This is a DUH moment. In the past I have always gone out to cut my Swiss Chard fresh just before using it. But yesterday when I was harvesting good stuff to eat from my garden a neighbor came over and while we were chatting the intense heat wilted the chard I had just cut. By the time I was able to get it indoors it was pathetic!
But I got the idea to run some cool water over the leaves and then put the stems into a glass of water. It didn't look like much at first, but this morning all of the leaves had completely revived. Please remind me to try this experiment again but to take photos before and after.
Meanwhile, here is a cluster of red cherry tomatoes. They took longer to ripen than the Sun Golds and are about half the size, but there sure are a lot of them.
I noticed that a small bird who flew in to steal a tomato from my raised garden went right past the ripe orange Sun Golds and dived underneath some foliage to snag one of bright red kind instead. I forgot what other kind of tomato seeds I planted, but there are definitely indeterminate and should keep bearing fruit for several months and then I'll just bring cuttings inside to maintain until it is warm enough to put them out again in the spring. I planted these indoors in February.
Pictured left are some ripe sun golds and below is a red lipstick pepper.
I tasted a green lipstick pepper a bit over a month ago and it did not impress me much. But having returned from vacation I saw that my plant had produced several pretty red ones, and so I sliced one up on a hamburger. It was delish! Not terribly hot, but it had a bit of a bite.
The lipstick pepper plant is compact, prolific, and the ripe fruit are not only ornamental, but also yummy. I think I will keep growing these.
