I don't have a green thumb. My one house plant has lasted because it's hearty and impervious to my inabilities. But in my quest to eat local and organic foods, Dino and I planted a garden this year. I had an empty flower bed that died after the previous homeowners left us in charge of it and I wanted to grow things I loved. To my amazement, we now have butternut squash, swiss chard, cherry tomatoes, jalapeños, basil, oregano, parsley, sage and garlic chives. I can barely harvest the items due to the tangled mess, but everything tastes wonderful.

And as I was crawling through the twisted vines for tomatoes today I came across something rather strange looking. I'm calling it a peppermato.

I did some quick research and discovered that tomatoes and peppers don't cross-pollinate, but as you can see from the photo, we clearly have a mutant fruit/vegetable on our hands. It's not that surprising, really, considering our hap-hazard gardening methods, but it made for interesting dinner conversation tonight. I served it with olive oil, sea salt and pepper to make it more appealing. On the outside it looks like an unripe red pepper, but inside it has the taste and consistency of a tomato. It wasn't overly flavorful, but it was fun to eat something so strange from our own garden. I felt a bit like Frankenstein.

I'd love to know what we ate tonight, but the evidence has been digested. If we get more of them I'll check with someone who knows more than I do at the next farmers' market.