Lisa, Your folks are my kind of people! I love big gardens and I love big canning. I'm not sure I'd open and eat a 15 year old jar of beans though. Your mom's kitchen counter lined with jars looks like mine on any random summer day when I've been canning. The pantry was full and overflowing before the end of June this year and I've run out of closet space where I can cram one more case of canned food into a corner or something. So, I bought some plastic under-the-bed storage boxes, filled them with jars of canned stuff, and now have canned food stashed away both upstairs and downstairs. I'm about ready to stop. I'll can jalapenos again at some point this fall because we give away a lot of jars of Candied Jalapenos at Christmas, but otherwise, I think I am about through canning.....unless I decide to make some dilly beans from part of the fall harvest. Last week I harvested a total of 15 gallons of peppers, both hot and sweet. I froze several gallons of roasted peppers, froze a bunch of chopped and sliced sweet bells, canned a few dozen jars of jalapenos, and then sent a big bag of peppers to work with Tim to give to one of his co-workers. This week I'll harvest again (though not nearly as many) and send more to work because one of the guys saw those peppers Tim took in and said "I want some", so we'll give him some this week. I was trying not to have a big canning year this year since I was only going to can peppers, some salsa and a lot of pickles, but somehow I have filled up all the pint jars anyway. (I still have quarts and half-pints though....) We drove by one of those big gardens today and they've really let the bermuda grass and Johnson grass come in and take over the melon area now (but, it's August and who wants to be out in August heat pulling weeds?) but it looked like a highly productive garden in June and at least half of July. I yanked out the pickling cukes today so I could use that area for fall plants. The 20-30 deer and half-dozen cottontails that have been eating pickling cukes every night for the last 3 weeks or so will be really disappointed. Tonight they'll get the last of the pickling cukes, and then tomorrow night. they'll be wondering what happened to their nice cucumber dinners. I never have planted 100 hills of squash (and hope I never do) but one year I planted 30 different varieties of squash and had the most awesome and amazing harvest. It likely was in 2004 or 2006....because the squash vine borers hadn't found us yet. We had squash piled up everywhere and had the most amazing autumn displays of pumpkins, squash, Indian corn, etc. That was a fun year. My goal always is to raise as much as I reasonably can and to preserve whatever we cannot eat fresh, but sometimes I just get tired of canning and give the excess away. Because the cucumber beetles hadn't shown up and spread disease to the pickling cukes like they usually did, I just let them keep growing after I was through with the pickle making and I fed them to the wildlife. It has been so dry here that I have to make water puddles for the butterflies and fill pans with water for the wildlife, so I figured the wildlife would enjoy having cucumbers to eat, and they did. I think next year I'll plant a bunch of extra cukes on the back garden fence just for the wild animals. We still have Armenian cukes growing on the fence, but the plants are getting old and worn-out and are slowing down so I don't know how much longer they'll last. Now that I have cucumbers on the brain, I should work on my grow list for 2014 because I want to grow a bigger variety of sizes, shapes and colors. I have quite a few seeds for unusual varieties, but just haven't gotten around to planting them. Dawn

I now re read my original post. it was supposed to be "(a hybrid or) some sort of mutant" a hybrid is obviously the more likely option. either way, this pepper is freaking delicious. like, holy crap it tastes good. I am looking forward to stabilizing it, and getting lots more really delicious pods.

"cucamelon"- Melothria scabra, also known as the cucamelon, is a vine grown for its edible fruit. Fruits are about the size of grapes and taste like cucumbers with a tinge of sourness. Vernacular names include mouse melon, Mexican sour gherkin, cucamelon, Mexican miniature watermelon, Mexican sour cucumber and pepquinos. Cucamelons are small but pack a healthful punch. They are full of vitamins and minerals, antioxidants and fiber, and are also low in calories. The nutrients they provide can help lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Genus: Melothria I'd love to get some seeds (hard to find where I am= Canada); if you - or somebody reading this post- can mail them in an envelope pls email me at nkguw7piodi9@opayq.com; thx.

I was thinking that might be it. I'm just not sure how a plum granny got there. They are maybe an inch in diameter. I don't think they are getting bigger now that they changed colors.