Pepper Starts

I found a good variety of pepper plants, locally grown, at Southern States, Pittsboro (Country Farm and Home). Here's what I bought to put in the garden:

Hot Peppers

• El Jefe Jalapeño - can be quite hot!
• Tiburon Poblano - mainstay of southwestern and Latino cuisine; "poblano" is the fresh form, "ancho" is the name for this pepper, dried
• Hot Banana - medium  hot; pickle, fry, roast, stuff

Sweet Peppers

• Lunchbox Snack Peppers - mini sized, remarkably sweet. Saute or eat in salads or out of hand
• Gypsy - light green to red at full maturity; thin skinned, ideal for frying, stuffing, roasting ... or eaten raw
• Round of Hungary - deeply lobed, squat peppers; deep red; ideal for stuffing or using as a scoop for hummus and dips
• Carmen - "horn of the bull" type, pick when deep red, great for roasting and salads
• Escamillo - similar to Carmen, but yellow

Spring Garden

Such a pleasant spring morning ... the best time to be in the garden. Everything is fresh, green, and ... bug free! We're past freezing temperatures. The heat and drought of summer is yet to come. Hope abounds. Here's what's growing today:

Beets are one crop I don't mind thinning. The baby greens are unblemished, bright green, full of nutrients. Delicious zinged up in a green smoothie, chopped into salads, or wilted in the sauté pan. Also pulled a few crimson salad turnips today. They look like radishes and have a similar spicy zing, but with an unmistakable turnip taste. The roots are good eaten out of hand, or in a salad, or cooked with the greens.

The kale has been perfect - tender and tasty! One of our favorite greens. A second row is growing in anticipation of this mature row eventually getting used up or bolting. The over-wintered spinach has already played out. We will miss those spinach salads, made especially delicious drizzled with a bacon grease red wine vinegar dressing. OMG! It's a good thing that the romaine lettuce will be ready soon.

Brushing against plants in the herb garden, inhaling fresh aromatic scents ... that's a special kind of therapy. The thyme has never looked so good! Lemon balm, peppermint, oregano, sage ... horseradish, bay, chives, fennel. Basil, cilantro, parsley are planted in other parts of the garden.

Rouse the Spouse planted the broccoli. It is growing vigorously, and has (so far) avoided the curse of the cruciferous loving caterpillars. Notice the garlic growing in the adjacent bed.



The ultimate spring-time treat - sugar snap peas! The plants are sturdy and blooming. Blackberry blossoms in the background.

Miracle of miracles! Despite late frosts, it looks like we will have a blueberry crop after all. Tiny fruits on the fig trees, too.

When Lima Beans are Attacked

Who knew? Lima beans fight back. From the Cornucopia Institute: This educational video about how lima bean plants protect themselves. Gotta love those parasitic wasps. Curse you, caterpillars!

Invisible Worlds -- Lima Beans ... and the lima beans laugh and laugh.

"The Cornucopia Institute, through research and investigations on agricultural and food issues, provides needed information to family farmers, consumers and other stakeholders in the good food movement and to the media. We support economic justice for the family-scale farming community – partnered with consumers – backing ecologically produced local, organic and authentic food."

Happy April 1

If it thunders on All Fool's Day,

Expect good crops of corn and hay.  ~ Anonymous