A basket of banana, pepperocini and marconi peppers picked July 19, 2023
Growing up skipping Double Dutch to tongue twisters like “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” did not prepare me for pickling peppers.
First, I never quite get a peck (a 1/4 of a bushel) of peppers all at once from the 10 pepper plants in the backyard. At the most, I get a quart mason jars worth at one time.
Second, peppers aren’t picked pickled — pickling comes from a whole peck of decisions about what will be included in the pickling. Garlic? Onions? Tomatoes? Rosemary? Other herbs?
Today’s wee jar of pickled peppers cooling.
Third, would Peter rather ferment the peppers? I fermented about 4 jars of peppers in the Spring. It takes longer and they taste fine, but they don’t make you really sit up and take note. Not like my fermented Spartan cucumbers do.
Next I tried pickling peppers — water, vinegar, salt, garlic, honey and bay leaves. It only takes a day for them to be considered “pickles” although the longer you leave them in the fridge the better they taste. But they do taste wonderful!
Now in Florida’s mid-July when it is consistently humidly hot (think 93F but humidity makes it feel like 103F) and overwhelmingly subjected to surprise rainstorms, the plants are not producing like they were in April, May and June.
In fact the tomato, eggplant and watermelon plants cautiously produce fruit — meaning few and far between. The heat and abundance of rain stresses them.
Heat and water stressed marconi pepper
I hope I can keep the veggie plants safely in shade water until the cooler September arrives to soothe and encourage them to produce again.
I did learn last summer that July and August are not outdoor gardening months like they are in say, Michigan.
But I did gather a pickling’s worth of peppers today, July 19. And can’t wait to try them in a couple of days!