Steve: Yes that was a monster of a bell pepper. Notice I said, "was"
I steamed it and then stuffed it with a mixture of brown rice, wild rice, chicken, onion and cheddar cheese and had it for dinner. The other bell peppers are not that big....yet.... I'm not certain what I did right to get this one so big but I don't normally grow them that large.
LuAnn: The avocados stay on the tree and I pick them as I need them. They are sort of similar to citrus in that they store reasonably well on the tree for about a two-three month period when they are ripe enough to pick. Avocados eventually will fall off on their own and even then they are still very hard. However, with a crop this large I will be giving some away to friends and neighbors. This tree is a 'Gwen' and my neighbor across the street has what I believe is a Fuerte. What's cool is that our trees produce avocados at different times of the year and thus I keep her supplied during her down time and she keeps me supplied during my down time.... No downers here
Living in Ohio you have things you can grow that I can't grow because I don't get the required winter chill..... so I think it all evens out.... You have real people and we have plastic people. You probably have fireflies whereas I've never seen a firefly....other than in Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride...
What I would give just to see Fall colors..... We're actually talking about taking a Fall trip to New England just to see the trees....