Okay, okay, okay – it’s NOT the tongue twister without Peter Piper. And, my peppers are NOT pickled. They are purple. But, hey, I grew purple peppers in my garden. I am so excited. They’re beautiful. Before I continue though, I need to qualify one important fact. My garden is properly located behind the garage with other vegetables. It is NOT random plants haphazardly placed in the middle of the lawn like I ranted about in my last post.
Now that I have that clarified, …. . I actually have a ‘peck’ of purple peppers. How cool is that?
cultivation
I don’t have the time nor the patience to begin a garden from seeds. Martha Stewart has an entourage of staff members that can do that shit. Me – I ain’t got no entourage, baby. Also, living in Northern Michigan dictates planting. A few years back, we had a frost over Memorial Day weekend. Be the weather as it may, my goal is to have everything planted by Father’s Day. Since my garden was awful last summer, I wanted this year’s to be more bountiful. I tilled the soil, went to the local Co-Op to purchase the seedlings, and proceeded to plant. I even anchored the four corners of my garden with marigolds. Nice!
growing season
The weather cooperated better than anticipated. Still, I had my concerns. My plants weren’t growing. I fertilized, added some additional Peat, and – ugh– NOTHING. Hell, I don’t even think my plants grew one bit. Then, the summer got busy and my focus shifted. Since the temperatures were mild and rain plentiful, I rarely checked the growing progress.
One day, I needed to water. Holy purple vegetables, I had peppers.
the harvest
- Sweet peppers become sweeter when they change colors.
- Peppers continue to ripen after picking; place peppers in a cool place after harvest.
- Keep one to two weeks after harvest at 50° to 60°F in a moist place.
- Use a sharp knife or pruners to harvest peppers.
- Leave some of the stem attached to the pepper when cutting vegetable.
- A good pepper harvest practice is to harvest some peppers to serve green and let others mature to red or full color on the vine.
- Harvest peppers when they are the right size for your use.
To be perfectly honest, I’m nervous to harvest. Premature picking my peck would be preposterous. Though, I’ve read ‘immature’ vegetables enhance entry taste profiles. Still, I wanted to ensure I ate the damn things. Retail hours hinder potential dinner planning. I wouldn’t want my harvest to ‘wrinkle’ in time. Fortunately, we are having company. Stuffed peppers are on the menu. I need to start pickin’
Since this post is about said vegetable, I was compelled to close with a fun song by Peppers of a different variety.
And, the original limerick , of course. Just in case anyone else forgot how it actually read.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
– Mother Goose
