We have the usual Red and Yellow Bells, plus jalapenos and banana (hot and sweet) and of course cayenne’s and red chilies…I was able to find some Anaheim’s (my favorite roasting pepper!) I will check another store tomorrow and see what else I can find. I am still missing pimentos. The past couple of years they have had them at the store but this year, the selections have seemed vague and not all that exciting.
Peppers are an odd market item here. Some years they walk off the table with speed and other years, you end up having to bring them home. Maybe this will be a good pepper year although they are not a popular food group in this region. This is the part of the country where you will still occasionally have someone come up and call them “mangoes”.
In between planting, I worked on cleaning out the row we were planting in. The thistles that were sprayed are dying but I will not dare stir up the roots by tilling…so I am cutting off the live looking thistles and when they are in the way, the dying looking thistles. In the end, I hope to collect them all up and burn them. (Yes, they would probably make good compost but those spines are not something I want in the garden, because we are too often prone to go barefoot when gardening.)
Later in the day, we worked on planting tomatoes but we did not finish that job because that particular area was almost too wet and we decided to wait until tomorrow…(but it rained again so we may wait until later in the week…) I usually plant about 50+ tomato plants. Yes, that does sound like a lot but if you don’t sell anything else you will sell a tomato at the farmers market. AND you can only sell a nice looking tomato. It has to be the right size (not too big, or really big), the right color (red, yellow, green or purple), and of course without any blemish at all; so it takes a lot of plants and varieties to meet the demand. But we have rarely ever had more tomatoes than we could eat or process so while it sounds like a lot, usually it works out to be just about right. Sadly, tomatoes still bother my Interstitial Cystitis (more than likely caused by Lyme) so I try to limit my intake…maybe by August, they won’t bother me…
In between the peppers and tomatoes I got distracted by some wild chamomile growing in the lane. At one time my grandmother must have had a patch of it somewhere because little patches of it grows wild in the yard and driveway. I am hoping that I can transplant it into a regular patch. Right now it is in pots and if it looks like it will perk up in a day or two I may go out and see if I can’t get more of the wee plants! Fresh chamomile is one of those good for you things like mint and when you pick it fresh it is decidedly much better than the stuff you buy in boxes at the store.
Well, that was my day. I have felt pretty good all day today. Maybe I will feel good tomorrow….