I did not grow these in my garden. I picked these up at the beach as Zach and I frolicked  among the waves. I am enamored by its mossy-sagey and contrasting textures. I could not wonder enough if they are edible. I smelled them and immediately, my mouth watered. I miss eating a variety of seaweeds available in wet markets displayed mound after mound. Such delicious  salad ingredient. I could not help myself so I took a small bite of both seaweeds. They taste just as how I expected them to taste. For a while there in that small bite, I tasted the ocean, fresh and salty, just like the seaweed salads I used to eat back home. The green one was spongy and quite delicious. Just my type of seagreens. The brown one was equally wonderful and crunchy.  I could easily make salads out of these two, but I restrained myself. I cannot consume  plants that I  have not confirmed to be edible, no matter how tasty and scrumptuous looking. I decided to give these to my plants instead. Perhaps they will make good fertilizers like fish are.

I could imagine and almost taste these with diced tomatoes and red onions with strips of ginger and a drizzle of vinegar and anchovy sauce

I have yet to find out their names and "edibility" (if there is such a word)
Do you know?

Coming home from a two-week vacation, the first thing I noticed were my pots of tomatoes having only stems standing upright. I knew some kind of caterpillar ate the leaves up. As I approached the pots I saw the most hideous....ahhh blood-curdling caterpillar crawling up the tomato stem. One that is encumbered with wasp eggs. My annoyance for it having eaten the tomato leaves turned to pity. Poor caterpillar.  Ugh...I have goosebumps looking at it. So I poked it off the stem till it fell unto the deck floor. If the poor caterpillar did not have those parasite eggs on its body, I would have squished it with a vengeance. I studied it a little longer as it crawled on the floor and  every wavy movement it made causing the eggs to wave with the motion, I grew more goosebumps. Finnally, I squished it with a stem but this time doing so like I was giving it a favor to end its misery.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Hello SUNFLOWER....

sunflower petals unfolding one at a time

Goodbye Sunflower....

So I came home from visiting my family in two different places that took ten days. Here's how my pot garden greeted me.

Rainbow Swiss Chard begging to be picked

Habaneros waiting to marry peaches  to become peach-habanero hot sauce

Steve's name is on each one

Over ripe figs 

as well as wilting figs

So the figs decided to ripen while I was gone. After all the care I put into them.  There were about 8 wilted, fallen and bug-eaten figs that escaped me. Losing even one fig is a fig too many.I am glad  the figs are not ripening all at the same time.I still had a few enough to make me a small jar of fig jam. It is sooo good on toasted potato bread.

My Jump-in-the-Ocean Peach-Habanero Hot Sauce,,YEEOOWW!!!

I have 6 pots of these hot babies, 2 or 3 plants in a pot. Every summer, I make sure to make a big batch of peach-habanero hot sauce (ding! ding! ding! five-alarm hotness!) for my  hubby who likes them REALLY HOT. It's not hot enough if his eyes and nose are not running. ;-)  And I make extra bottles for some neighbors (who are already looking forward to it) and friends who can hack real hotness. If you're in the NY area, tell me, maybe I can send a bottle your way...yeeooWW!!!

my nephews posing with my habaneros

I also harvested some of the habanero leaves as they will grace my chicken tinola (YUMM!) .
(What's chicken  tinola without chili leaves??)

Below are some bottles of peach-habanero sauce I've made in the past. They are sooo hot that they actually last us a year without getting spoiled. All natural, no-preservatives. You can't get it greener than that!

I put them in vintage bottles

Steve's crazy over this hot baby. It's soooo good on grilled chicken and fish...dumplings and  rolls...this sauce is good on everything...promise!

I got these girls from the Amish Market

I jumped out of bed this morning (not too early) as soon as I had enough of wallowing in it. I was quite excited because I know I have some harvesting to do. I went out with my mug of coffee and got myself sunkissed for a dose of vitamin D. Another beautiful morning. Tonight rain will come, but just as well so I wont need to take the hose out today and give my pot garden a shower.

Here's my harvest this morning.

an assortment of heirloom tomatoes, violette de bordeaux and hardy chicago figs and a bunch of kangkong (water spinach)

kangkong will be sauteed in garlic and drizzled with oyster sauce

don't figs and tomatoes look good together?

luscious figs

the wannabee farmer soooo happy with her morning harvest!

I am having a figgy day today. The figs are ripening and making me happy. A proverb says, "He who tends a fig will eat its fruits." And so I am.

See the size of this Black Mission

A fig planter will always want to see a picture of your fig against a quarter.
Quite big, isn't it?

bigger one is Black Mission and the little one is Violette de Bourdeaux

and more are coming

looks luscious, don't they?

Good morning!!!
Here is a splash of sunshine I am sending your way.

I love summer! I love that I have more than two months to spend with my husband and son. I love that I can do away with my alarm clock, and just wallow in bed like a pig in the mud. I love that I can take naps on lazy afternoons. I love that I can just walk to the beach and hang out in there ALL DAY if I want to. 
Hmmm....I love you, Summer.

This is the second batch of  milkweed pods I foraged from the beach (and yes, I left a lot more in there). This time I took the  baby pods.

I boiled the pods first with a dash of salt then I cooked them again, this time with the manhattan clam chowder. They taste like okra but without the slimy texture. 

I looked through my window and a couple sunflowers happily smiled at me. That deserves a picture, I thought so I grabbed my camera and shot some photos. The dwarf apple tree behind the sunflower has 5 fruits that are very hard and green. I am waiting for them to turn yellowish, afterall, its name is golden sentinel. In the past years though, the squirrels always got to them before they could turn yellow. I am seriously risking losing the apples to the squirrels by waiting.

I am also seeing the last of my hydrangeas this summer. :-(

I am seeing the last of my hydrangeas these summer. Yesterday some sunflowers bloomed, smaller smaller than I expected.

and here's the last of my hibiscus

more herbs and lots of stevia
Stevia leaves will be dried and ground.

the English roses are getting smaller by the bloom

Here's a Splash of Red

The star of today's harvest is heart-shaped, stunted beefsteak tomato. Beautiful nevertheless, sweet and oohh sooo tomatoey. So unlike tomatoes you get in grocery stores.