The Garden of Apologies

06/14/2026

It's been a while since I've had time to do this, but I'm looking at doing shorter form videos so I can add some content to the Pepper School YouTube channel.
Here's the first video for this season featuring Botan Kosho and Tibetan Lhasa peppers.

Welcome back to Pepper School at the Garden of Apologies in Lebanon...

06/14/2026

05/06/2026

Spring is finally starting to settle in, so I'm starting to make progress with the pepper field for this year's season.

I got a bunch of the old plants pulled out from the back field, and the front field transformation is coming along well. The old landscape fabric is coming out, and the wood mulch is going in. This will let me rest the soil for a season as it recharges, and I'll be growing in above ground containers this year.

The grow bags are partly filled and ready for Saturday's compost delivery, and I'm just about set to start measuring and cutting the new irrigation lines and the livestock fencing I'll be using for plant cages.

The seedlings are in great shape in the Greenhouse of Extreme Regret, so potting up to containers is scheduled for this Sunday, and I'm hoping to start planting the back field after Victoria Day weekend. Fingers crossed we don't have a June 2 frost like last year.

Louise (aka Weezer or Squeezy) is still on vole patrol, and she's paid in belly rubs and kibble, so I can afford the help!

171 varieties this year, and we have a few weeks left in the seedling sale so please be encouraged to hit me up if you're still needing plants.

04/09/2026

Game on!

The Greenhouse of Extreme Regret is now open for the 2026 season!

As you can see from the video, the grow tents inside were packed to the seams on Monday, but the plants have a whole lot more room to grow now! 172 varieties locked in!

As a bonus, the snow melt has revealed the missing turbine propeller stuck in the ground below the tower. I'll have the get the Amish crew back over to help me remount it.

Check out www.pepperfarm.ca for details on the seedling sale!

03/10/2026

It's early in the season, but we've had a pretty good melt outside and I've started prepping the greenhouses for the spring season.

It'll be another few weeks before it'll be warm enough overnight to move out there, but I've been busy with the grow tent inside and the babies are hatching by the day!

This year will be the biggest yet for the Garden of Apologies with 176 varieties of peppers planted so far, and our seed shop coming later in the season.

We're also one of the stops for this year's Spring Rural Romp through the north half of Wellington County on May 31, so we're going big for this year's seedling sale.

There's a lot in the works for this season and I'm getting excited, so here's a little video preview.

02/20/2026

I'm out in Guelph today, but not for the .

Today is the AGM and Convention for the National Farmers Union - Ontario.

It's a dry and heavy day, with lots of policy discussion, committee reports, and some deep topics. It's wonky territory, but sometimes it's important to step away from the hands on growing to invest some time into creating a business and regulatory environment to allow that growing to flourish.

I'm happy to be here learning and offering my input, but I'm really looking forward to getting back to transplanting seedlings tonight.

Bring on the spring season!

11/28/2025

Please check out the rebooted website. There are still a few gaps I'm working on but Pepperpedia database has come together nicely.

Stay tuned. I'll add links to buy seeds in a few weeks.

List of peppers grown in The Garden of Apologies Canadian Pepper Farm since 2014.

10/27/2025

And there it is.

We've had a few minor frosts already, but the deep overnight frost hit on Saturday and this frozen, underdeveloped pepper marks the end of the season. It always comes with mixed feelings, and I did a final pick and walkthrough on Saturday afternoon to thank my babies for their bounty and wish them well as they head off to the great compost heap in the sky.

2025 has definitely been a challenging season, but aren't they all, really? June 2 frost, 6 weeks of borderline drought, torrential rains and first frost October 9.

Despite the short season, we yielded 50 odd bushels of peppers and had ample supplies for and for our pre-orders and bulk pepper customers.

Some varieties didn't mature in time to produce viable seeds, but most varieties turned out well. There will be a limited assortment of seeds available in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that.

And of course, the planning for 2026 has already begun.

10/01/2025

It's delivery day!

First stop was in Fergus. They're an artisan nut roaster with a great lineup of nuts. They took a half bushel each of red and orange habaneros and a full bushel of jalapenos for their hot nuts.

Elisabeth gave me a couple to try, and I smashed half the box of chocolate hazelnuts right away. They're like a maple Nutella with a bit of an afterbite.

The next stop was in Erin for another half bushel of long thin cayennes for their Eve Goes Badass hard apple cider. It has a real crispness to it with a bit of a tingle on the back of the palate.

I'm absolutely stoked to be growing for both of these amazing Wellington County businesses. gets most of the peppers, but there's more than enough for everyone this season!

08/22/2025

The heatwaves have passed, and we're into the home stretch for the season. With 6 more weeks until frost, this is the most exciting time of the season as the plants are full, lush and producing like crazy.

What better time for an update about my Garden of Apologies exclusives.

Most of the red ghost x PDN Marbles series of peppers I've been working on since 2016 have turned out exactly as expected. The Weird Pink variety in the greenhouse looks like it needs another year, but the others are on point (and I gave new names to the large white and small white versions).

I'll have seeds available to friends and family this harvest.

The Petit Marseillais x Monster Cayenne series (or PMC for short) is progressing well, and the F4 pods look like the F3 pods, so it's starting to stabilize.

Of those, the red version is quite cayenne like, the chocolate is a notch hotter but with that floral flavour you get with chocolate pods, and the orange, although disappointingly heat free, has an amazing tropical flavour not unlike Five Alive.

I used the orange pods in this year's batch of Peach Haskap Chutney, and man is it ever good!