Page 6 << Peppers Page 7>> Page 8

October 5. The sunflowers have lost much of their wind-screen effect. Many of the sunflowers are completely dead and the lower "branches" have broken down. The next picture shows where the wind has pushed through these open spaces and knocked over several of the peppers. My small bamboo sticks helped a little because they were tied together. But the peppers are so tall and heavy that any amount of wind has a damaging effect.

Today I picked another 365 peppers. I think production is starting to slow now that cooler weather is in the air. The last couple of days we had some good rain, so when I was picking the peppers today, I noticed that they had soaked up lots of water. The ripe ones were tight and shiny. Very beautiful!

October 15. The last few nights have been below freezing. You can see the drastic effect it has had on the leaves. The peppers are basically dead. The good news is that this has exposed all the remaining peppers for easy picking.

Many of the peppers were still green. Looks like I'll have to pick them anyway.

The pepper patch is now resembling a row of sticks. All of the leaves have shriveled up.

I did notice however, that the kale has been resistant to the freeze. You can see it just to the right. Tough plant.
I had thought at one point, that I would bring one of the pepper plants inside and see how long I could keep it going. But it looks like that opportunity has passed me by.

October 18. The remaining peppers stand out against a dead leaf background.

October 19. The final big harvest. It's a mix of both red and green peppers. Today I pull in 1,361 total.

Here's the empty patch.

I was surprised to find a couple of straggling survivors, so I planted them in a pot to take inside. I thought I had missed my chance.

Here you see it in the indoor location. The bulb I'm using is for plants.

October 25. I take a look out in the shed. The sun shines in the door and I take a picture of the red peppers that I strung up from a week ago. They are still full, but I can see small wrinkles where they are starting to dry.

Previous harvests are now in these baskets. The holes allow air to flow so that they continue their drying process.

November 1. Outside the once green leafy plants are now looking more like a collection of sticks.

November 2. Inside, I put the saved pepper plant up next to the window to get some sunlight.

At the base, I notice some sprouts. I think these might be squash. We use this pot and this dirt to start our squash this year. I'm not sure what I will do with these. I guess I'll see how they grow.

The window light shows the last few peppers I have. A couple red and a couple green.

I pick the last 3 red peppers go to Page 8.