As we drove out past the lunchbox peppers this morning, we could see they are still full of fruit.  It has been a long season for them and the nights here are certainly getting colder and the plants are showing it.  With my cook's eyes, I see delicious peppers. Nigel, as the farmer, sees a disappointing crop.  My teacher explained that we didn't leave enough of a break between chickens and planting the peppers, so there was too much fertility. Now we do love the work our birds do on the farm; providing all of the fertility, playing a significant role in pest management, and eating weeds down to nothing. Peppers do well with a lot of nitrogen, but in this case it was just too much of a good thing.  To flush some of that out of the soil, we irrigated more than normal, in order to pull the nitrogen down and away from the plants.  Nigel told me next year, that field would be perfect for the peppers, but because of the regulations we must follow for organic certification, we have to rotate crops, so no peppers for the perfect plot.  Fortunately, there are other nitrogen loving options, like Eggplant, that will be extremely happy there.