Too Many Peppers

Gardening is one of the many pathways to resilience. And it takes many years to even start getting good at it. I did a bit of gardening as a kid (my great-uncle was the only really skilled gardener in my extended family) and a tiny bit more at the first house I owned, but for much of my adult life lived in a series of apartment buildings where gardening was rarely an option. Only since moving to an outer-ring suburb seven years ago have I been gardening every summer.

Truth be told, my wife is the real gardener in the family. Much more experience than I have, definitely a greener thumb. Since moving in here I’ve planted peppers, potatoes, onions, hops, celery, and carrots. But mostly peppers. She gardens with a more diverse range of plants. Several varieties of lettuce, kale, tomatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, herbs, beans, and more. I tend to prefer raised bed gardening, she prefers straw bale gardening.

This year is a bit of an anomaly for me, I planted only peppers, and no hot ones, only sweet. (My perennial hops were ruined, at least for this season, by a neighbor’s slapdash construction project carried out by Troglodytes). In a 4-foot by 8-foot raised bed, I planted 32 peppers. Deer are a constant problem, several of the plants have been nibbled and, even though it was two feet tall, one day one of the plants was just gone. Various deer repellents have proven only marginally effective, landmines have been considered.

But if pests or disease don’t completely destroy a crop, a gardener will often end up with a different problem. Too much of a good thing, all at once. Those jokes about gardeners leaving zucchini on neighbors’ doorsteps got started for good reason. My peppers are producing like crazy. I have done a bit of canning (again, my wife is better at it than I am) but the volume of peppers wasn’t quite enough to justify canning. Enter our dehydrator. About a year ago, we bought an entry level NESCO brand dehydrator. Prior to doing so, I had no idea how many options and sizes were available. Maybe some day we’ll upgrade, but for now four racks is plenty:

After 14 hours at 135°F (57°C), they were ready for the freezer for storage:

You could munch them as-is, but we’ll be using them for soups, stews, and crockpot fandangos. For longer-term storage like 4-6 months, I would have used our FoodSaver to vacuum-seal them.

Nate update: my son’s condition has been upgraded again and he was moved from a Trauma unit to a Rehabilitation unit. Lots of physical, occupational, and voice therapy. Hours of each every day. With a vaguely tentative discharge target of a week from now. Much improvement but still a long road ahead. He’s still got a bunch of staples holding his scalp together. I was originally going to respect his privacy and not post a pic of it, but several of his friends posted pics to their Facebook and Instagram feeds so I guess it doesn’t matter any more. In all its glory: