Tiny peppers – all bite, no bark

My grandparents have a pretty good-sized garden every year. Some years, some things come better than others.

A few years back, the cucumbers were prolific and my parents asked me to cut up some for cucumber salad.

I was under the impression that cucumber salad would involve some sort of a cream-based sauce, so I spent some time cutting the cucumbers into thin slices. Turns out, my parents’ idea of cucumber salad is cucumber with some Western dressing on top. It was a very disappointing realization.

Apparently, it’s a salad, but they didn’t have lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers or any other salad staple at the time. So, it was a cucumber salad.

My parents thought my disappointment was entertaining, and they still laugh about it every time they see cucumbers or (real) cucumber salad. I’m still disappointed.

This year, my parents started extra tomato and pepper plants to add to my grandparents’ garden.

It looked like a lot of plants when we were putting them in the garden already (even after the incident with the rototiller that took out two or three plants, rack and all), but it looked like even more when harvest time came around.

I added some pepper seeds to the cause, since I had a bunch of seeds I was gifted for my birthday, most of which were pepper seeds.

Originally, the hot peppers were labeled so they wouldn’t be mixed in with the bell pepper plants. That must not have lasted, because somehow, all the hot peppers ended up in my grandparents’ garden, instead of at my parents place.

They produced well and they are hot. Usually, spicy stuff doesn’t bother me at all, but these ones are hot enough that they do. They have to be some not-so-distant relation to Satan’s teeth. Unfortunately, we don’t know for sure what kind they are, because we got rid of the seed packets.

The peppers look so cute, little and unassuming. There are red ones, purple ones and yellow ones, plus an assortment of milder varieties.

The first of the mystery, hot peppers I had, I put the whole pepper on one egg sandwich for breakfast. Bad idea. My gums felt like the skin was burning off. My tongue was fine, though, so I must have built up some tolerance over the years.

Of course, that same day, I learned that pepper oil doesn’t always wash off your hands right away. I thought I was good to go after washing my hands three or four times. Wrong.

That pepper made my eye burn for quite a while. It was a learning lesson, to say the least.

I’ve been more careful since then with how I prepare the garden produce and what I touch afterward. The pepper goes in direct contact with a dairy product or is used sparingly. The flavor is pretty good when I do that.

Next year, we’ll have to watch a little closer what we all plant. That way, I know what’s making me feel like a wimp, instead of wondering what kind they are. I have a feeling that packet of habaneros may be a little on the warm side.