Chillies and Red Peppers are a tiny side-line here at Tomato Lover. Both plants featured today I bought rather than grew from seed. The Medusa chilli from Cookoo Box Chilli at Hampton Court Flower Show and the red pepper from an allotment plant sale.
Maybe it’s word association brought about cuckoo but there’s something about the process of seeing the pepper and chilli fruit develop that’s akin to seeing one of those unlikely animal adoption photos – the kind where say a lioness takes care of a baby antelope. If anything grows here – I just expect it to turn out ‘ tomato’ and when it doesn’t – it’s curious and delightful at the same time.
Of course (and without wishing to cast aspersions on well-meaning lioness) I’m guessing the time will come when both kind of adoptees turn from curios to dinner. But in the meantime I’ve found this picture of what the Medusa chilli should look like at maturity – and now I’m seeing the unruly ‘snake hair’ that would have inspired the name. What a great variety !
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Your chillies look good, they’ve grown well and should be spicing up your Sunday recipes in no time. A mature ‘Medusa’ would go a long way to brightening up a kitchen table or, erm, windowsill.
While I’ve had plenty of lovely red chillies on my second-year plants, I’m rather unimpressed because they have no heat whatsoever, which is odd because their fruits last year were rather hot. Perhaps they’ll get spicier as the autumn progresses, but in the meantime I can have some fun winding up friends with them…
Unless they turn out to be like the green Spanish Padron peppers where I think it’s meant to be 1 in 10 which is suddenly hot ! Kind of Russian Roulette but with Canapes !
My first trip into Tomatolover land and having done all my vegetable preparation. i.e. getting my visa and my ‘Lycopersicon Esculentum’ inoculations updated. With building excitement I crossed the boarders only find myself bitterly disappointed. When you have saved for the last 10 years, for that once in a lifetime trip to see your favourite vegetable you don’t expect Peppers. Yes you might say that they are all part of the same Solanaceae family but if you went to see a play in the West End expecting to see Gary Oldman, you would not be happy to find that Laila Morse was playing the role…..
Hang on a second I just remembered I don’t actually like tomatoes…..Long live peppers and chillies, any chance of some sundried tomato coverage…. ?
You never mentioned you were a comment moderator!
I wish I didn’t have to be – and it’s certainly not a ‘comment’ on the people who leave lovely comments here – be they tomato lovers – or pepper and chilli champions – it’s because of mass – generated comments that rush round the internet attaching themselves to blogs in the comments section. I fear one past the gate (which hasn’t happened so far) – and it would prompt outpouring from bots who seem to have less ‘wholesome’ things than tomatoes on their minds !
Well you may have done your preparation – but I needed to do my homework to be able to decode all the West End references – so (courtesy of Wikipedia) I learnt Laila Morse is the stage name of a female actor – and – an anagram of Mia Sorella which is Italian for ‘My sister’. And this female actor got the name from Isabella Rossallini- who was once the girlfriend of Gary Oldman – Gary Oldman being the younger brother of Maureen Oldman – and Maureen Oldman being the female actor who goes by the stage name of… Laila Morse.
All of that – learnt as a result of chilli/pepper diversion….. amazing. All I can say is thank goodness I didn’t riff on celery !