What dictates seed viability is 1) maturity of the fruit at harvest - harvested too soon means immature seeds, and 2) storage of those seeds after harvesting - avoid exposure to heat and humidity. So fruit appearance makes no real difference. If the fruit was harvested correctly and if that fruit has not been exposed to heat and humidity then the seeds should be viable from any of the fruit and should produce equal plants. Dave edited to add - since you don't know the exact variety and since there are some hybrid serrano varieties these may not breed true

When I look over the week, my biggest challenge is getting enough protein in my diet and Omega 3 fats (I don’t like fish); I am doing pretty well in the other categories. Occasionally I resolve to start working on my rusty French but that impulse is usually short-lived and I start getting messages that I am ”making Duo sad.” I do the Spelling Bee and Letter Box daily, the crossword, and games on other apps like sudoku and my favorite word search. I also play free cell solitaire several times a day and read, and I do enough volunteer work managing committees and projects that I am satisfied I’m doing as much problem solving as I reasonably can. And yet I am still losing the occasional word or forgetting to put something on the calendar ….. consternation ….. Socially I could probably cut my activity in half and still be in good shape. Between hobbies (painting, choral singing, golf) and volunteering and church and our family I sometimes need to just sit on the porch and turn off my phone and pretend I’m not home. These are all people and activities for which I am very thankful but I believe we need as much alone time as social time. In terms of physical fitness I am still a work in progress 🙄 I walk our dogs daily, go to the gym twice a week for the elliptical, and play golf a couple of times a week. I have been practicing balancing on one foot and then the other, and getting up off the floor using no hands. My arms have more strength than my hands (arthritis) so even though I can carry almost anything necessary I still sometimes need help opening jars! The dentist is a quarterly appointment for me, and I see my GP and an endocrinologist every six months. Dh is making an appointment for me with a neurologist for some baseline testing for cognitive decline; I want some line in the sand established that any further test can be measured against. My mother is starting to slip at almost 93 but ALL her five sisters died with Alzheimer’s, as did DH’s mother. IMHO by the time you fail the annual screening and cannot draw a clock face or remember three words you’ve lost valuable months when you could have been on medication to slow the disease. Thanks to everyone for following along this week. I agree it was not especially interesting and no groundbreaking material was presented. However the reminders and clarifications are helpful and I hope we keep that brain health recipe thread going—thanks again for that Bbstx!

Start it again. I never saw it either.

The "Experts" are generally insurance agents being paid on commission - Advantage plans generally offer a higher commission and are an easy sell with the low monthly premiums. " Initial Sales: Agents frequently earn significantly more, sometimes three times more, in the first year by selling a Medicare Advantage plan compared to a Medigap policy." Advantage plans are good for some people, especially those who are on a Medi Medi plan (Medicare/Medicaid) where Medicaid subsidizes the Medicare costs, but not the best for many others. Nerdwallet has a fairly good explanation of the differences. https://www.nerdwallet.com/insurance/medicare/learn/medicare-vs-medicare-advantage. I looked at the choices for my sister and a few friends in the past year and helped them evaluate their bottom line costs based on past and known medical issues. 1 was better off with a Medi-Medi plan. The other 3 were all best served with a Plan N Medigap coverage. (Plan N and Plan G are similar, and in the state where I live physicians are not allowed to charge "excess" charges that are covered under plan G and not covered by Plan N). You do need to understand the nuances of your particular circumstance to figure out what is best for you. When selecting the appropriate Part N plan I also looked at their historical rate increases year over year. Some offered lower initial costs than the plan I recommended (Mutual of Omaha), but the 5 year average was higher due to more rapidly increasing charges. Some agents also make recommendations based on biases that I am not sure they recognize. One of the people I assisted met with an agent that had previously recommended a Medigap policy for another person I knew, but not only during the initial meeting, but again when we did a second meeting to finalize things he recommended a Medicare Advantage plan and mentioned the Silver Sneakers benefit. The person was a black male who was a high school and college athlete. His income wasn't as high as the previous person, but it was high enough that he would receive no extra benefits or reductions in costs based on income. 1st year the Advantage plan premium would have been $1200 less than the Part N, but he would have incurred $6000 in out of pocket costs as he needed knee replacement surgery. It would take 5 years of reduced monthly payments to equal the savings he got the first year by purchasing the Plan N policy. I don't believe it was a conscious bias that made the agent offer the wrong plan, but subconsciously I think he equated black to being poor and equated someone in a blue collar job vs white collar job as poor, but we cannot make assumptions and need to actually evaluate plans based on income post retirement. I called the agent privately after the 2nd meeting and expressed my concerns. He was apologetic and I hope he learned from the experience.