That first bite...

The foraging deer were late this year discovering my container garden. The first evidence they found my treasure trove was a partially ravaged Sungold cherry tomato plant, and a pruned section of a truly epic Jack-in-the-Beanstalk-sized Blue Lake pole bean, initially trained to a trellis then rappelling up the TV cable wire. The deer have been back several times to selectively sample cherry tomato fronds, leaf lettuce, rainbow chard, and a little Thai basil. They have once again signaled their fondness for Cherokee Purple heirloom tomatoes as opposed to more mundane Romas or Early Girls. This year, I have also been trying Indigo Rose, a deep purple tomato the size of a Ping-Pong ball. The deer are a little ambivalent about them, as am I. Pretty, but 'meh.' Occasionally, Mom says she hears them in the night under her window. I have a window fan on low and keep the radio on in my bedroom, so I haven't heard their depredations. This morning I made a disconcerting discovery that also caused eruptions of chortling at intervals. It would be worth the cost of a night vision camera to capture the scene: A deer browsing the salad bar, decimating the lower third of my Jack-in-the bean plant, taking tomato nibbles, then trying the top of a hot pepper plant. While the missing foliage doesn't pack a punch, I know that the missing pepper certainly did. I had been keeping an eye on that three-inch pepper, variety unknown, thinking to pick it in the next day or so. It was on one of four pepper plants grown from plain-wrapper seed packets. The other three have different shapes; this may have been a jalapeno. All are in a container with a truly prolific Thai bird pepper plant I bought as a start. I certainly haven't noticed any missing foliage or fruit on it. Those bird peppers are incendiary. I picked a cup full of red ones this week and dumped them into a mixture of vinegars plus salt and a couple of sprigs of Thai basil. I brought them to a boil, then put them in a pint jar. The lid pinged, so I presume they are sealed, but to be on the safe side, I am keeping the jar in the fridge. There was a teaspoon of vinegar that didn't fit in the jar so I tried a tiny sip from a teaspoon. It about blew my head off and led to coughing spasms. I am forewarned. Although I chop raw bird peppers into my stir-fries and miso/tofu soups, I haven't pulled a pickled pepper out of the jar yet. I took another look this morning at my raided garden, and feel a bit justified in having no remorse over their peppery surprise. I have an inkling the deer may have passed the word --- "Stay away from that container with those things that make you cry."