A big day in gardening at our house. It’s always exciting when we get the peas in the ground. This year they have their own private trellis instead of climbing up the outside of the chicken run. The chickens were not kind to the pea vines last year. We’re planting very early for Maine, but it’s been such a mild winter and the soil was in good shape for planting.
We planted Red Kitten spinach down one side and Winter Lettuce down the other to fill in the bed as the peas climb.
There is also continuing activity in making up soil blocks and caring for seedlings. Tomatoes, tomatillo, ground cherry, broccoli, leeks, shallots, Cippollini onions, cabbage, cauliflower, celery. Started three types of pepper today: King of the North, Jimmy Nardello, and Red Rocket (hot – more on that below).
On the other side of the gardening lifecycle, I decided to process the dried Red Rocket peppers that have been hanging in the kitchen since last fall. First goal was to get some seeds to plant, then I decided to carry on and use the spice grinder to make some home ground cayenne pepper. This enterprise had us coughing most of the afternoon as cayenne particles dispersed everywhere. Sort of like the coronavirus.
