Is This Pride of Madeira Looking at You?
My wife told me she felt like this stalk from a Pride of Madeira near our front door was looking at her. I didn't see it. So I fixed it. Now it's definitely looking at her.
My wife told me she felt like this stalk from a Pride of Madeira near our front door was looking at her. I didn't see it. So I fixed it. Now it's definitely looking at her.
A Pacific storm rolled in giving us about 2 inches of rain and considerably colder temperatures. Our mountains got snow, we got frost, but the keyhole garden doesn't seem to notice. The lettuces and Chinese cabbage are really leafing out and the broccoli and red cabbage are getting tall. Even the cilantro, which is kind of picky about too hot or too cold, is growing well.
That's it. Oak is in the brew and the last of the peppers are picked and added for Batch 19 of the Hidden Lake hot sauce. 12 weeks of fresh fermentation. Now for 12 weeks of aging. See you in spring peppers. Merry Christmas everyone else!
The summer ended with the rain in November. Then came the frost. Then came the rain again. These are officially the last peppers of Hidden Lake Hot Batch 19. At least they were easy to pick.
A white poinsettia one year after being rescued My wife likes to justify her post-Christmas bargain hunting by bringing home an abused and deeply-discounted Christmas plant for me to save. Sometimes it's a rosemary trimmed in the shape of a little Christmas tree, an easy save, sometimes it's a spruce, a plant wholly unsuited for San Diego's desert climate and therefore a hard save. Usually though, it's a poinsettia, which is an easy save unless you make it [keep reading...]
Wandered into the greenhouse this morning to check how everyone is doing with the ridiculous 50° temperature swings. My Island of Misfit Succulents seems to be doing just fine. This Crassula (anyone know the variety?) with it's bright green and pink-tinged leaves is really owning it today.
For the past week I've been cleaning a long neglected section of the Acre in preparation for a chicken (and duck) friendly Mediterranean garden. To clear one area I had to chop down a rogue oak sapling and cut out a tone of dead brush below it. When I finally did get the area cleaned up, I discovered a rather large patch of aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis) growing quite happily along the fence line. I vaguely recall planting [keep reading...]
Rain and persistent cold weather have slowed the peppers to a crawl. There's still a few left on the plants, but not enough to hold off on moving the hot sauce to its resting stage. To enhance the flavor I add a couple of oak staves to the pepper brew and let it sit for another 8 - 12 weeks. American oak happens to be high in a compound called vanillin, which is why things that age in American oak [keep reading...]
No rain but close to freezing temperatures has the broccoli confused about what to do. Fortunately, the lettuce (front left) has no such problem.
This magnificent little guy is Gaucho, so named because of his fancy feathered feet and the exotic dance that makes him irresistible to the ladies. At age 11(!), he's basically our feathered Ricardo Montalbán.