First sunny day of the new year in our neighborhood. I went out to do some pruning, and found the broccolini which wintered over (uncovered) has been busy. First harvest from our garden of the new year.
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Beautiful!
I put agribon (floating row cover) over pea fencing , on top of my earthboxes with pea seedlings a few days ago. They were like sails in this weather! Blew over. Iâll have to start over with one container.
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How beautiful! All thatâs going on on my balcony is some wilt-y chives and parsley, and a bunch of lettuce sprouts that are gonna be dead soon (donât tell them).
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I just placed my Baker Creek order! 30 packets, including some flower seeds! I think I bought 20 packets last year. Thanks to some HOs for recommending them!
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Good news from NYT ! ( should be gifted)
âItâs OK to Get Carried Away When Youâre Shopping for Flower Seedsâ
Iâm going in!
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I was just perusing the collection of catalogs today and found a âno heatâ habanero. My first question was, âwhyâ? Then I remember the beautiful no heat jalapeno I grew last year (only 1 on the entire plant) and somebodyâs snout picked it off from the other side of the fence. I might just try it. I use regular habaneros in my deer deterent spray.
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I donât look for no heat habeneros, but I like âseasoning peppersâ for their aroma.
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My garden has been struggling a bit with the heat, but we had some rain, so that improved things a bit
My basils have taken over the garden, wild basil, thai basil & kemangi.
Curry tree is putting up new plants everywhere. I may have to pull them out.
Papaya seedlings are plenty, but no nice fruits at the moment.
I seeded lots of tomatillo as the pack of seeds got wet. They are starting to produce. Never tasted one, so thatâs going to be interesting 
Yard long beans are still going strong
Bit quiet with everything else. Couple of fruits on my custard apple. Jack fruit, lemon, lime will all take some time
Galangal & turmeric are going strong and Iâm happy to finally see some ginger coming through
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Me too! I collected a golden-colored seasoning pepper in Grenada. Itâs aroma and flavor are stronger than most habaneros, but barely a trace of heat.
Another seasoning pepper, which I call Carriacou Mild Red, was collected on that island. That pepper is a very shiny red, has thicker walls and slightly milder aroma.
These are not only essential for certain island dishes, such as Oil Down, theyâre great for hot sauce blending. You can tame, adjust the fiery heat of the super hots and not change the flavor of the hot sauce.
The name âseasoning pepperâ says a lot. Unlike bell and other sweet peppers, these usually arenât a major component of a dish; their flavors are too strong and can overpower the dish. Instead, one to several of these smaller fruits are used much as a spice.
Most descriptions of their flavors struggle to accurately depict them. Many say âfruityâ or âsmokyâ, neither of which capture the complex blend of fresh and funky, with a sort of mutton/goat element. When pickling these for hot sauce, they get halved to remove the seeds and core, filling the house with a powerful aroma!
While many of the new breeds, like Habanada, make it sound like breeders came up with something new, these mild Capsicum chinense have been grown by cultures all over the world for many decades, if not centuries; they just werenât trying to capitalize from them.
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Sounds like a tropical paradise! Where are you located?
Some tomatillos (Physalis ixocarpa) get sweet when fully ripe, but many do not. Theyâre mostly used in salsas, either raw or roasted, charred. Fresh, many have an odd sort of vitamin flavor, which isnât that great. A Polish cultivar, âAmaryllaâ, is one of the better tasting as a raw fruit. If you want a tomatillo relative with tasty raw fruit, there are better, albeit smaller, options. They fall under the broad name âGround Cherriesâ.
Physalis peruviana, known by dozens of names, including Cape Gooseberry, Poha, Golden Berry. Itâs a tall-growing plant with fruits generally under an inch, inside a papery husk. I grow it every few years and love the sweet-tart flavor. Hereâs what the fruit looks like:
A smaller, lower growing group of plants, Physalis pruinosa, are sold under names such as âAunt Mollyâs Ground Cherryâ or âGoldieâ. While their fruits are smaller, about 1.5cm, theyâre delicious. This species often naturalizes, self-sows.
Both of the above species have delicious fruits. Physalis fruits need to fall off of the plants in order to be ripe. Sometimes, P. peruviana fails to fall off; but you can see the fruitsâ stems (peduncles) have died, dried out, indicating ripeness. Often, they taste even better after sitting in a basket for a day or two.
I collected a wild Ground Cherry, growing in the sand dunes of the Outer Banks, North Carolina, USA. Tentatively identified as Physalis viscosa ssp. maritima, the fruits were enjoyable and my Mother made a delicious pie from them.
There are other edible species and cultivated types, lots of them. Theyâre in the same family as tomatoes, Solanaceae. Cute little fruits!
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@bogman Dude! you are a living, breathing, plant-cyclopaedia! Thank you for generously sharing your knowledge with us.
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No idea what type tamarillo I have. I figure I can eat the first one in 1-2 weeks time.
Thanks for your description of all the different fruits. I am familiar with the gooseberry
I am actually not sure if I am in the tropics or sub tropics. Right now we are in the rainy season so everything looks green. Rainfall is low though, so far.
LOL! Thanks! Iâve spent my whole life studying plants, all kinds. Food plants have been a passion since grade school. The garden here is huge and often used as an experimental growing area to see if certain food plants survive the heat and humidity, or the cold winters.
Maybe this obsession is unhealthy. I havenât watched tv in over 40 years, except a little when visiting my parents (soccer games). There are two refrigerators in the basement, filled to the max with seeds and tubers. Thereâs no way to keep track of this pile of jars, vials and envelopes without a database, which was designed to do just that. Thereâs over 500 varieties stored in those fridges. Hmmm⌠that does sound concerning.
The botany thing may be a disorder, but itâs a happy malady; life is good!
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Sounds healthy to meâŚ
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Garlic today
I put a few in the ground, which I havenât tried in a very long time.
There are also a few buds on my stonefruit!
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I grew to love tomatillos over the years. They make a fabulous salsa. I made a batch with half raw and half parboiled tomatillos, a jalapeno, some fresh roasted green chiles, salt, and some fresh lime juice. It was so good I took some over to the local work gourmet, Fred Landeen, an anesthesiologist, one of whose sons is a locally famous chef. He went nuts over it, it was an especially good batch. I wish you good luck!
I had to pull out the tomatillo I planted this summer, on account of it was dead. I thought it hadnât produced, but I found a couple dozen itty bitty 3/4" tomatillitos on the top of my raised bed. I hope some of them hatch, I tried one, and it was pretty darn good.
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Spotted some caterpillars inside the husks yesterday 
Sprayed a neen oil combo. Hope it is strong enough.
Normally I remove caterpillars by hand, but unfortunately thatâs not possible here
Thatâs so annoying! Usually my tomatillos grow like weeds, but the summer before last, earwigs kept getting in the husks and damaging the fruit. Lower yield that year. We didnât spray but tried sprinkling some diatomaceous earth and got some relief that way. Went with all tomatoes last year but will try again if we can find any plants.
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Spring is coming.
Weâre having a bit of a dry spell. Took advantage of the good weather to weed and nurture the asparagus beds. I spied a few spears sticking their noses out of the ground - yay!
Also found some hardy winter greens to pick. The kale is grown out in the open, and the spinach under cloche.
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So jealous!
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