Seeing Red

Here are this year's most prolific crops, and they all happen to be red. (I haven't dug up potatoes yet, which I hope were heavy producers, too. But half of them are reds, so they just add to this group.) All of these plants have been producing food since July, and they just keep going. Love it!

Peppers

I started an 'Ancho' pepper plant from seed this past spring, and my fried, Tina, convinced me to get serious about a pepper crop when she gave me five more pepper plant starts in May. I haven't grown peppers much before, because I really don't know what to do with the vegetables at harvest time. But they were free, so I gave them a shot.

Unfortunately, I planted on a breezy day and the plant tags were scattered by the wind as I was about to place them with their plants, so I don't know all of what I grew!

One plant produced these huge bell peppers. I have grown bell peppers before and that plant gave me almost 20 medium-sized peppers that were delicious. I wish I could remember the variety. This year's plant has given me two huge peppers and two medium ones. I let the big peppers sit on the plant until they turned red, and then paired them with a green and a sweet onion from the garden to make two dinners of fajitas. Because we are mostly vegetarian, I add rice and red or black beans to the veggies and season with powdered fajita seasoning. My family really likes this dinner.

Another plant, not pictured, is growing sweet baby red peppers, the type you would use in a veggie tray with dip. Except mine never make it out of the garden. We love to snack on them as we work outside.

A couple of the pepper plants didn't survive, including my Ancho. That was at first disappointing because I found a tasty ancho and mushroom recipe last winter; but I developed a mushroom allergy this year, which helped me accept the loss of that pepper plant.

Then there are these plants. I have no idea what they are, but I really like the peppers. They have produced like crazy! At first, I was harvesting the light yellow peppers, but some have started turning red, so now I wait. These peppers have a little bit of heat to them. It's not too noticeable until you finish eating them and notice that your lips are burning. Kent likes to stuff them with cream cheese, grill them over charcoal, and then dip them in strawberry jam. I've also sautéed them with onions and bell peppers and served with sour cream in a corn tortilla. Does anyone know what they are? I'd like to grow them again.

This year in my garden, I've started analyzing which plants are worth the effort and space they take up. Peppers are definitely worth it. I would spend a pretty penny buying this quantity of peppers from the store. But when I can go pick a dozen peppers for dinner whenever I've wanted for the past few months, I'm really saving cash and supplying good vitamins to my family. The pepper crop will definitely make repeat appearances in years to come.