Attention all pepper aficionados

My mystery pepper plants have flourished and they are now producing peppers. The problem? I have no idea what kind of peppers are growing. For those of you new to the blog, I saved the pepper plants from an imminent death to atone for the mass zucchini-cide I committed earlier this summer. The plants made a miraculous recovery and are now flourishing. Not only am I not sure what kind of peppers they are, I also don’t know when to pick them. Help please?

In my defense…

You may be thinking, this girl is a little dense. I mean really? She can’t identify a few peppers. Has she been to a grocery store? Does she pay attention?

Yes, I do and I even cook with a lot of peppers. However, let’s look at the evidence:

Exhibit A: Growing up, I thought there were two kinds of peppers: green and red.

Exhibit B: My Dad sweats when he eats ketchup. Not because of the tomatoes, because he thinks it’s spicy. When the sweat started to drip, he told me he couldn’t eat spicy foods.

Exhibit C: I never saw a pepper plant until college. One of my friends had a household potted plant that grew some kind of mysterious red chili peppers which I was scared to eat because…

Exhibit D: After watching my Dad wear a sweat band while consuming condiments, I assumed that I could not eat spicy foods because they made my mouth burn. I didn’t want to be the perspiring coed at the table!

Exhibit E: Post-college, I was staying in Chicago watching two of my guy friends maul down some incredibly spicy Thai takeout. “I need a sweat band!” One cried. “My mouth is on fire,” replied the other. They both continued eating.

I was totally bewildered. “Wait a second, are you telling me that your mouth burns when you eat that?” I asked. They looked at me dumbstruck. “And you like that feeling and can eat spicy foods?” Blank stares slowly nodded at me. Eureka! I could eat spicy foods after all!

Then I realized that I had a lot of catching up to do and no official guide for the journey. I slowly started trying new peppers but I still fear the genetics of the sweat band.

The line up

Chile pepper? How big do these get? I came outside the other night to a hiccuping and coughing Manatee. 'Peppers hot' was all he could choke out. I don't think he will be trying that little trick again.

I have no idea what these are but I have a lot of them.

 

 

I think these are jalapenos but I am not sure how to tell the difference between jalapenos and poblanos.

This one appears to be growing up (towards the sky) which makes me think it's not whatever the other one is. Scientific, I know.

 

This one has a huge curve to it, much more so than the other peppers. And to be clear, the little round thing is not a pepper but a cherry tomato. This was the 'Brink of Death' pot and shockingly, all three plants survived.

I know these are sweet peppers. Score one for me!

 

I don't know when to pick them. Do I wait for them to change color? How big do they get? Is that rot on the pepper or is it changing to red?

 

And in the other part of the garden…

Eggplants are doing well.

Did you know eggplant leaves have thorns? Now I do.

In addition to the sporadic cherry tomato harvests, this is our first tomato and pepper harvest. Exciting!

 

Need your help

So the good news is that I have managed not to kill my plants. This is totally unexpected. For any of with gardening experience, I would love to hear advice on harvesting and identify peppers. Assume I know nothing. I can promise you will not insult me with the obvious.

I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

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