Peppers in the Garden. Dead or Alive?

Cover on Pepperocinis and Tomatillos. Not even weighed down

Peppers in the Garden. Dead or Alive?

As we have now received frost and rain sprinkles, I'm officially declaring Bakersfield to be in the winter season. Most people have four seasons. Bakersfield only has two: spring and summer. I'll call it winter since I know this will drive most people crazy.



Either way, the frost has landed. It has turned many plants, including most lawns, an ugly brown. Ick. So, Ms. Busybody here at the Bako Depot (me aka Mommy), has put "pull plants from garden" on the to-do list since I've got the (small) greenhouse built.



I had a little extra plastic sheeting that I didn't want to just throw away or fold for next year. What did I do with it? I threw it over my pepperocini plants and tomatillos since they are still blooming. Seriously? Yes. Their little yellow blooms are still budding in the middle of November.

Pepperocinis. Full of peppers and still producing...

I don't have any idea as of why they are still producing when it's between 50-60 degrees during the day. Maybe they are waiting for the 80-90 degree weather to reappear soon? Or maybe it's because I asked them (yes, the plants) why they are still producing this late in the season.

The Anaheim plants produced small and sparse peppers this summer and then abruptly lost all its leaves. This left us green sticks out of the ground. I figured they would come back this summer, but no. Those Anaheims decided to be little stinkers and wait until November to even think about producing more peppers again.

Anaheim. Tiny peppers during summer. No blooms until recently.

 

Heck, my zucchini plants are still producing as well. They have blooms, but no veggie. That's fine. I guess I'll wait until all the tomato plants, zucchini, and peppers turn that ugly brown. I'll just have to continue and monitor them until I can bid them adieu.

Zucchini. Wilted blooms and wrapped around itself.

Another Day at the Bako Depot

Another day has come and gone. Still in the lovely fall weather, they are actually talking about an actual thunderstorm tomorrow! We haven't had a good t-storm in a LONG time, so I'm very excited. This cooler weather is making me want to drink hot chocolate already. Living in the midwest for 15+ years, I got use to the snow and do I miss it? I miss looking at it. That's about it. If I want to bundle up, the mountains are about thirty minutes away. Good enough for me!

Today, hubby and I went for a walk in the wee hours of the morning. It wasn't until halfway through that the rooster crowed. He's been later than usual. The kids woke after hubby left for work so I made them some eggs with diced jalapenos (whoops) and then dumped that out so I could cook canned chilies (Anaheims), which instead of opening the can to dump in diced chilies, they turned out to be whole chilies. So I diced them and put them in the skillet with the mushrooms. I can't tell you how much my three year old hates mushrooms. I've showed him a little snippet on YouTube about Mario eating mushrooms and growing biger. It unfortunately didn't work!

After that, I read a book (Little Blue Truck) to the kids and they are actually picking up more and more words. I had them paint on a large piece of paper before they decided it would be more fun to paint each other. Another shower for them...

We baked red velvet cupcakes, brownies, and made grilled a whole chicken for dinner (with other stuff). Plus, we made bread in the machine. Nothing beats homemade bread.

Like I said, the weather has been great, so the kids can go outside and I don't have to worry about sunburns anymore. Now it's climbing trees and fighting with sticks. I'm hoping I get a chance to deflate the pool now that summer is over.

I got more weeds pulled in the garden, filled up the yard waste bin, and found the peppercinis and tomatillos are still producing like crazy! We will definitely be planting more of those next year. I also found I need to put a net over the grapes and tomato plants next year. The birds attacked with a vengeance for my fruit.

Overall, it was a productive day. I still have lots more to finish: laundry, cleaning the kitchen (never-ending), filing (sitting on my table for a month now), and general fall cleaning. Did I mention I want to get a few projects done in case we need to move? I swear the list never ends.

And as for the kids, I've decided I'm going to homeschool Lizzy during her kindergarten year. I'm going to try it and see what she thinks of mommy teaching her. I'm trying my best to stay calm and patient, but I'll write more about that later.

Thanks for reading!

Pepperoncinis

Pepperoncinis are one of the easiest canning things out there. Although I'm new to canning I had good luck making these compared to strawberry jam.

The first step you need is a pepperocini plant. We don't usually shop at big chain stores for plants unless we know specifically how to maintain it. We were actually at the in-laws while looking for something to do in town for awhile, we stopped by Eisley's Nursery in Auburn, CA. It was so neat to see absolutely every plant I could think of. Not everything grows there in Auburn, but Eisley's even carried a banana tree. I want a banana tree so bad! One less fresh thing to buy that I could grow...


Looking through their vegetables, I noticed a pepperocini plant. "How cool is that?" I love pepperocinis so
course I grabbed one of their 6 pack plants among a few other plants. Moving them to Bakersfield in their original container, they have thrived in the blazing sun. Out of six plants, two survived. Those two plants have produced so many pepperocinis that I had to start canning them before anything else was ready in the garden.

I won't go into detail about how canning works, but I'll give you a few links here in the text. Mom suggested I get the book "Putting Food By: Fifth Edition by Ruth Hertzberg, Janet Greene and Beatrice Vaughan. I also went ahead and scoured the internet and broke down and bought the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving by Altrista Consumr Products". These two books are lifesavers. They have every recipe you'll ever need for canning and preserving. Now only if I could get the rest of the garden to produce this well.

For the pepperocinis, all I had to do was make a hole in the peppers, stuff the peppers in a sanitized ball jar, boil some super easy syrup, pour over peppers, and seal. Done. How easy! I recommend having the kids wash their hands and stuff as many peppers into the jar.

I guess I'll put the recipe on here. This is the recipe for any hot pepper as well.
Putting Food By, pg 334

One overflowing bowl-ful is about 4 quarts

4 qts peppers (these peppers grow like hot cakes in the hot weather)
4 C distilled white vinegar
4 C water
4 t salt, preferably pickling (I used table salt)
Olive oil (optional) I didn't use

Take out seeds and remove stems if you want to.
Make slits in peppers if whole.
Place and stuff peppers in jars.
Boil vinegar and water- not for too long though. Vinegar dissipates if boiled too long.
Pour boiling liquid into jars.
If adding oil, leave 3/4" headspace.
Add salt to taste.
Close lids properly and boil water bath for 15 minutes.

Extremely easy! Now if it weren't so hot in here...

Make sure you stuff them in- I just set them in there