Looking for some hot stuff…

The backyard garden – or micro farm as I affectionately call it – has been putting out its goodies pretty regularly even as the growing season is slowly beginning to wind down. This years “crops’ have consisted of: lavender, sweet and spearmint, cherry tomatoes, okra, basil and three kinds of peppers.

The big green ones (they sometimes turn red and are great pickled) are cowhorn peppers, the long skinny ones are cayenne and the little ones are Tabasco. I’ve made more pesto than I ever want to eat again for awhile so now I am drying the basil leaves. The lavender is in a vase on the dining table, the okra has been cut up and is in the freezer awaiting soups and stews in the colder months and the tomatoes have been turned into salsa and eaten with salads all while I try to battle those awful tomato horned worms as organically as possible.

The cayenne peppers have been dried whole for future use and dried and ground up to make my own cayenne seasoning. The cowhorns will be pickled and the Tabascos are going to make a nice pepper sauce. I must remember to wear gloves and a mask when working with the peppers…they get a bit fiesty.

I must tell you the story of the cherry tomatoes. Most of what I have growing started out as starter plants I got from the gardening store but the lavender has grown back (I think this may be it’s second or third year), the mint is on year two and the tomatoes? This is the sixth generation of tomatoes all descended from the first three plants I purchased.

You heard that right! I let some of the first generation tomatoes just fall to the ground and ignored trying to clean them up and the next year they came back all on their own. Once I figured that out I’ve let them do it ever since. We call this years batch 6G tomatoes.

Cool, huh?

Teri 🍅

The goings on at the Renaissance Festival will be next. There was much merriment and glitter.