Another Tramp Abroad

loving life and growing things

about

Growing Peppers Under Shade Cloth

June 29, 2026
I started growing all my peppers under shade cloth this year. Yes, it has certainly helped the plants during the current end of June 2026 European heat wave now happening. But I bought the cloth last year for an all together different protection reasons in mind. To keep cabbage butterfly off my cabbage and deer from eating my peppers.

Last year I walked out one morning and almost all my peppers had been mowed down the night before by deer. Deer are browsers, and will nip off ends of my rose bushes, my young grape vines and will take down even my large mature sunflowers. Not to mention damage they do to lettuce, chard, turnips, beets, etc.

Oh, they tried to get the peppers. I have had some damage. But that was mostly from deer or wild boar simply stepping on the low tunnels I set up. Broke some plants. But no browsing damage. Not yet. Knock on wood. Fingers crossed. Because my peppers this year are doing very well and look simply lovely.

Hildi bell peppers under shade cloth.

Early pepper. Red when mature.

Syn. Cecil sweet yellow pepper.

Kecskeszarv peppers under shade cloth

Spicy Hungarian Kecskeszarv pepper.

Spicy Hungarian Kecskeszarv pepper.
Share this:
Email
Pinterest
Telegram
Like Loading…
Christmas Bells – The Real Bell Pepper

December 21, 2025
Christmas Bell peppers, also known as Bishops Hat or Bishops Crown peppers are a middle ranged sweet-hot pepper.

And seriously …. They really do look like little tiny bells !

My neighbor gave me one of his pepper plants in October before he left for the “winter”. Probably as I mentioned to him how I love hot peppers. None of the peppers had turned red at that time (they do not get hot till they go red). I took it inside once weather turned cold, and have been its loving caretaker since then. In November I had a few peppers go red, and now in late December, they all are red. And it has finally indeed given quite a few nice red, hot peppers. They are indeed now little Christmas Bells.

I till try to coax the plant through the full winter “as is” (avoiding any trimming). Looking currently like it needs more light due to recent weeks of foggy weather, and a bit of nutrients. Will see what I may or may not do to keep it going. Stay tuned.
Share this:
Email
Pinterest
Telegram
Like Loading…
Autumn Potato Harvest 2025

October 12, 2025
I plant potatoes twice a year. Plant in spring (late March) for a Summer harvest and plant again in Summer (late July to early August) for an Autumn harvest. Typically I get about 2.5 kg of potatoes per square meter each time. For a yearly net of 5 kg per square meter. Which I think is not too bad.

I normally plant red potatoes as they seem to give the largest harvest. But I also planted some yellow potatoes this summer just to see what I would get. And the results were not too bad. But, yes, the yield was a bit less than the red potatoes.

Some of this years Autumn potatoes.

Autumn red potato.
Share this:
Email
Pinterest
Telegram
Like Loading…
Eggplant Forest

September 12, 2024
It is not really a forest, it just looks like one. 😀

Eggplant Forest
Share this:
Email
Pinterest
Telegram
Like Loading…
August Days 13 Years Later

August 31, 2024
Thirteen years ago I made my first post at this blog. It was called August Days. Saying how easy and lazy the month of August can be for vineyard owners.

If only things stayed the same….

I have been extensively tracking my vineyard and orchard data, including plant growth and weather, over these past 13 years. And pretty much each year there has been variation, as is expected. But more and more variation has been happening in recent years. What has become disturbingly more predictable, however, is a slow walk to warmer weather, less rain, and earlier tree and vine budding, fruit maturation and harvests. And this year, for the first time for me in the two decades we have had this vineyard, my entire grape harvest, for 4 different grape varieties, has all been started and completed in August.

Gone are the lazy August days.

Maybe I can best summarize by slighting altering an old saying. It now seems, the more things change, the more things will be changing…

Busy August Days
Share this:
Email
Pinterest
Telegram
Like Loading…
Solar Dehydrator Improvements

July 31, 2024
Seven years ago, I built a solar dehydrator. It has worked very well. But I also noticed that the design had one issue. That is, the fruit in the bottom tray always took longer to dry. Resulting in having to swap trays around to improve drying time for all items in the dehydrator. The issue was of course that the air entering at the bottom was at ambient air temperature, and had to be heated in the box. Thus the lower part of the box was cooler than the upper part.

The solution was of course to build a preheater, to warm up the air before it entered the box. Which this year I finally got around to doing. While the idea is simple, I of course always over engineer things, so the actual construction took much longer than I expected. But I am still very pleased by the results both aesthetically and functionally. And drying efficiency has been improved.

Photos below showcase the design and installation (the preheater is attached with hinges and easily removable).
Share this:
Email
Pinterest
Telegram
Like Loading…
Winter Cabbage

March 7, 2024
Harvested my first Winter cabbage yesterday. March 6th. This cabbage was planted last Fall. It was not a huge cabbage like I can harvest in Summer, but still was a very nice looking specimen. I left the base intact. Hopefully it will make two or three more smaller cabbage in the coming months.
Share this:
Email
Pinterest
Telegram
Like Loading…
Sun Drying Hungarian Peppers on a String

September 26, 2023
Last week I harvested about 500 peppers. With more to come. They need to be dried for storage. The traditional way is to use a needle and thread and string them up so they can be hung to dry. Which is what I am doing.

Peppers and Garlic
Share this:
Email
Pinterest
Telegram
Like Loading…