Thursday Garden Gobbles – Seeds, ‘Mini Mamas’ & Stuffed Capsicums

I’ve been growing these great mini capsicums.  My dad bought a ‘Mini Mama’ plant last year from which we saved seed.  The initial plant over wintered at my house and is producing and so is its offspring.  The fruits of this plant produce a lot of seed so saving it is no problem at all.  I have checked the plant breeders rights database and I can’t find it there so my understanding is that I’m not infringing anyone’s rights by suggesting you could save its seed.  I have to admit to sometimes getting a little confused about when and where I should/shouldn’t be advocating saving seed.  My general practice is to check the Plant Breeders database before suggesting you should save seed from a specific variety.  I think this is appropriate as it balances the rights of the plant breeders  with the interests of the home gardener.

While I’m on the subject of saving seed –  I keep reading about the benefits of heirlooms over hybrids for their seed saving potential but every time I save seed from a plant I think is probably a hybrid it both germinates and comes true.  For me this begs the question: If a plant isn’t registered for plant breeders rights and comes true from seed is it actually a heirloom masquerading as a hybrid?  Or to look at another way; is ‘Mini Mama’ simply a brand name for a variety that has been propagated for years and is being made more interesting by giving it a new identity?  Or do a lot of plants just come true from seed?  Perhaps it doesn’t really matter but I think the learning point here is; thats its probably worth trying to save seed from most things (particularly peppers which are particularly easy to save seed from) and give germination a try.

Anyway all of this has more to do with gardening than cooking and this post is supposed to be about gobbling.  What is about food however, is the fact that I went out to dinner at The Moors Head in Thornbury about a week ago.  Thankyou to The New Goodlife for the recommendation.  They served a mini pepper with a walnut and feta stuffing, which is exactly what I played around with this week.

Basically I put some walnuts, feta and a load of soft herbs into the food processor and pushed the button.  I then used the mix to stuff some mini peppers – mainly Mini Mama’s but also a few Cherrytime capsicums which have a nice heat to them and worked very well with the walnut and feta stuffing.  I then drizzled on some olive oil and put the whole lot into the oven to bake.  After that I ate them, enjoying them very much indeed.

Thanks again to Veggiegobbler for hosting Thursday Garden Gobbles.