Tabascos Are For The Birds!

   The growing of any kind of hot peppers is something of a novelty for me.  I dehydrate them and use them occasionally...mainly in my herbal cure-all better known as the Bayou Fire.  Yep, the name says it all.  Still, I have no need for buckets of the things.  Obviously, the plants deemed it necessary to provide me with buckets full, regardless of the lack of a need.  A few weeks ago, the scotch bonnets were in full swing and I had to pick hundreds of those plump rascals.  Now, I have jars and jars of dehydrated peppers lining the shelves.  If I have get a hankering for some really hot dish, I have the means to spice it up a bit.

  That was all fine and dandy but now the tabasco pepper (yes, pepper as in single plant) has decided not to be outdone in the production of tiny peppers.  That single plant has over 500 peppers on it!  The only problem is that the sun has not shone for the past ten days so the peppers are not ripening. They are staying pale yellow instead of the fiery red that is desired.  The few that do ripen are snatched up by the birds!  It seems that the mockingbirds love hot peppers!  We had this same problem about 10 years ago.  Mockingbirds started visiting the gardens and picked every pepper that ripened.  At that time, I found it amusing.  I still do.  How in the world can those birds eat hot peppers one after another without setting their mouths on fire??  Tough birds!

  Both types of peppers are growing on plants that were in last year's garden. Last October, I dug the plants and stuck them in the greenhouse where they stayed for the entire winter.  They were plopped back into the ground in the spring and have grown with a fury.  The tabasco pepper is nigh on 4ft tall and is intertwined with the four-o'clock plants.  (Neither of these were supposed to get this big but something happened!)  I am tempted to pick about 100 of the tabasco peppers to see if they will ripen indoors.  If they do, they, along with more scotch bonnets, will be dried.  I sure hope somebody comes along and wants some of these things.  Otherwise, I may just have to start canning hot sauce!  Hmm, now there is an idea!