Our Scotch Bonnets are getting bigger, and I believe that they will start turning soon to their final color of yellow. When they are good an ripe, I'll pick them and eat them. I did buy a few orange habaneros at the store this week, so that I could get used to a little hotter pepper. I shared the first one with my mom, and she liked it, but said it was hot. I thought the first one we had was a bit mild. It was hot, way hotter than what I'm used to. I got the hicburps, right away. Yes, I said hicburps. That is what happens when I have a hot pepper. I hiccup which is interrupted by a burp. It's' very weird and painful. Despite all that, the pain wasn't too bad, and went away within 10 minutes. I thought I might have gotten one on the lower end of the scale. Orange Habs are anywhere from 100,000 to 350,000 on the scoville heat unit scale. that makes it anywhere from 10 to 30 times hotter than a jalapeño. The yellow jalapeño I had recently seemed like it was hotter than that one, so today, I had a whole one to myself. It was much hotter, but I wanted to test myself, so I had no water or anything to eat until the pain subsided. I passed, with flying colors. It took about 20 minutes, but i made it. It started off tasting sweet right before the heat kicked in. It started on my tongue and then spread to my cheeks and finally to the back of my throat. The hicburps started immediately. It lasted a good 2-3 minutes, then my eyes and nose began to water. That went away after about minute 10. The heat took the rest of the 20 minutes. I finally had a small drink of water, when my tongue had a light electrical tingle in it. I was a little surprised that I handled as well as I did. I was apprehensive right before putting it my mouth. I knew pain was coming, and my body was telling me that I didn't want to do it, but if I'm going to get the benefits of super hot peppers, I have to build up a tolerance, and this is the only way. Yes I know I could do it over a longer period of time with much smaller pieces, but what's the fun in that. Those Scotch Bonnets are supposed to be on the same scale as the orange habs, but a buddy of mine said that they were higher. I'm hoping and dreading that they are higher. I want higher heat, but I don't want them. Here is the question though, would you like to see a video of me eating one of these hot peppers? I can imagine that it would look pretty funny. I know that when I watch videos like that I can't help but laugh at the persons self inflicted pain. Let me know.
I posted that picture on Insta and Facebook yesterday. That is my little cherry red tomato plant. It has 8 or 9 pea sized little tomatoes growing on it. I was shocked to see them already. I was also super excited about it. We should be able to eat those in a couple of weeks. I'll definitely let you know how they taste. Which reminds me. I noticed today that one of my orange habs has a tiny little pepper on it. It's a little early for that one, and I should pull it off to promote more growth, but I really want to see what happens with it. I have 3 other plants that are doing just fine and have no flowering as of yet, so I will use this one as an experiment, and the others as growers. It's the same with this cherry red. I should pull those tomatoes off to promote growth, but I really want to see what happens if I just let it do it's thing. I did sprinkle blood meal all over today. That gives the soil nitrogen and promotes growth, flowering, and fruit production. Everything in the garden got some, even the flowers. I want full luscious blooms on those as well. Bigger flowers attracts more bees, more bees creates more pollination, and more pollination creates fuller more productive plants.
I didn't get a picture of it, but I did some remodeling on the garden today. I took all the grow bags out of the fenced area, and moved them to their own area near the fence by the pull-up area. I had to make room for more plants, since a buddy of mine is giving me a ton of seedlings. They are mostly peppers, if not all peppers. Several different varieties, from mild to super hot, so it will be a fun experience.
I have to say, that it is so fulfilling growing this little garden, and seeing it begin to produce. Over the last few days I've begun taking down some of the bamboos stakes, since the dogs have been ignoring the garden. That was until this morning. Morty took a run through it, and trampled a couple of plants. I was furious, and as I was telling him not to do that anymore, Baby Girl began rooting around in it. I was beside myself. I had two plants that were near death, and I brought them back to life. One was the one he trampled today. The African Marigold. That little plant has taken so much abuse from Morty, and has managed to hang on, and until this morning was beginning to thrive again. It was heartbreaking to see it with a stem leaning over on the ground. I propped up with bamboo, and I'll get back to work on rescuing it once again. I don't know if it's possible to be successful a third time, but I'll give it my best effort.
Back to the moving around of the garden. The area I put the grow bags, I'm planning on eventually digging all up as well, and planting a bunch of fruit plants there. The grow bags are there now, simply to protect the soil from the sun and wind, since I don't have enough mulch to cover that area. There is this one plant I would love to grow in that area, and it's called a Himalayan Honeysuckle. When you hear it's nickname you will fully understand why I want to grow it. The nickname is Purple Rain. Yes, you read that right. It's flowers fall in a cascading fashion and go from purple to brown. It produces a berry that tastes like sweet caramel and cocoa. How great does that sound? I'm going to have to grow it from seeds, so It's going to be a long time before you will see any pictures of that. I also have to get the seeds first. It grows best in the pacific northwest, but it supposedly can grow in the zone that I'm in, which is 9b - 10. I'm going to give it my best effort, because I need a plant called Purple Rain.
Oh, the night time meditation went well, but I switched back the next morning. The problem was, that I fell asleep before the end of the session, which is great, because I was content and relaxed, which is what you are supposed to get out of it, but I didn't get to enjoy the afterglow of joy that I get from it. So, it looks like morning meditation is what works best for me.
I'm slowly getting back to my cardio after the tendon strains in my knees. They felt pretty good yesterday, and I took another rest day today before I start back with 10000 steps tomorrow. It has sidelined me in my effort to not miss any days, but I think it's going to be better in the long run.
I better stop now before this gets any longer. It is Thanksgiving today, so Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Peace in and goodnight.
No comments:
Post a Comment