Fall festival season and state fairs have officially kicked off. There’s a lot of serious organic gardening stuff, but the vegetable judging contests are wild. Peppers are the theater king kids of the show. If you talk to a fair judge, they often point to peppers as a great beginner vegetable for both young boys and young at heart to successfully grow for 4-H and win. Someone with a sense of humor is going to have fun making a screenplay or low-budget romantic comedy around our Carolina Grim Reaper Pepper or personal favorite because of how pretty they are: the Brazilian Star Flower Pepper. Not really sure of the nutritional value of peppers, but they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Check out your local farmer’s market near you if you are looking for trying something new for your Carolina BBQ sauce. A favorite book if you want goofy stories and fun memes is Blue Ribbon Vegetable Gardening by Jodi Torpey. There’s tons of stories from state fair judging days. Naming vegetable entries weird dad joke memes seems to be a recurring topic.
For anyone looking to do a 90s screenplay style, picture a NYC chef moves to small town USA. Maybe an immigrant uncle by marriage and his new nephew or boy next door with single mom is struggling with growing peppers for their merit badge or state fair. Or a comeback story where NYC chef moves back to small town after loss in big city with family, only to find himself volunteering at the local school or troop group competing at the state fair 4-H group and sharing his Big Apple cooking chops. Obviously because peppers are grown around the world, there’s a lot of flexibility in recipes and culture sharing. Lots of physical comedy. They grow anywhere in the US, but especially in the South. On an apartment deck in a pot or a countryside farm. Peppers may always be an afterthought in the organic gardening movement as most books are obsessed with tomatoes, but if you have a sense of fun and adventure. Football games. Grilling out. Time with family and friends. Maybe peppers are the organic movement thing you didn't know you needed. Anyways, if you’re a writer and the idea appeals to you…go for it. It's yours. Got the idea seeing William and Kate making apple griddle cakes and being super cute. Apparently British ones are made with potato bread which had never heard of before, but sounds ABSOLUTELY delicious. Here in the US, we may drink a lot of British tea, but we really don’t get cute pr moments like this. Which is a shame. No idea who the director was for the short clip, but it feels good to see a couple having fun and nailing the story. Good job. There seems to be a slate of fantasy trailers, especially British, which look promising and hopeful. Except for Foundation, really given up on scifi films for 2025, except Mercy. Maybe that’s ok since it ties into all the good fall festivals. What are you going to go out and try?