Zeedman
Garden Master
The average date for our killing frost (Oct 5th) passed uneventfully... a mixed blessing, since it has been replaced by a full week of rainy days. 
Fortunately, not much left in the garden at this point. The Roma tomatoes are still producing a few, I'm frankly surprised they survived the 12"+ of rain we had in September. All of the beans are done except the Tarahumara runner beans, and I'm waiting for the freeze warning before I harvest those. The chard will wait for the freeze as well, cool weather improves the flavor.
I've been gradually picking all the remaining peppers - mature or not - and taking them to work. These are "Thai Giant", an heirloom I obtained many years ago from an SSE member. When dried, they make great pepper flakes... a friend makes hot pepper paste from them. Most of the peppers ripen at close to the same time, so I usually just pull the whole plant & hang it up to dry:
Thai Giant
These, though, will be refrigerated. The "Pizza" peppers have outstanding storage life, last year we were still eating these until just before Christmas. They ripen late, but are incredibly productive; and once kissed by cool weather, the immature peppers lose almost all of their heat & become crunchy gourmet sweet peppers. Highly productive too, which is the reason I grow them every year... these all came from 4 plants:
Pizza peppers
The only peppers remaining are "Red Chile", which is a hot heirloom serrano-type. They are still in their covered cage, I'm allowing as many as possible to ripen, to dehydrate for chile powder.
Fortunately, not much left in the garden at this point. The Roma tomatoes are still producing a few, I'm frankly surprised they survived the 12"+ of rain we had in September. All of the beans are done except the Tarahumara runner beans, and I'm waiting for the freeze warning before I harvest those. The chard will wait for the freeze as well, cool weather improves the flavor.I've been gradually picking all the remaining peppers - mature or not - and taking them to work. These are "Thai Giant", an heirloom I obtained many years ago from an SSE member. When dried, they make great pepper flakes... a friend makes hot pepper paste from them. Most of the peppers ripen at close to the same time, so I usually just pull the whole plant & hang it up to dry:
Thai Giant
These, though, will be refrigerated. The "Pizza" peppers have outstanding storage life, last year we were still eating these until just before Christmas. They ripen late, but are incredibly productive; and once kissed by cool weather, the immature peppers lose almost all of their heat & become crunchy gourmet sweet peppers. Highly productive too, which is the reason I grow them every year... these all came from 4 plants:
Pizza peppers
The only peppers remaining are "Red Chile", which is a hot heirloom serrano-type. They are still in their covered cage, I'm allowing as many as possible to ripen, to dehydrate for chile powder.
I still have a few ripe jalapenos set aside too, and some ripe "Pizza" peppers left over from seed saving. I'd have to test one batch with those, before trying anything hotter (like the serranos, or a reaper).
Plenty of ripe peppers on them now, I anticipate more will ripen once the plants are hung.
