But before that, I should mention that the 4th tap was killed, cleaned, and is now home to the Avalon Pale Ale.. err.. one of them, anyway. There's two for this year going to the beach. Well, three, really.. but one is staying here. Two are heading to the shore. OK, now that we got that straight.. On standby is the Berliner, which I'm really looking forward to. Savvas is comin' over today, so I expect to be able to polish off the rest of the Brown Ale and get the other keg for the shore into the fridge and carbing.. Let's get back to that garden for a minute, ok?
Behold, the first Habanero! Yeah, as expected, it's in an Earthbox. Those things just damn WORK! I will definitely have another one for next year. I'm gonna grow all my peppers in two Earthboxes.. and the harvest will be massive! Plus, it'll free up an entire half garden bed for other things. Cool. I'm also collecting buckets for the Global Bucket Project. Stay tuned for more on that..
This is said Earthbox containing the above-mentioned Habaneros... Dig it.
Horseraddish gone wild! Just a photo to document it's progress, really.. prehistoric lookin', ain't it?
Hmm.. these Cascades are doing *ok*.. nothing like the first year, but they're OK. They're also much more manageable down at this level.. but the production is still lower. Better than last year though. The Nugget plant isn't even worth a photo, it's so lame in comparison.
Jalapenos on the plant. They're going amuck down there. There's five visible in this picture alone, and this is just a fraction of what this plant contains. I had a bite of one two days ago right after I took this pic, and it had a bit of a tang to the seeded portion of the pod, but the pepper itself was still pretty lame. The heat doesn't really develop until the pod changes to a darker green, and get's hotter as you let it go. Eventually, it'll change to a red color, and that's when it's supposed to be it's hottest.. but I like the green sorta hot, sorta sweet versions. I'll save the heating bit for the Habaneros, which don't really have any provision for a "mild" setting. They're set to 'kill" automatically. Like that! As you can see, there's a stake in the ground to hold this one up. I've had every one of the six Jalapenos fall over on it's own, and two of the Habaneros keel over as well. Next year, I will remember to start these buggers with stakes in the ground from day one. No one in any of the books or things I read said anything about staking pepper plants..
Roma tomatos on the plant starting to make some headway now.. these guys are slow to develop.
When I pulled the peas and old bolted lettuce up, I replanted with some new stuff, like a few rows of new lettuce, some turnips, radishes and a couple of Brussel's Sprouts, just for kicks. We'll see what grows. Damn chicken got into the bed *just* as they were starting to sprout and kicked a few sprouts out of the beds. It's my fault, cause I didn't put up a fence and I also told the chickens there were really tasty things to eat in the beds.. the grubs I mentioned last post. So, naturally, they went back for more, not knowing I had replanted stuff. And, you know, chickens don't care about what I've planted anyway. I still love them. This pic below is the radishes just starting to pop up.. and the next pic below that is the markers I've put in place to tell what's in what rows. So fancy! ;-)
In beer news, again, this is the 12 gallon bucket of Avalon Pale that's going to the shore. This one I left in the big open top keg for 12 days before transferring to keg, and it looks like it might have picked up a hint of Brett from the air. Check the funk on the very surface, just forming. I racked the beer out from underneath it.. and it tastes just fine. But, given a few months, I think it might develop some funk. The beach keg will be gone in a mater of two weeks or so, so that's no issue, but the half of the batch I saved for myself might prove to get some *ahem* "additional flavor". We'll see about that and report back as time tells the tale..
I think that's all for now.
