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This is not my elegant plant (I lost the photo) but you can get the idea…
I had always shared my mom’s love of cooking, but not her green thumb. In fact, I was convinced that plants and I did not get along. I had never planted anything in my life. Not even an avocado plant – and almost all my friends and family members without green thumbs had had success with those!
My mom had been a proud gardener. In the suburban Chicago house where I grew up, our backyard was the envy of many. When my mom sold that house and moved back to the city, her glorious indoor plants went with her (including her avocado plant). As she moved over the years, they graced each new home. They even outlived her.
One day in March 2016, I had gone to a garden store in Rome, Italy, my adopted city, to buy some flowers to plant for the first time in my life.
As I stood staring at all of the amazing plants and flowers, whose names in any language were totally foreign to me (except roses, rose in Italian) I thought of how my mom would have enjoyed this scene. I literally had no idea what I was doing and was too embarassed to ask for assistance.
I had decided that it was time to make my front balcony planters less barren. Everyone else in the building had at least tried to grace their balconies with some color. I was with Bruno, my Italian partner, who had grown up planting and harvesting every fruit and vegetable known to mankind at his summer home, like most Italians. In fact, his dad had climbed ladders to harvest olives even in his 80s. But, unfortunately, Bruno was no urban farmer and had not a clue about what to purchase at the garden center.
One of the store’s owners heard that I wanted to buy flowers for my great sunny spots and she suggested growing vegetables instead. I told her that kind of adventure seemed way beyond my capabilities. Then, I saw the most beautiful plant (that I NOW know was a seedling) with elegantly shaped leaves and graceful, long, skinny, green peppers hanging from it. The photo of what the adult parent would look like that usually hung from seedlings was missing. I had no idea what kind of peppers these were – but got excited about growing something that I could use in my cooking experiments and bought it. With my passion for creating dishes, I was confident that I would come up with some dish where I could use them, even though I had no idea what they were. Bruno, agreed they were odd looking, but beautiful. Neither of us had thought to ask the nursery owner what the plant was.
The hanging green peppers multiplied quickly and the plant got fuller and fuller. I was thrilled.
I sent photos to friends and family members back in Chicago (where it was snowing in April. They were truly amazed that I had actually grown something!
Everyone asked me what kind of peppers they were. I never answered.
We joked about my bountiful “harvest” and I wondered when I should pick my peppers and what I would do with so many of them (probably around 100). At various times, I had tasted one, but could not distinguish a definitive taste. They were neither spicy nor sweet. I decided to keep waiting until the flavor became fuller before cooking with them. I just enjoyed looking at this elegant plant each day outside my kitchen window (sorry to have lost the photos of this plant - but soon, you will get to the punchline!).
Then, one day – I noticed a few of my green peppers had turned red! I could not believe my eyes! They actually looked like pepperoncini – the Italian spicy red pepper that is used in every household throughout Italy. It is also the symbol of good luck (buona fortuna) seen on tourist key chains (like the one in the photo) and hanging dried in Italian restaurants all over the world. The famous Roman dish called aglio-olio-pepperoncino (garlic and oil with red hot peppers) is my family’s favorite. Well, as you might have guessed - my special, green-turned-red hanging things outside my kitchen window were, in fact, pepperoncini! Bruno and I laughed so much thinking about our not knowing that these popular, very spicy red peppers are green during the early planting stage.
When they were all red, I place them in little bottles of extraordinary olive oil from my friend’s olive grove in Umbria, Italy. The deep green oil with red peppers in little bottles tied with green and red ribbons made made exquisite Christmas gifts. My friends doubted that I had actually grown the peppers, so I carried photos in my wallet to prove it and shared them like many proud parents show off pictures of their children.
One of my proudest moments came when I read on the internet how to dry and string the pepperoncini together with thread, like I had seen in hundreds of Italian markets, homes, and Italian films. They were picture perfect - could not believe that I had grown them (see photo below).
Needless to say, I went back to the same garden center after my successful pepperoncini “harvest” and enthusiastically bought seedlings of eggplants, bell peppers (green and red) and tomatoes - that I have been growing now for the last 5 summers. They are featured in the photos in this post.
I became an avid organic kitchen gardener and encouraged many of my friends to try this wonderful hobby. I watched online videos and read blog posts frequently. Of course, now, thanks to Deep Roots Project, I know about soil preparation and natural fertilizers and how to test the amount of water each plant needs. I still feel like a kid who just did something great that they’d never thought they would be able to do. The best part is cooking for my vegetarian and vegan friends and the ingredients are all produced by me.
My mom would really be surprised. I still am! Just sorry that I missed so many years of such joy…
