The dog days of summer

I feel a bit lazy these past couple of days. Sunday I didn’t do much but harvest a little squash which aren’t so pretty because the squash bugs are munching on them. We are desperately trying to kill a few bugs so Carl sprayed our crops Sunday while I weeded a little bit of our carrot patch. I had full intentions of going on a hike but instead chopped and froze 4 gallons of peppers. After freezing peppers, Carl and I roasted a few poblano and krimzen lee peppers with our pepper roaster and made some fabulous tasting chili rellenos. We are seriously considering splurging and purchasing a fryer for the few times a year when we actually take some good, wholesome, naturally grown veggies and FRY them in canola oil! Meagan and Joe have a fryer which Meagan used to fry eggplant slices for the best eggplant parmesan one could ever indulge in!
Monday afternoon it was raining a bit so I froze another 4 gallons of peppers; however, I have the guilt trip because I should have been hoeing our lettuce that is being overtaken by buckwheat. We normally don’t freeze peppers until fall, right before our first killing frost, except we have Soooo many grade-outs that are not marketable and figured we might as well save them for a rainy day. We think the issue with our peppers is due to the rain and the peppers absorbing so much moisture they have these mushy water spots on them. (We think it is a problem with bacterial spot.) The portions of the pepper that are edible are tasty and wonderful in the middle of winter cooked in potatoes, fajitas, pasta, or macaroni and cheese. Our plan is to freeze a couple deer and the peppers are wonderful in venison fajitas. We freeze our peppers in gallon bags then you can leave them in the freezer and simply pull off clumps out of the bag as you need them. They are a little mushy after thawing so not necessarily good in salads. One must give up a little of fresh food pleasures during the winter – that is why we appreciate a sweet and crispy red, orange or yellow pepper in the summer – only those who eat pretty seasonally can relate to the feeling of the first tomato, sweet pepper and mustard roasted green beans of the year!