Hot ShopRite cayenne peppers

I love cayenne peppers. They are traditionally used in chili and they can be grown on a balcony. I was walking through the parking lot of a Shop Rite in the Montgomery mall and a cayenne pepper plant that looked healthy drew my attention. It was sitting outside of the store and I decided to give it a home. It seems to be doing well, although so far the peppers are the size of a nail head. My Texas mother would be proud.

Editor's note. Although tempted, I brought it into the store and paid for the plant. 

Donut peaches

I wrote a cute blog on donut peaches in my Hard Times blog.

Cayenne plant 2012

This year I was lazy and only had one pot outside with two organic cayenne pepper plants grown from seed. Although they had a slow start I am finally getting some peppers. Nice flavor too.

July plants

The peppers and basil are doing well this year. You can even see some cayenne peppers if you look close.

2011 plants

This year I'm just planting cayenne peppers and basil. I thought I was planting marigolds also. Last summer I went to a fair and the Rutgers booth was giving out marigold packets from the Agricultural Extension service. Turns out when the plants germinated this spring, they turned out to basil plants. I guess the marigolds didn't make it and the basil plants were from seeds left in the pot last year. Life is full of surprises.

2010 Crop

This year I was a bit more casual with my balcony garden. I grew from seed cilantro, cayenne and jalapeno. The jalapeno peppers died in infancy, although I've grown them in the past. In the picture you can see basil (I took the seeds from last year's plant), cayenne, and some cherry tomatoes. I didn't intentionally grow cherry tomatoes but they germinated from seeds that were left in the pot last year. Like third children, the plant is an accident but it looks like it may give me some nice fall tomatoes if the squirrel doesn't get them.

So far I've used the cilantro, cayenne and basil in cooking. A neighbor thought it was cute when she caught me plucking goodies from my garden. From now on I need to wear pants when I go out there.

Farmer's market tomatoes

Here is a picture of the first commercially grown Ramapo tomatoes I have seen. I bought them at the Capital City Farmer's market on State Street in Trenton. The weekly market is an interesting admixture of state employees and locals and sells a variety of things from baked goods to perfume. It also features live music. It's over now til 2010.

As for the tomatoes, quite good, the best tomatoes I've eaten this year.