Chile Peppers
T-shirt from Chuy's in Austin, TX
"It doesn't matter who you are, or what you've done, or think you can do. There's a confrontation with destiny awaiting you. Somewhere, there is a chile you cannot eat."
-- Daniel Pinkwater, "A Hot Time in Nairobi"
This is a shot of me
[38K JPEG]
caring for my first crop of peppers, at the start
of the summer of '91, when I could still get onto the deck. The plants
eventually topped seven feet, and could only be admired safely from
the far side of a locked sliding glass door. They survived (and bore)
until December. It's a measure of my interest in peppers that I was only
almost sick of them by the time the first hard frost arrived.
A day's harvest (picture left)
[40K JPEG].
My preference is for New Mexico chile (top
right), but I won't turn down Japalenos (lower right), Habaneros
(center) or Thai chiles (left) if they're offered.
And in the picture to the right we have the '95 version of peppers at
Wolf House
[35K JPEG].
This is as big as they
grew before the squirrels ate them. Like many
things labeled '95,
they just weren't the same.
This year's crop (all from Shepherd's Seeds) will include: