Unlike the name of this post suggests we are in no way agriculturally gifted family, maybe the girls are but the wife and I are not. I have just never had any real interest or gift for making plants grow and the joke has always been that my wife has an ability to kill any plant known to humankind. So, the thought of us being able to grow anything edible was just comical.

Well, Thing 1 decided that she wanted to start a garden in the backyard. The wife and I looked at each other with trepidation, but thankfully my mother happened to be there and is much more talented than either of us. So, the wife and my mom picked out some seeds and soil and got a friend to make a planter box and off they went.

Since the start of this little project we are running out of pots to put Citronella plants in (because the mosquitos in Texas are awful and they are not huge fans of citronella apparently), and the plants have borne fruits! The girls, the wife and my mom have been tending to them with great care, and I couldn’t be more proud of what they have achieved.

The girls wanted to grow tomatoes and cucumber, the wife wanted Citronella and Bell Peppers, and my one request was Jalapenos. I love Jalapenos, not because I want to destroy my taste-buds, but good ones give some heat and the flavor is great!

Lucky Daddicus, the Jalapenos were the first to come in and I had been watching them grow bigger and was pretty excited to try one. Well, last week was the time, and I wasn’t about to wait to try one out.

I think I said it all in the video, it was really good, and I was excited to use them in some grilling recipes. I took the big bite and went to get a beer, by the time I made it back … well the video speaks for itself…

So, I did bite the whole thing so I got all of the seeds, I’ll tell you friends it was quite warm. So much so that I started hiccuping, which is something I don’t suffer from … ever. Which led to video number 3…

Despite threats of a fourth video there was none and the heat finally started abating. I’ll tell you friends, I had been disappointed with the lack of heat and flavor that I had gotten the past few time from the local grocery store. I was in no way disappointed in these, and now that I know what to expect I’m more fired up than ever. Please excuse the pun.

Growing some of your own favorite peppers is not that expensive, they don’t need crazy fertilizer, just a small amount of starter soil and one of those less than a dollar packets of seeds and you’re off. From there I’ve watched them water as needed, put a stick in the soil and tie the plant to it using regular old string. We’ve harvested a few now and there are still more growing.

I put this out there for a little bit of levity, but also as an idea of things to do with the kids if they’re not going back to school. The girls have learned so much from the experience and are excited to check on them every day. I know that I am not the one doing this with them, but I wanted them to have something special with mommy since she works during the day and they interact with me all day long.

I just had to include this one of them with the fruits of their first tomato harvest. I guess showing my wife’s lack of agriculture experience, she thought they were regular hot house style tomatoes…well surprise! So a little money, a lot of love and a modicum of effort have produced a fun little experiment in our back yard, with some tasty results!

Till next time.

-Daddicus Rex