It Really Pays to Date a Farm Boy

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David has a garden. A nice, half-your-backyard, home-grown garden. You see, David's parents always had a garden when he was growing up. They still do, and they have some suuuuper yummy things his mom cooks out of that garden when we visit. However, David never really partook in the gardening when he was younger so the garden he has in his backyard is, sort of, a work-in-progress. Earlier this year I begged (and I mean BEGGED) him to grow some tomatoes. There is nothing better than a home-grown tomato, am I right? I had to beg because David doesn't like tomatoes. Weird, I know. Regardless, while we were shopping for tomato plants, soil, cages, etc. David came upon a cayenne pepper plant and decided he would see how well it did. The pepper plant didn't really seem to do anything all summer long (along with the tomatoes, dagnabit). However, a couple of months ago this plant EXPLODED. Every day David was picking red peppers off of it. I would venture to say we now have 100+ peppers. I knew we wouldn't be able to use all of these peppers before they would spoil, so I looked on the internet to see what we needed to do to dry them. Which is almost next to nothing. Pretty much just hang them up and let 'em dry. We then split the peppers up between the two households. I would say this would be half, but some have been eaten and I had already chopped some prior to this pic.




This is a very meticulous job and I was tired of doing it each time I wanted to use some peppers in a recipe. So! I decided to do them all at once. Chop, chop chop...chop, chop, chop...chop, chop, chop. Let me tell you, but the time I was done my fingers were hurting so bad from the repetitious motion. I could see how one could get carpal tunnel syndrome from working their way around a kitchen! However, I now have a little tupperware-type container FULL of red pepper flakes. Yum! I just hope I don't end up having to chop all of David's share as well. My fingers might cry. And you betcha I'm going to be using these wonderful flakes up until they're completely gone. Hopefully that won't occur until the plant begins to bear more "fruit" next year. We shall see, in the meantime I will enjoy them while I can!