Field Notes
I thought the sad looking peppers were fated for removal a couple of weeks ago, but with other beds to "flip", I've let them ride and with only a couple of nights getting into the danger-zone, they're somehow still ripening up and even putting on flowers for new fruit. I don't know how much longer we have until the first frost will inevitably make this decision of removing them for me, but if y'all are like me, you will hold onto fresh peppers for as long as possible.
Peppers are one of the few things that I will buy from the store out of season, since I never seem to get around to preserving my summer crops for winter consumption. Even though every year I say, "ok, this year I'm going to make sauces and roast/freeze peppers", I get caught up in busy fall work and hunting or woodwork seems to take priority over preserving my summer abundance.
The mild temperatures without lows dipping into freezing territory has benefited all of the crops in the field, not just the peppers. Coupled with one or two much needed little rain showers, this weather has everything growing at a decent pace even with shrinking daylight.
Even though the rows of peppers and the pepper plants themselves don't look that great, they are still producing, and still changing from green to orange and red just like the foliage is now starting to do.
I've collected everything I could from them, thinking some of these cooler nights will be the last of the plants, but they are even putting on more flowers to turn into fruit. Even if they could produce for another couple of weeks, I need the valuable space that they inhabit for the last of my winter plantings, and will have to take them out this week.
Farewell peppers, maybe I'll make time to roast, vacuum seal, and freeze some of y'all to go with some venison this winter.
