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Let Me Show You a Photo of My Baby… Watermelon
Even watermelons are adorable when they're babies. This is Little Baby Flower, a compact plant that produces 10-12 fruit only 6" across when ripe. Perfect melon for 2.
Kahili Ginger in the Tropical Garden
This spring I overhauled my tropical garden adding tall, kahili ginger to make a spicy flowering forest as a transition to the fruit orchards and dry creek below.
Sweet Pepper Season
Sweet peppers are ripe so we're pickling and roasting today so we can preserve them for later. Pickled peppers are delicious and super easy to make with this recipe.
New Members of the Family
Shy is our only Cuckoo Maran hen (she's named Shy because, unlike the buffs and Welsummers, she's not really interested in people or their food). When she disappeared a few weeks back, I figured she'd been nabbed by a coyote, raccoon, bobcat, or one of the other varmits that like the taste of chicken. Shy with her new chicks Imagine my surprise when she appeared yesterday with one black and one white chick. Turns out she was just nesting in the lavender. The chicks are really cute. I just hope they're not roosters. I don't need any more roosters.
A Striped Pepper
I came across this Italian frying pepper in my garden today. It's changing from green to red with stripes of color instead of the usual blush.
Video: Timeout with a Dragonfly
Take a 20 second video timeout with a flame skimmer dragonfly on an onion leaf swaying in the breeze while the pond's waterfall splashes in background.
Midday Traffic on the Sunflower Roundabout
You can tell these three bees are American left-hand drive bees because they're doing their pollen gathering counter-clockwise.
A Saucy Tomato Basket
Assortment of garden tomatoes, roma, brandywine, and pink stuffer When my lovely Mrs told me she was feeling saucy and left the room, "tomato" wasn't the first thing I thought of. (Married 30 years, still an optimist.) The fresh tomato sauce was good though. Here she is returning from the garden with her basket of roma, brandywine, carbon, and pink stuffers.
Video: Hot Pepper Cadets Class of 2020
The candidates for this year's 20th anniversary batch of slow fermented hot sauce include a super-sized batch of my Thai/Cayenne cross and a Honduran pepper called "culebra negra" (black snake).
Italian Sweet Peppers
These are Corno di Toro sweet peppers I've been breeding to a larger size so I can stuff and grill them as well as fry. Sweet and crunchy, I've always got plenty of seed at the end of the season. DM me if you'd like some.
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