Keeping Busy

So many colors flying out the field right now! We have red, green and purple tomatoes; green okra and cucumbers; yellow cantaloupes and squash; red, orange, yellow, white, and brown habaneros; purple peppers and eggplants; it’s just crazy out here. Some of the veggies don’t even know what color to turn like the poor little guy in the picture below!

We have been having a busy week out here. At least the weather has cooled down a bit. The new crop on the block this week is eggplant, which has to have some of the coolest looking blossoms!

Time to get your marinara sauce and parmesan cheese ready! I didn’t plant too many though so come and get them while they last.

Peppers are producing like crazy! We have green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, purple peppers, sweet peppers, hot peppers, cold peppers (they are in the cooler), and every kind of pepper in between. I tried some on a pizza last week and they made it both delicious and beautiful. In five minutes I ate the whole thing, but it looked good for those five minutes. I have also been putting some jalapenos into my homemade pickles to give them some kick.

We have finally gotten some red peppers in as well. I have been trying like crazy to get some red bell and jalapeno peppers. Red is the final stage of a pepper. They start off green, then some turn to different colors (like yellow or purple), then they change to red. It takes a while for a pepper to fully mature to a red color. That means more time for bugs, disease and sunlight to mess up all the fun. Sunlight has been the biggest problem for us with peppers this year. Did you know that peppers can be sunburned? It causes tan patches to form on the skin and can actually break the skin causing the pepper to rot. In North Carolina the sun is rather strong, so not many peppers make it all the way to red. That’s why they’re harder to find in grocery stores, but we finally got some! They are a little bit spicier and a lot sweeter than their green counterparts.

Our okra is now standing over 6’ tall and slowing down its production; at least at the top of the plant… Okra is no quitter. The only thing that really makes it stop is frost and it hasn’t been quite cold enough for that yet. When okra starts to slow production at the top of the plant, that usually means you should look down. Okra will start to produce new shoots off the bottom of the plant that will eventually grow into new, 6-foot-tall plants themselves! To make it easier for picking we actually chop the plants off just above the new growth at the bottom.

This way the new shoots have more access to light and air. As an added bonus we don’t have to climb through the thick old shoots to get to the new pods. Win-win!

Moral of the story for the week: Be like okra; don’t ever quit.

Get to know your farm!