Colusa County Master Gardeners are doing more than sharing their enthusiasm and love for all aspects of growing plants, flowers, and vegetables.
They’re sharing the fruits of their labor with others.
While it is still early in the produce season, the group began harvesting flowers, peppers, and vegetables this month, which they donated to the Colusa County Ministerial Association on Thursday to give away during their regular food distribution program.
The Master Gardeners also gave away potted bell pepper plants for people to grow their own.
But even the trained University of California Cooperative Extension experts were perplexed this year when the 16 jalapeno plants they grew from seed produced a very unfamiliar looking pepper.
“We didn’t get jalapeno but something else,” said Gerry Hernandez, coordinator of the local master gardener program. “It happened all over the country,”
Dubbed “Peppergate” on social media, home gardeners and commercial growers who dropped seeds into the dirt and expected jalapenos, got the surprise of their lives when another variety of peppers grew in their place.
It turns out, the seeds, which are hard to distinguish from any other pepper seed, were mislabeled by a large seed producer and sold at locations across the U.S.
Although the peppers are not the traditional jalapenos the gardeners had expected, the peppers are similar in size, a bright yellow, and are quite spicy.
The public will be welcomed to see the not-so-typical garden stable at an Open Garden event on July 29.
Anyone can come and pick season-ripe vegetables, including cucumbers, tomatoes, bell and other peppers, tomatoes, and squash, all of which are given away at no cost.
The Master Gardeners will also be on hand to answer gardening questions.
The demonstration garden, located at the Education Village, 499 Marguerite St., Williams, is named after the late Donna Critchfield, a former Colusa City Councilwoman who was an avid gardener and a longtime member of the Master Gardeners of Colusa County. ■