Christine - I have been busy with the holidays, the parties and the harvests. I was hoping that the recent cold would force me to clean the tomatoes, but no they are still producing.
I am starting this week tomatoes because I need for me and the community garden. Peppers and eggplants for me. I find it easier to protect them from the cold than starting them when it is too hot.
This Christmas I got 2 gift certificates for seeds from the family, I guess that I will have to sit down and figure out what I need, that means go through my old seeds too.:)

Days are warm and nights are cool, yesterday we went to the festival of lights at the Hollywood Studios and it was very cold, they even had snow falling.:)

Silvia

I have been busy during the holidays with family and parties too but it looks like you are having a great time. What a fantastic picture of that Christmas tree! Gift certificates for seeds - a gift that they are sure that you will surely use.

My tomato and eggplant plants are toast. We got down to 32 degrees already. I did pick a lot of green tomatoes and put them in a large paper bag in hopes that more will ripen. I also picked about a dozen papaya fruits that were close to showing a little yellow. I just checked them in my greenhouse and I see some trying to ripen. I have the last of my plant ripened papaya and starfruits in the dehydrator right now. I didn't keep track, but I have dehydrated more than two gallons of DRY fruit.

I use a heating pad to start my seeds this time of year so I will be starting my peppers first, then when I have the heating pad available, I will start the tomato seeds. You are in an area where you get to plant about a week or two earlier so that's why I was wondering if you had started you seeds yet.

Christine

Christine - That is something how few degrees warmer can make all the difference.
My eggplant is out but the peppers and the tomatoes are still producing and the papaya is getting ripe fruits. I am getting some help thinning out the fruit from the trail side, I saw some green papayas picked,lol, it is all good since I can hardly keep on time with the harvest, even tho we eat tomatoes very often and also have a lot of dried papaya, I like mine with Himalayan pink salt...
I will be starting more seeds of cold weather veggies also when I have space, we do eat a lot of salads, I really hate those store bought salads.
We went to Bonefish tonight and had a side of spagetti squash and it was tasty, maybe I will grow them?
I love the new variety of kale that I planted and also the baby chinese cabbage, maybe tomorrow I will do a recipe of roasted cabbage.

Silvia

I have seedlings for Garden peach and violet Jasper tomatoes. if you're in the Gotha area

Tommy - Nice harvest! You are really early with the seedlings. Are you going to put them in the greenhouse? I know someone in the community garden asked me for the garden peach tomato, but they won't be planting them for a while...
I am making shrimp with tomatillo sauce from the garden with roasted cabbage.

Here is my baby jade cabbage, does it look like baby? lol.

Silvia

yes there in the shade house I will cover the shade houses when it gets cold. I will be starting the garden peache and the violet Jaspers every so often as those are my best produsers d

The tomatillos in the garden are still producing and they are so good, I have the green and purple variety, I will grow them again for the spring.

Shrimp with tomatillo sauce, basmati rice and roasted baby chinese cabbage.

Someone very nice from another forum sent me for Christmas a native american wild rice grown by her ancestors for 100 years, I made for a party in my house, the aroma and the taste are incredible!

Silvia

Well I started my peppers.....in November I started sprouting groups of seeds in cups....on the heat mat....as they sprout I move them to a 72 cell flat with a label

About every 10 days I'll start another batch.....and repeat

The Scotch Bonnets popped up fast.....the Habernero from packaged seed was a no-show....but from a fresh pod the seeds sprouted within 14 days....

Lots-O-Hot seed varieties from the seed exchange at Silvia's ....there's 100 sprouts under the lights already

doug

Wow, Sylvia- was the wild rice difficult to grow?

Silvia. What a lovely presentation that is such a beautiful plate..everything looks so yummy....

Doug, You are the king of the hots!lol. I am looking forward to see you smoking the peppers. Better you than me.:) Seedlings look good!

Nessz, The rice grows wild in that land, not mine. I don't have the swamps or the space. But one thing I know for sure is that I am going to get more wild rice soon, it is so delicious!. We had more today with mushrooms and dried cranberries and apple stuffed pork loin. The rice is not really a rice, I think is a grass.

Maxine, thank you. Tomorrow I am going to a new years eve party and I have to bring 3 vegetable dishes and a dessert and I am also going to a new years day party and I have to bring a veggie appetizer and other dessert. I am thinking really hard now and what I am going to do to have the best use of the veggies that I am growing now...

Silvia

Well, I got my tomatoes started on Jan 2nd. They sprouted in just a few days with the help of a heating mat. Germination was better than I expected. Some of my seeds were up to six years old so I over planted. Most of the extra seedlings will be given away so I don't mind planting too many.

So, here are my 17 different varieties of tomatoes 12 days after planting. I plant on transplanting them very soon.

The (sweet) peppers aren't as far along. They are much slower growers. I planted the peppers on Jan. 1st. I have three varieties of eggplants started in this picture also.

How is everyone else's seedlings coming along?

Christine

Sylvia,
Can I just say, I like the dress behind the cabbage? :)
Susannah

Christine - Nice looking seedlings! Mine are doing well at my porch, it is just so warm!

Hi Susannah! Thank you, I can say that I also like pretty dresses but more than that I like pretty plates,lol. When I go any place the first thing that I look are plates. And of course I like colorful vegetables like in this salad that I made yesterday.

Beets, carrots and watermelon radish

Silvia

For me, it's "So Far, Too Good". Being that this is my first time doing tomatoes and I'm going to be trying the 'self-watering' 5-gallon buckets, I was really only wanting to do 3 or 4 plants. But I put 12 seeds into my small flat in case some didn't take. Instead, all 12 took. So I have 6 Roma sprouts and 6 Sweetie sprouts coming along.

However, I did learn that my indoor 'grow light' setup isn't strong enough yet. A single cfl bulb just won't cut it. The tomato and milkweed sprouts were looking wimpy, I lost some of my salvia sprouts and lost an entire flat of Pina Colada penstemmon. After I moved them outside into the lanai to enjoy this nice weather they all perked up. With the obvious exception of the penstemmon. I have already researched better light set-ups and will be building a better one for the next time I start sprouts.

{{gwi:984858}}
The terracotta pots are my tomato sprouts, the flat is a mix of salvia and milkweed. The plastic cups and pot on top of the terracotta are more tomato plants as well as a dill sprout... and yes, the blue solo cups held actual Pina Coladas before being turned into pots!

I have got my started as well. All new varieties I brought from my trip to Russia.

Silvia - Very colorful salad. It appears to be totally raw. (?) I like the idea of making carrot ribbons. Can you tell me more about the watermelon radish? I have never seen one before. Is it milder tasting than a regular radish?

Christine, it is totally raw and I love it! the carrots are sliced with a potato peeler, the beets are sliced with the mandoline and the watermelon radish is a favorite. It is very mild, actually everyone was saying that, it had no bite like a regular radish, and maybe the dressing with olive oil, salt and pepper made everything smooth. Next time that I make it I will probably make some pickled red onions to put on top.
I made a big batch and even today was as good as fresh and the colors from the beets didn't come out.

Silvia