I harvested the Fajita Bell Pepper. It had that blemish that appeared last week, and it looked like it got sunburned today. The poor thing was only about the size of a three inch cube. A little small.

Of course I immediately cut it open, cleaned out the seeds, and cut out the blemish. It smelled wonderful. Just like a green bell pepper should. I cut off a quarter of it for me and one for Lin. When I handed it to him, he said “Mutual poisoning?” It’s our running gag about how every time there’s some new food from my plants, we each eat a bit at the same time. The answer to his question is “Yes” … because I’m not going to go down alone.

Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t pop the whole bit in my mouth at the same time. Oh it tasted awesome. Very green and fresh, with a slight hint of sweetness. Then, the longer I chewed, my tongue began to inform me that this pepper was hot. Not just a little hot like I expected from the description of the plant. No. It’s really, really, really hot. Jalapeño hot. Very hot jalapeño hot! Wow was that thing hot!

I’m a bit grumpy about it being so hot. I wanted a bell pepper with just a little kick, not a lot of kick with a little bell pepper. Not that it matters much anyway. None of my peppers are doing much of anything. I had the two banana peppers, but that plant hasn’t bloomed again. There’s the one lonely jalapeño still waiting to reach full size, but no more blooms on any of those plants. The cherry pepper plant bloomed weeks ago and hasn’t done anything at all since. At least the tomato plants bloom all the time and some of those blooms have started turning into tomatoes. The pepper plants are so far something of a disappointment.

I did spray all my plants today with one tablespoon Epsom’s salts in a gallon of water, which is supposed to be helpful for fruiting and blooming. After I got them all good and misted, I added some sugar to the leftover water and watered the worst looking ones with that. Someone suggested that, and at this point, why not try it? Maybe doing these things will do some good, but even though my soil tests as being really great, I still feel like my plants are lacking something and need some feeding.

I’m sure I’ll feel less grumpy about my garden tomorrow. I do, after all, have oodles of Sugar Snack tomatoes hanging around beginning to turn red, and Mr. Stripy has two tomatoes now. All is not lost.

Ow. I just rubbed my eye with my pepper corrupted hand. Yes, the Fajita Bell Pepper burns eyes just as well as tongues. Off to the bathroom to wash my eyeball! Ow, ow, ow!