Pick a Purple Pepper

Tongue twisters, anyone?

No?

How about vegetables?

Since we haven't had a frost yet, the garden is still going gangbusters. I finally got to harvest my first bell peppers. At least, the ones I could find under the mass of tomato plants.

Purple Beauty bell pepper.

The Purple Beauty live up to their name: both very purple and very beautiful. However, they taste just like a green bell pepper.

Caitlin shows off a pepper.

The one that really deserves all the hoopla is the California Wonder. I could have picked some green, but I'm a red bell pepper fan and so I waited. And waited. And waited some more until finally...! Red!

California Wonder bell pepper.

They were the sweetest things ever. So yummy, it was like the ones you buy from the store aren't even in the same family anymore!

Next year: more bell peppers!

We've only eaten two so far and they were yummy. I'm now waiting for the third one on the plant to ripen. They need a better location for next year, but considering they had to beat off a forest of tomato plants, they did pretty well!

A pepper pattern.

The melons continued to do well. Here is a New Orchid watermelon. They're a light orange inside, but still taste like a regular melon. I still think the Sugar Baby is my favorite.

New Orchid watermelon.

Now that it's fall, the squashes are beginning to ripen. I had to do some research to determine when "ripe" was visible on a squash and the answer was very interesting. You have to wait for the stem to get "woody". Sure enough, looking around the yard, I had some woody-stemmed squashes. So I grabbed a pair.

My first buttercup squash!

They are bright orange inside and when cooked, their flesh is a lot less sweet than a butternut or acorn squash or sweet potato. I think they'd probably make a nice savory soup or be great just mixed with a heap of butter, salt and pepper. I tried my first one with wild rice roasted in the center and that didn't work out so well. Fortunately, I have more to play with in the kitchen!

Orange on the inside.

Yes, we still have tomatoes. Not as many as before, but they're still out there! I hope to continue harvesting until the frost kills them all. Hopefully, I'll be able to pull all of the green ones off before the frost liquefies them.

Caspian Pink.

Posting is going to be pretty light this week since my folks are in town. And you know what that means: gardening! I have my dad outside ripping up piles of lamb's ears that have tried to take over the yard, while I weed to his left. This afternoon, Mom and I went down to The Mecca (Val knows what I'm talkin' about!) to go plant shopping.

Well...what else was I supposed to do with all of that new-found space dad just made in the shade of the ash tree?! Clearly I needed to go plant shopping to pick up a few semi-shade plants that would look fabulous there! And...! And...! They were on sale! How could I resist 40% off plants?

I'll take pictures once they're installed.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, they're not edible. Just pretty.

Wheee! Plants!