Gardening Is Harrowing

Last weekend, I dragged Doug out on his Sunday to tour the Rainbow Gardens nursery. I hit pay dirt in the herb section. I could not wait to get home with my pineapple mint, celery leaves and Japanese eggplant plant. The San Antonio sun has scorched them by this Sunday and I don't think they will recover. They never made it to pots since I'm waiting on the raised beds. And that pineapple mint plant was a variegated beauty.

I "thought" I read something about deheading bell pepper blooms. So, there I am deheading in a manner that would make an Islamic jihadist proud when I notice that I've got tiny bell peppers peeking out of the blooms I just picked. Didn't remember reading that's where the peppers will appear. Thank goodness, I had correctly remembered about the deheading - taking off the first bloom is supposed to increase the plant's production. It was probably unnecessary, considering our favorable weather conditions lately, but at least I didn't kill my chances of getting a pepper off the plant entirely!





My first suburban garden vegetable!






I was also grateful to discover that my pepperoncini was supposed to wrinkle. I removed them once black showed up around the shoulder of the pepper, which is I read denotes maturity. I will crockpot dinner tomorrow with my first garden spoils!

Pepperoncini Beef

2 1/2 - 3 lb chuck roast
1/2 large onion, sliced
5 garlic cloves, smashed
4 pepperoncini, (if using jarred variety, use the whole 16 oz jar with vinegar, omit b. vinegar)
1/3 cup Basalmic vinegar
2 - 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary, stem and all



Place all items in ziploc bag. Marinade overnight. Slow roast in low crock pot (0ven about 250) for 6-8 hours. Shred. Great served on rolls with your favorite melted cheese. Perfect for a crowd.