave the trail. Do not climb over the fences. If you do you are dead!"

This epic warning from my oldest sister would serve as my introduction to Yosemite National Park, one of the crown jewels of the National Park System. It was my first visit. I was just a boy. My sister had begged me for years to come and visit her there. But I had resisted up until this point. I had this mental image that sister Deborah (Debbie), as a fledgling Yosemite Park Ranger, would attempt to have me hang off a sheer cliff face like El Capitan. Wouldn't that be fun??? NOT! Even at my young and foolish age, I wanted no part of that.

The Yosemite that I am about to describe to you in words and pictures no longer exists. In my youth this park was, in the words of my sister, "underutilized." Reservations? Not needed. Who ever heard of such a thing? Entry fee? To get into Yosemite? GET BENT! To visit Yosemite during this period in time, one only needed to load up the car with camping gear and family. You had your pick of camping spots in Upper or Lower Pines campgrounds, and that choice was usually smack dab on the banks of the Merced River. Cost? Anywhere from $1 to $5 per night. A trip to Yosemite was a "trip on a budget."

Half Dome

No phone calls were needed. No warnings required. The World Wide Web was a World Wide Fantasy. The price of gasoline to fill up the car was getting exhorbitantly expensive at the time, approaching 59-cents a gallon as I recall. But nothing else would stop families from driving directly into Yosemite Valley and parking at the campground of choice. It was that easy. That simple. Traffic jams? In Yosemite? Are you kidding? Far too remote. Not that many people were willing to make that kind of a trip.

You didn't even need an ice chest to keep the cans of beer, soda or bottles of wine cold. That is what the ice-cold Merced River was for. It was nature's ice chest and campers took full advantage of it. There was nothing more refreshing than a can of Olympia or Hamm's beer or Shasta soda at the end of the day that had been "water iced" by the fresh snow-melt waters of the Merced River that coursed through Yosemite Valley and ran straight by our camping spot. No can of cheap grape soda ever tasted any better.

These memories, and a lot more, have been flooding back to me in waves recently. I am recalling events and conversations that I haven't thought about for decades. The recent death of a young lady, Grace Rohloff, is most likely the reason. The 20-year old Arizona State University student slipped and fell from the cables that hikers use to ascend Yosemite Valley's Half Dome in July. She tumbled off a rain-slickened rock face and fell some 300-feet. By the time a rescue team managed to reach her, she was gone.

Yosemite Valley

The story of what happened to Grace has appeared in multiple newspapers and magazines. The tragic event was told to these outlets in detail by her father, Jonathan Rohloff. They were more than just father and daughter. They were hiking partners. The trip up the Half Dome trail is just one of many adventures that the two had undertaken. I feel horribly for Mr. Rohloff. I will never understand this father's pain. But his experience has resulted in a flood of memories.

In the summer of 1977 my two older sisters announced they were going to treat me to the experience of a lifetime. That trip would be a hike into the backcountry of Yosemite National Park where no car could reach. It would result in an overnight camping experience in a remote place called Little Yosemite Valley. It would also mean a trip up the vaunted Half Dome cables. Debbie talked about these cables and this hike often. She was about to introduce me to the experience. That earlier fear I mentioned about scaling the vertical face that is El Capitan was about to come true.

Sister Mary and I. Half Dome Trail

Although I could still describe this ascent up from Yosemite Valley and this hiking trip in detail, I'm going to skip that. Needless to say, this is a trip that took place nearly 50-years ago. Yet, I remember it to this day. I remember it like it took place last week. I don't think anyone forgets an adventure like this. I certainly did not, for many reasons not necessarily connected to this one excursion. It's just an experience that you do not allow yourself to forget.

I can and will tell you the first thought that came to my mind after I had huffed and puffed my way up to the lip of the little dome, also known at the time as "Little Half Dome." This is where the cables that ascend the big round rock called Half Dome came into view for the very first time. The first reaction from my 14-year old brain when I looked at those cables went like this: "OH. HELL. NO." I was already about to drop dead from the trip up just to reach those cables. Now, I would be forced to ascend this monster in front of me? Nope! Not me! I'm not having any part of that!

This is where the term of "sister power" came into play. Both Deborah and Mary announced they were going up those cables. If that wasn't a good enough argument to convince a recalitrant (chicken-hearted) brother, Mary announced she would need a strong man behind her. Just in case she slipped on the cables, you understand. Needless to say, they "convinced me" to make that assault on the cables. They overcame all of the inner voices that screamed "ARE YOU INSANE?" However, to this day I still do have a feeling that if I had refused to hike up that big hill, they would have tied a rope around me and hauled me up.

Half Dome Cables: 1977

A photo snapped by sister Deborah attests to this lineup. Debbie, the strongest in the family, led the way. Behind her came the youngest sister, Mary. Behind Mary came the baby of the family. The spoiled one: me. Do you notice anything else about this photo? Like the complete lack of any other people nearby or below? This was no accident. This was the Half Dome experience in the mid 1970's. If you were brave enough to make the trip up those Half Dome cables, you owned the mountain for that afternoon. Debbie was right. The park was underutilized. This photo is proof of that.

This isn't to say that there were no other people on the Half Dome trail leading to the cables, or other people who accessed the cables at the same time my sisters and I were there. I do remember a handful. But, it was just that: a handful of people. Maybe 10 to 15? Maybe less. I wasn't really looking for them at the time. Nope! My eyes were firmly on the cables and the steep and treacherous side of Half Dome that I found myself on. The only time that I looked up from those cables and that mountain, and I can guarantee you this much, is when Deb told me to look up so she could take the now famous cable photo above.

I can also guarantee you that my eyes and attention went straight back to that mountain I was perched on when that "photo moment" came and went. Another guarantee I can offer is that this section of Half Dome looked nothing like the photo I've placed below. This photo represents the Half Dome experience today. This is today's hiking reality on that Half Dome trail. This is the kind of crowd you can expect to find on this mountain, even with a lottery system in place. My sister's efforts, and the efforts of other park rangers at this time in history, to transform the park from "underutilized" to "utilized" paid off big time.

Today's Half Dome Cables Reality

There's another thing that I like about this photo. There are many such photos of the traffic jam that hikers can expect to find on the Half Dome trail in this day and age. But the one I've chosen to include shows something very special. I saw it for the first time in 1977. I see it in this photo today. You will see a line of people vanish from sight at the very top of this photo. When I first noticed this section from the bottom of the cables I was about to nervously ascend, I reached the conclusion that this point must represent the top of the mountain.

Nope.

I still have a clear memory of what I encountered when I reached this point on that ridge. It's been darn near 50-years since I saw what was over that ridge. I have never forgotten it. As I went over it, I did not find the top of the mountain. No sir. What I did see made my heart sink just a tad further. I was nowhere near the top. In fact, those cables continued up for as far as the eye could see. The hike up to the top wasn't even close to being over. As a matter of fact, it represented the section where the hike to the top of Half Dome got even tougher. To this day I'm still not sure how I made it all the way up, but at some point I did. I was at the top. My sisters and I had conquered the iconic rock called Half Dome.

There are some hikers who celebrate this accomplishment by sitting on the very edge of Half Dome, allowing legs to dangle over the side. Other people will lie down, on their stomachs, on a section of flat rock and inch forward until their head is at a point where you can look straight down. These people are insane. I am not. I wasn't getting anywhere close to any ledge. In fact, as I wandered around the top of Half Dome my mind was occupied on one thought and one thought only. How in HADES am I going to get down?

Debbie Center. Mary Seated

Again, my sister turned park ranger came to the rescue. When a downward facing descent turned into a terrifying assault on the senses (I may have started crying), she suggested that I turn around and go down the way I came up. This turned out to be a fine idea. I turned around, stuck my big butt out for leverage, and assed my way off that Half Dome ledge. I did feel a bit sorry for the handful of people who encountered my big keester as they ascended Half Dome. Although I could move it a tad, that was and still is a mighty big butt to overcome.

As far as safety equipment is concerned, there wasn't any. It was 1977. It either did not exist yet, or these things were not widely available. There were no gloves. Nobody wore a harness. Hiking boots also weren't really a "thing" just yet, although I did have a cheap pair of knockoffs that came from the Montgomery Wards store in Modesto. Those boots, however, did not stop the inevitable slipping and sliding that can take place on those Half Dome cables. This happens, even when the weather is dry. The smooth granite face of Half Dome, polished clean by centuries of ice and snow from previous ice ages, can be that slick. There were points where I lost my footing and my knees met solid granite. There may have been points in that hike to the top where, for short periods, I crawled on my hands and knees. This is not an easy trip. I cannot imagine how people do this type of climb today with so many hundreds of people on these cables. I really can't.

I didn't know it then, but this would be the lone highlight of hiking trips with both sisters. Five years later our family would lose Mary to a car accident. The news, oddly enough, would be broken to me by my sister, Debbie. Mary, who had set a professional goal of becoming the next Barbara Walters, was killed while covering a story for KHSL-TV in Northern California. The job of General Assignment Reporter with KHSL represented the first step in achieving the professional goal she had set for herself since her graduation from the University of Southern California. But her time at KHSL would be short. It lasted only six months. In an instant she was gone.

Debbie with President Bush

A much better fate awaited my older sister, Debbie. 25-years after our hike up the Half Dome cables, this park ranger unknown (at the time) had risen to a rank where she found herself sitting next to the President of the United States. George W. Bush didn't just like my sister. No, love would be a much better term. He found every opportunity to be photographed next to Debbie, as he apparently dragged her from stop to stop during his one-day tour of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in 2001. Not many people get that kind of access to the President of the USA. I have two of these photos. There are others. I treasure them all.

I feel horribly for Jonathan Rohloff. He watched in abject horror as the pride of his life, 20-year old daughter Grace, slipped off the Half Dome cables and fell to her death. He saw every moment of it. In an instant she was gone. Many computer comment jockeys think he is to blame. "He should have done this," they say. Or, "he should have had safety equipment." It is our reality in today's world. People can be terribly insensitive and this is one big example of it.

Debbie
& The President

There is nothing he could have done. Not one thing, other than choose to stay off the mountain on this particular day. Safety equipment is a fine idea, but those devices can sometimes fail. I do know that he will be haunted by his daughter's death for the rest of his life. She will come to visit him in his dreams, just as my sister Mary has visited me through the decades. Mary never ages in my dreams. She never got the chance. She will always be the young lady that she was. The young lady pictured above on the Half Dome trail is the lady that sometimes comes to visit when I dream. The death of a child can bring families together or blow them apart. Rock solid marriages can disintegrate because of it. Or, they can sometimes grow stronger. Each situation and each family experience is unique.

This would not be my last experience in a National Park like Yosemite. Having a sister as a Park Ranger or Park Administrator has its advantages and perks. Like access, for one. Or knowing where to go and when to go there. I would go on to hike or travel to places in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and Yellowstone National Park. My brother and I would hike the trail to Paradise Valley in Kings Canyon. I would also work for part of one summer at a restaurant washing dishes in Sequoia National Park. Traveling through Yellowstone on a snowmobile in the dead of an ice-cold winter is another experience. I will never forget any of these memories. They are stories for another day.

Mary-KHSL TV

EDIT: My thanks to Cris Hazzard, aka "Hiking Guy." His guide on what hikers can expect in today's Yosemite National Park Half Dome reality is very good. It's a far cry from what I experienced in the 1970's. He was kind enough to allow the usage of some photos from his excursions on the big hike, and is a very good resource for what kind of reality hikers can expect to see and experience in the here and now.

PHOTO CREDITS: My thanks to both Jota Lau and Johannes Andersson for depositing digital images of Yosemite Valley and the valley view of Half Dome on the Unsplash website. My thanks also to the Visalia Times-Delta photographer who snapped the iconic image of my sister with President George W. Bush. I will never remember his name, but I did call to thank him (plus order additional copies of this iconic shot).

REGRETS: I have a few. A big one was failing to save any pictures of Debbie during that 1977 Half Dome trip. She was in a few of them. However, at the time I collected these photos, Mary had just passed. My intent was to find, locate and save each photo of Mary that I could gather. Pictures of Mary and Debbie together were saved, as were photos of Mary with other family members. But I passed on others, which is something I have come to regret.