Peppers!

It’s getting busy in the garden and I’ve got so much to talk about it’s hard to figure out where to begin.  Well, let’s start with the first non-herb, non-leafy green harvest from the garden.  Here’s a pepper!

I actually harvested this on Friday.  It is one of my “Flavorburst” bell peppers.  It’s a little on the small side, but at the beginning of the season I like to harvest my green peppers before they’re fully grown – as soon as they get to a nice edible size.  I want my plants to put their energy into making more peppers rather than into ripening those first one or two.  I had a few bell peppers to choose from, some were a little bigger than this one.  However, I chose this particular pepper because it was the only pepper on its plant and I wanted to “release” the plant so it would produce a new flush of growth and flowers… and ultimately more peppers.

The color is a little on the chartreuse side, but that’s just the variety.  This one would ripen to an orange if I left it long enough, but more times than not I harvest my peppers before they change to their final color.  I’ve had issues in the past with colored peppers getting soft as they fully ripen.  So, I buy pepper plants with the intent of eating them green but if they happen to be on the plant long enough for them to change color it’s just a bonus.

What did I do with my first pepper?  Well, Friday night is pizza night!  Every Friday I make homemade pizza (except about once a month we try to go for a fish fry).  So last Friday I made a pepperoni-pepper-kale pizza!  It was delicious.

All my pepper plants are looking really good right now.  I’ve got a lot of bell peppers that I can start harvesting as needed.  We’re by no means in “what the heck are we going to do with all these peppers” mode, but certainly will be soon!

(The straw later has been pretty good at controlling the weeds but it sure makes it hard to get a pretty picture of the peppers!)

There are also a lot of jalapenos that are just waiting for the tomatoes to ripen so I can make them into fresh salsa.  I’m out about every other day trimming my cilantro because it’s been wanting to bolt, and so far I’ve been successful in keeping it nice and leafy.

Like I said at the beginning, I’ve got lots to talk about.  So be forewarned, you’ll be hearing from me a lot this week!  I’m going to try to do more, shorter posts to keep them focused because with so much to say it could get a little crazy otherwise…

Have you harvested any peppers yet?  What did you do with your first one?