A Peck of Peppers

 One peck is 8 dry quarts, or 1/4 of a bushel.
Yeah, I don't know what to make of that either....

Well, I am not Peter Piper, and the peppers are not pickled, but I probably picked a peck of them this evening with the help of the oldest boy and his flashlight. The cold wind and clear skies spell killing frost to me, so I thought I should get them done ASAP.

Then, I get them into the house, and the wife says- "Where did these come from? It's mid-November!"
So, anyway, since we cannot possibly use them all fresh, I diced up a kilo of them, wrapped them in 100g packets, and put them in the ziplock. The only problem is that if I did all of them except for the 10-15 we might get through fresh, we would have a freezer of nothing but peppers...

Hellooooo neighbors and students!!!! Or if you live in Japan and want to share the bounty, drop me an e-mail.

But at any rate, if you find yourself with a peck of peppers and some freezer space, just dice them up and put them in sandwich bags or plastic wrap, then into a big ziplock and freeze them. You don't need to blanch them, making peppers the easiest garden veggie to freeze for the winter.

This winter's spaghetti sauce will be twice as good due to these beauties.


Now what to do with 2 Kg of green paste tomatoes.... Suggestions?

First Patchy Frost

Woke up this morning, made breakfast for the kids, and took the goats and dog out for their walk. And there, on the windshield of the car, was a thin film of ice. Although it was only the front windshield, which sometimes freezes due to radiating heat into the clear night sky. The grass and vegetation near the house had no frost on it I could see. However, as I took the goats down the valley to their pasture I saw some small patches of frost here and there. We might get a few more days of frost free weather, but I think that this is about the end. Looks like I'm only growing broccoli, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, lettuce, spinach, beets, onions, garlic, and carrots till spring. Of course, the boars will probably eat that though.