Hot Peppers

Just this afternoon I noticed my cayenne and jalapeño peppers have sprouted over in my warming tray. I am using my furnace to heat a section of my seed starting tray for the heat loving plants that would struggle in the regular seed starting shelves I have in the basement. 

The basement is unheated, but sections do have the hot water fin tubes before they disappear upstairs, and being completely underground helps maintain the basement at around 60-61 degrees. I was surprised at how stable, specially since we've had some really cold days this winter with temperatures down in the single digits.

Eggs with Cayenne Pepper

Wednesday morning I stepped out into the garden to harvest some cayenne peppers. My cayenne pepper plant doesn't seem to realize that it is no longer summer, and is still producing away. I sliced one up and added it to two free range eggs (one a great looking blue egg from an Araucana chicken, the other a nice creamy white egg) and added some cheddar cheese. The eggs were delicious, had a nice spicy kick and flavoring to them with cayenne slices cooked in. It is a great feeling being able to just step out to the garden to find ingredients to a meal that I am preparing. Can't get more local than your own yard.