Plate of Peppers

Late summer and fall is the time to harvest peppers. I always know we are quickly heading to the end of summer when the peppers are ripe and ready.

Peppers are relatively easy to grow – they are members of the Nightshade family (same as tomatoes, eggplant and potatoes) and like to have at least 6-8 hours of sun. Plant in spring after all danger of frost has past and harvest from mid summer to early fall.

We planted five types of peppers this year – Pimento de Padron, Thai Bird’s Eye Chili, Poblano Chili, Jalapeno and Bell Pepper.

The pimento de padron is a Spanish pepper named after a town in Spain. The usual way to prepare them is to sear them whole in a hot pan with olive oil. Pull them out of the pan, sprinkle with sea salt and enjoy. Most of the time they are a nice mild pepper but every now and then when you least expect it – you will encounter a mind numbingly hot one. Pretty much all the ones I picked this year though turned out to be the hot ones. These kind of remind me of  the Japanese Shisito peppers – which I enjoy more for it’s sweet taste and chance of getting a searing hot one. I think I will try to find seeds and grow these instead next year.

Thai Chili Birds are tiny but really really hot! I use just part of one to make a nice Thai dressing for a seafood noodle salad.  One plant will yield 50 or more chilis so I will take the ripe ones and freeze just as is and leave some on the plant to dry. Once dried they can be store in a jar in the pantry for 6 months to a year.

Char peppers over an open flame, put peppers in  bowl, cover to steam. When cool peel skin off.

Poblano’s are for my favorite Mexican dish – Chile Rellenos. When I’ve had my fill. I roast off the excess and freeze them for use during the winter.

If you like peppers then you will love the aroma of peppers roasting over a flame. There is nothing like it and always reminds me the crisp Fall mornings when I use to go to the Farmer’s Market. There, a vendor would roast a whole drum full of peppers filling the market with the intense smell of roasting peppers.

You don’t need a huge drum to roast your own – I use the gas flame on my kitchen stove or when the weather is nice – out on the outdoor burner. You can also roast peppers under a broiler. It’s all the same basic technique of charring the thin skin and putting the charred peppers into a sealed bowl to steam. The steam helps to loosen the blister skin for easy removal. Some people like to run their peppers under a thin stream of water to help remove the skin but I never do that as all the flavor will be washed away.

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Yesterday, we took a day trip down to Ben Lomond, CA home of Love Apple Farm. Farmer Cynthia Sandberg gave us and 30 others an incredibly informative class on growing heirloom tomatoes.

I first heard of Love Apple Farm when my sister sent me the link to her page on “How to Grow Better Tomatoes”. It was already June when she sent it to me so I didn’t get a chance to try out her methods, though I have half heartedly done some extra fertilizing every so often. The tomatoes do perk up a few days after I have fertilized them so will get into better habits next season.

You may ask, why take a class when you can just read the guide on her website?
Wow, I have to say you will get so much more information from the class – the extra hints, important details, the latest new technique and answers to your specific tomato growing questions.

Plus, her garden is beautiful – not just full of over 100 varieties of 8 and 9 foot heirloom tomato plants but gorgeous zinnias of all hues, sunflowers and lots of other vegetables as she is the kitchen garden for the world renown Manresa restaurant.

Here are some pictures from our day:

The rare Litchi Tomato aka Morelle de Balbis

Large Heirloom on the Vine

Cynthia Showing us the Proper Way to Shade a Tomato Fruit and to Prune a Tomato Plant

Heirloom tomatoes tend to be indeterminant – that is, the size of the plant is not limited by it’s genes so they can can keep growing and growing under optimal conditions. To keep them healthy and off the ground she likes to make cages out of 7 foot concrete reinforcing wire. Whoa…and does she ever need all 7 feet of that cage.

Cynthia showed us a number of methods to prevent tomato sunburn, when to prune and the proper way to prune.

She also stressed there are 100’s of tomato diseases – not just limited to the few commonly talked about wilt diseases – which by the way she sees as too often misdiagnosed. She pointed out that many of the signs and symptoms of wilt may in fact be a specific mineral deficiency thus she recommended soil testing from a company called Timberleaf.

This point comes up time and time again from every gardener and farmer out there: Properly amending the soil will prevent nutrient deficiencies and thus many diseases (much like people) and will improve the quality of your vegetables.

There was just so much more information! We both came away from the class with a lot of practical information (and info we can apply to growing other vegetables) that we feel will make us so much better gardeners.Thanks Cynthia for a well organized and information packed class!

Now, it’s time to get the winter vegetables in…

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