Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 20 JulyA Jamaican Yellow Mushroom pepper on 20 July, still wholly green and pleated into deep lobes that give it a squat lantern outline, its calyx sitting on top like a cap, hard sun picking out every ridge and blowing the leaves above it to near-yellow.Week of 27 JulyThree Jamaican Yellow Mushroom peppers on 30 July, squat and lantern-shaped, each cut with four deep rounded furrows from shoulder to puckered base, one hanging sideways off a crooked stalk with kaolin clay smeared white across its calyx.Week of 3 AugustA dozen Jamaican Yellow Mushroom peppers on 3 August, all still green, each a squat flattened lantern creased down its sides to a lobed uneven rim and hanging off a stalk that arches right over, the pale marks on the nearest one only the gloss catching flat light.Week of 24 AugustA Jamaican Yellow Mushroom plant on 25 August, a dozen crumpled lantern-shaped fruit hung nose-down from crooked stalks at every level of it, all still green in the folds but one low in the middle going olive and butter-yellow, against a bright pale sky.Week of 24 AugustA Jamaican Yellow Mushroom pepper on 25 August shot close from below, bottle green and crumpled into lobes with a gray bloom over its upper half, the first butter-gold blush showing on the lowest lobe of all, blue sky and cloud beyond the treeline behind it.Week of 24 AugustJamaican Yellow Mushroom peppers clustered on one plant on 27 August, each broad and crumpled at the shoulder and pinched to a small blunt tip, four of them still deep green and two ripened through to a glossy amber-orange, with mown grass running away beyond.Week of 24 AugustA cluster of Jamaican Yellow Mushroom peppers on 28 August, crumpled broad at the shoulders and pinched to a blunt point, most of them still deep green with one gone glossy amber-orange and a second turning below it on scarred woody stems.Week of 31 AugustA Jamaican Yellow Mushroom plant on 31 August carrying a dozen fruit at once, deeply crumpled at the shoulders and pinched to a small blunt tip, about half still deep green and half turned a rich golden orange, with lemongrass standing beside it.Week of 5 OctoberA tall narrow bottle stands capped on a dark speckled counter on 8 October, filled to the shoulder with opaque mustard-amber puree, thick and grainy with seeds and flecks suspended against the glass; flat overhead light, a tray of glossy red fruit behind.
