My peppers have all decided to ripen at once.

Right now, I'm picking Thai Peppers, Mini Red Bell Peppers, Santa Fe Grande Peppers and Aurora Peppers every day. I am trying to figure out ways to use all these pretty red peppers, and today I will try: stringing some to dry, adding some to vinegar and making salsa with others.

That should take care of much of my crop. And possibly make some nice gifts for the holidays.

For the last month or two, I've been harvesting tomatoes and peppers from my (late) summer garden. The best producers have turned out to be the Mini Red Bell Peppers and the Yellow Pear Tomatoes, although the Thai peppers and Tommy Toe Tomatoes are happy as well. I didn't get as many of the larger tomatoes as I would have liked, but there are still some out there on the vine, so maybe they're just running late.

Overall, reviews on taste have been positive. Family and friends have enjoyed popping the smaller tomatoes in their mouths, and we've added the peppers to quesadillas and vegetarian chili with good results.

I've also really enjoyed adding lemon basil to sandwiches, especially sardine sandwiches. And I even made a lemon basil aioli a few weeks ago which was delicious.

Here's a shot of some Tommy Toe Tomatoes still on the vine.



Here's a still-green Hungarian Heart Tomato.



An Aurora Pepper Plant with fruit in various stages. They start out deep purple, fade to yellow and then go from orange to red. Soooo pretty!



And here's a recent harvest of tomatoes and peppers.



Overall it's been a pretty successful summer of gardening. My only disappointments were that the okra did not grow at all, and that my garden plot was a dud in general--only producing a few tomatoes and some early Cyclon peppers. Before I put my Fall seedlings in the ground, I need to do a massive overhaul of the garden soil. It's time to get serious.

And speaking of Fall gardening, I already have some tiny eggplant seedlings coming up in small pots on the deck. This weekend I plan to plant some squash and hopefully next weekend I can get my root vegetables in the ground. I'm already late, I think.