It's Pepper Time

Last Friday I brought home a small crate of seconds tomatoes from New Roots Farm. Today, after picking two bushels of sweet peppers for Farmer Renee to take to the Portsmouth Farmer's Market, I left with my own bushel of seconds: peppers with a black spot, or a small holed chewed by a vole, or some other imperfection. Since it is pepper time, I'm spending my late Friday afternoon washing, chopping, and freezing peppers.

Here are some pictures of the pepper haul that I brought home.

The cherry bombs--the row of round red peppers in the photo above--have a sweet flesh, but the seeds are dynamite. I know because Farmer Renee and I tasted one today. Renee tasted the flesh; it was sweet. She went a little further and bit into the seeds. Then she ran into the house in search of something to cool her mouth. I agreed that the flesh was sweet and I could smell the heat coming off the seeds; my lips burned a little. I avoided the seeds. Renee was in pain for about 30 minutes. Apparently cherry bombs are great for stuffing, just carefully remove all the seeds.

The Jimmy Nardellos (long and thin) and the Round of Hungarys (squat and ribbed) are both sweet. The other peppers in the basket above are all sweet: green bells, red carmens, and huge yellows. I have several uses for all these peppers: chopped fresh for salads, especially tabouli; chopped into strips and sautéed in vegetable oil with gram flour and salt or grilled with onions and summer squash; or chopped and frozen for winter use in chili and other dishes.

Okay, the peppers are waiting for me.