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 Survivor

The Survivor

This experience is not unique. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But it is a first for me. I've been planting and nurturing summer vegetable gardens in numerous backyards for a very long time. While I have heard stories like this before, I've never counted myself as one of the "lucky people" to receive this gift.

I can't tell you what I did. Whether it was "right" or "wrong," I do not know. It just happened. I chanced upon this "gift of gardening" while clearing out the very last portion of last summer's garden about a month ago. The section of the garden where pepper plants, both sweet bell peppers and hot varieties like the time-tested Jalapeño, are planted here. I always tear these out late because they keep producing right through fall and the first part of the coldest winter months.

Mother Nature usually delivers the "coup de grâce" or death blow to the entire garden at some point. It's usually after winter temperatures drop into a sustained freeze level. I live in a cold area of Northern California. The weather can deliver a whopper of a freeze every winter and often does. Several times. The tomato plants that I had not removed yet are normally finished off by a good freeze, and that includes the mighty pepper plants. Peppers love heat. They normally cannot stand cold winter temperatures, but some do perform better than others.

 

Imagine my surprise when I found this guy. It was located in last year's pepper bed, which contained about 25 different pepper plants. There was nothing special about this guy. It is your normal, ordinary Jalapeño pepper plant. It produced about the same number of spicy peppers that the two other Jalapeno plants did. However, unlike the other two, this one was not brown, barren, twig-like, or dead. For some strange reason it survived. No other garden plant did. Every single other plant in my expansive gardens kicked the bucket over the winter. Which is a normal development for most plants in a summer vegetable garden. But not this one.

 

New Growth Emerging

When I discovered it, in fact, it was in the process of sending out new growth through extensive vines that had intertwined with the branches of other peppers and the tomato cages I employ to support these plants in the garden area. Hidden by tall weeds and two dozen or so dead pepper plants, here was this one lone survivor. It was not planted anywhere near a heat source. It received no protection whatsoever. It just survived. For some reason, it decided not to give up the ghost. As for the two other Jalapeño varieties that were planted just inches away, they were long gone. They had become a collection of brown and crispy twigs.

 

Color me amazed. This is the first time I've encountered anything quite like this. But I did not let it stop me in that day's quest of tearing out the old garden to make way for the new one that will soon be planted. I nearly pulled this survivor out of the ground and tossed it into the large and expanding pile of dead pepper plants and various weeds. But I was struck by an epiphany. I've never encountered anything like this before. Why should I take action to kill a solid garden producer that obviously isn't quite done producing yet?

 

It would still be forced to survive a brutal haircut. Which it did receive. All of those long vines with new green growth were pruned away and tossed on the growing refuse pile. Those vines had grown into other plants that were dead. Plus, I had to remove the tomato cage support. So, if this mighty garden survivor was going to see another growing season, it would be forced to survive some fairly brutal treatment. It received a solid haircut, just like you see pictured above.

 

2023 Pepper Garden
Survivor is Front and Far Left

The "Survivor" refused to perish. Even in the face of the abuse that I just outlined. It lived through the brutal destruction and clearing of last year's pepper garden. It survived my onslaught of pulling and tearing out every last weed that had grown around it. It even took on the brutal haircut I delivered and laughed it off. Today, the survivor stands tall. The base of this plant looks like a small tree stump. It's gnarled and carries a none-too-pleasing brown color. Yet, green growth is springing forth from the survivor as I type this blog missive. It is the Jalapeño pepper plant that refuses to die.

 

I did make sure to show it a little bit of love this past weekend. As I chopped, mowed and chopped down even more spring weeds with a furious purpose, I dragged the garden hose over to the survivor. It received a slow drip of nourishing water, plus a sprinkling of garden fertilizer sprinkled at the base. It has reacted with a pleasing spurt of green growth over every section and branch that was not pruned away.

 

The Survivor may have survived the first onslaught of summer garden prep. But the abuse isn't over yet. It still may not make it. It will be required to survive the absolute injustice of whirling blades from the Mantis Rototiller that I put to work in the garden area every spring. I will make every effort to spare The Survivor from those churning blades that cut up the soil, but who knows how it will react.

 

Rat Exterminator on Patrol

I do consume my fair share of Jalapeño peppers from the garden. Sometimes I seed them. Sometimes I do not. They are chopped and placed into a collection of summer dishes such as soups, stews and even the occassional summer turkey burger. Even more find their way into the tomato salsas and sauces that I create from the abundance of a summer vegetable garden. Neighbors far and wide can expect a bounty of Jalapeño peppers. Provided they want them.

 

What kind of production can I expect from The Survivor? I'm not sure. I've never encountered this type of good luck charm before. But, provided it survives, I will keep my eye on its progress. Hopefully, it will provide a bounty of peppers. Just as it did last summer. Time will tell.