Touch my Plants and Die in Agony

The gardening situation continues to improve, thanks to poison and God's grace. I just harvested an edible papaya. It wasn't worth keeping, but unlike previous papayas, it could be eaten without undue difficulty. I assume that when the full-size fruit get ripe, some will be table-worthy.

I had to kill a tomato plant (Kentucky beefsteak) today due to yellow leaf curl virus. But three of my other plants are trying to bear. So I'll have Kentucky beefsteak, Cherokee Chocolate, and some other type of tomato soon. My Brandywine vine is healthy, but it has battled with problems. Maybe I'll get a tomato out of it yet.

The peppers are coming back. I just harvested a couple of the yard-planted peppers I've been ignoring. Some kind of Jamaican thing. Geez, I'll look it up. Hell, I don't know what it is. It's flat on top and tapers toward the tip, and it's big and bumpy. I tried one, and it's not bad. Not too hot. Could be sweeter. Not bad enough to remove from the yard.

I have an endless supply of prig ki nus now. Probably a thousand of them. Great peppers. Unique flavor. No idea what to do with them.

The citrus is doing better, now that I know I have to kill the caterpillars that grow on it. There is a caterpillar known as the orange dog, and it looks like a big hunk of bird poop. When I realized they were caterpillars, I looked them up and started killing them. I used Sevin and bifenthrin, and I also squeeze them between the leaves, so their guts squirt out. They're supposed to grow into big, pretty butterflies. Looks like I put the kibosh on that.

My habanero gold peppers are doing great. The plants are a foot and a half high, completely healthy, and bearing. This will be a major coup. I may move them to the yard for permanent consumption. No chinense hot pepper I've tried compares to these babies. My little orange grocery-store-seed Scotch bonnets taste just as good, but they're smaller and not as pretty. My cayennes are great, but it's a different category and flavor.

If the habanero golds pan out, I will be willing to send seeds to people. I'll know in a month. Maybe I'll celebrate by making chili and patacons. Hey, these would make wonderful smoked peppers. Damn, that's a fine idea.