Radishrain

Alpine strawberries, as you may or may not know, are small. Tasty, prolific, and easy-to-grow, but small (usually; sometimes some bigger ones appear). It takes about two seconds to eat an entire handful.

So, I figured I'd freeze them to make them take longer to eat, and make a bigger impact in the mouth (due to the cold). Guess what: It worked! They're very tasty frozen, and they are much more substantial, and even more filling. The taste does change when frozen, but in a good way.

I used to think the frozen strawberry taste was particular to a specific variety of strawberry, but nope. Frozen strawberries taste different. No, every variety doesn't taste exactly the same when frozen, but you can learn to tell a frozen strawberry taste from a fresh one.

The great thing about these frozen alpine strawberries is that they don't stay frozen for a super long time, due to their small size. Plus, if you suck on them, the skins and seeds come off first, leaving the rest of the strawberry for you to taste in your mouth.

Garden strawberries are great frozen, too.

Another tip I have for you is that if you wash the dried up alpine strawberries before you freeze them, they absorb just enough water to be pretty awesome when frozen.

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Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomatillo

Offsite articles:
• Dave's Garden

Vendors:
• Annapolis Seeds
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Garden Hoard
• Honeyman Seeds
• Meadowlark Hearth
• Reimer Seeds
• Seed Savers Exchange
• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
• Victory Seeds
• Wayland Chiles

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: Dave's Garden
• Google: Gardenweb
• Google: Tomatoville

*****

Don't confuse this tomatillo with Dr. Wyche's Yellow tomato.

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Purple De Milpa tomatillo

Offsite articles:
• Cuttings; Growing Your Own Salsa Verde (The New York Times, 1993)
• The Plant Lady (blog post; grow report)

Vendors:
• Annie's Annuals & Perennials
• desertcart (has reviews)
• The Home Depot
• Honeyman Farms
• HRSeeds
• Morgan County Seeds
• Nichols Garden Nursery
• Planet Natural
• Reimer Seeds
• Richters
• Seed Savers Exchange
• Siskiyou Seeds
• Trade Winds Fruit

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: boards.net
• Google: Dave's Garden
• Google: freeforums.net
• Google: Gardenweb
• Google: proboards.com
• Google: Tomatoville

*****

I grew these once (in 2015), in a raised bed with partial shade. The plants grew nicely and flowered heavily, but it didn't set fruit until way late in the season when it was too late to develop and ripen. I got the impression that it needed a pollinator of another variety or something. It was a very hot year (the hottest on record, in fact), and that may have influenced the fruit set. I'm not sure if my seed was true; I didn't get it from a reputable vendor. I might try it again, some year, in better soil and sun conditions.

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Cisineros tomatillo

Offsite articles:
• Dave's Garden

Vendors:
• 123seeds.com
• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
• Tomato Growers Supply Company

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: Dave's Garden
• Google: Gardenweb
• Google: proboards.com
• Google: Tomatoville

*****

I've grown this before (in 2016). It's one of my favorites, although it's not early. It got large green fruits with a very good lime-like taste, and it seemed that it had potential to be prolific.

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Everona Large Green tomatillo

Offsite articles:
• Dave's Garden
• Smart Gardener

Vendors:
• Seed Savers Exchange
• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: Dave's Garden
• Google: Gardenweb
• Google: Tomatoville

*****

I tried growing these once (purchased from Reimer Seeds, who doesn't sell it at the time of my typing this), along with a bunch of other tomatillo varieties, but all the tomatillos struggled that year; so, I don't have much to report. I want to try it again, except in a container, mulched, or with black plastic, next time.

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https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/06/15/google-confirms-experiment-to-remove-full-address-from-url-bar-in-chrome-details-opt-out-mechanism/

People should be concerned about more than security here. Knowing the URL is important for a lot of purposes that are not security-related. Security is important, however.

This new move would not be pleasant for web designers (for instance), among others.

We've got a thriving, but heavily budding, oregano plant outside. I decided to make some herbal tea with some of it, to see what it was like. It was surprisingly good, even with all the buds! If you enjoy mint tea, you'll probably like this, too. The herbal tea had a pleasant floral smell as I drank it, and was relaxing.

Here's how I made it:

* Cut some sprigs of oregano, blossoms and all, and put them in a large mug. Maybe you'd prefer it weaker, with less oregano.
* Boil some filtered water.
* Pour the boiling water into the cup with the herbs.
* Let it sit for 15+ minutes.
* Drink (you can remove the oregano sprigs before drinking if you want, but they don't bother me).

Anyway, I rank it right up there with mint tea and blackberry leaf tea for enjoyability—maybe even higher.

You should probably research side effects and drug interactions before making oregano herbal tea.

Here's a picture of some of our Sempervivum. It may be Sempervivum tectorum, but I'm not certain:

I read somewhere that the third degree of ramifications on cucumbers (I think that was the species of cucurbit) was more prolific than lower degrees. I kind of wonder if going out more degrees of ramifications increases production for all cucurbits, given a long enough season.

With tomatoes, people usually either prune to a Y shape or prune every single sucker off (just letting the leader grow). I kind of wonder if pruning off everything else in order to get to a certain degree of ramifications faster would produce more fruit in tomatoes, too, given as much time as the plant needed.

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I'm pretty sure this is western salsify (it has yellow flowers that look like that), and I know that's a bunching onion with it (possibly Crimson Forest). This picture was taken on 18 June 2020.



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