I planted some bababerries back around February and posted about it here. It's supposed to take more than a year to get your first crop, but I already have immature berries all over the plant. WooHOO!

You might find this interesting. I tried to do a Google search on bababerries just now. The third entry on the list was that very thread I started here on lowcarbeating.com about bababerries.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

Consider this a testament to the power of lowcarbeating.com. Or a testament to the power of my thread. Or the bababerries. Or an interesting synergy.

Excited by my suddenly found powers over (plant) life and death, I have turned my back yard into a little mini-farm. My most ambitious experiment has been trying to grow lettuce. Let's just say, the results have not been nearly as impressive as my over-performing bababerry bush. But you're not supposed to grow lettuce in southern California in the middle of summer, anyway. Lettuce prefers moisture and cold weather.

But I have not yet begun to fight! I have some heirloom seeds on order, Simpson's Black-Seed Lettuce variety. After consuming as much info as I could on the subject, it appears to me that they may be the hardest to kill lettuce you can grow. A 150 year old lettuce strain.

A recent find:

Trader Joe's Carne Asada, $4.99 a pound here in southern California. TeeeRIFIC and low-carb! Fantastic, smoky taste. Grill it up with some poblano peppers. Those are the big dark green ones at the store that look like long bell peppers. They are hotter than bell peppers, but one of the mildest peppers you can eat, and very, very tasty. I have my own growing in the front yard.

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"And so, in my State of the—my State of the Union—or state—my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation—I asked Americans to give 4,000 years—4,000 hours over the next—the rest of your life—of service to America. That's what I asked—4,000 hours."

Nice to "see" you, Dr. I. (or should I say "Farmer I" ?)

I've grown the very lettuce you've ordered. It's a nice, slow to bolt, variety. However, even here in the northeast, it can bolt during a hot summer, so it bears watching and harvesting young. I think you'll find, however, that you'll have good lettuce in all other seasons with it.

Still roasting your own coffee beans?

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WOW, this is great! I'd love to have a section for home-growers of veggies - such a great thing.

I tried lettuce, but alas, bolted to bits. Bitter as gall. Only veggie I had any luck with was green peppers.

I'm going to do a fall garden this year - my parents have a farm and are always throwing veggies my way - unfortunately it takes a 4 hour trip to get them. So my 8 year old daughter and I are going to try to do it ourselves! I'll keep ya'll posted~

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Doc, sounds like you've been busy. Good to see you on.

Andrea, neat idea!

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Ozzie's Place

Wish I could find some of those bababerry bushes here. I did plant 5 thornless blackberry and one blueberry bush this spring. Got a few of each off of each bush, but hoping for a better result next year. The blackberry bushes have gone crazy with growth, the blueberry, however, is a little slower. Going to check into some more fruit bushes this fall..... can't wait until planting season again..... I am a gardening fool!

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I tried my hand at planting some thing this year. However, when our lawn mower broke we got a mowing service to finish out the season and they wacked the heck out of my poor little patch:( I guess they didn't know the difference between pumpkin, watermelon, and weeds.

Ah well, there's always next year.

What can be planted in the fall in the northeast? I'd still love to get something going.

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Michelle

Starting over 8/19/07

I got my bababerries at OSH in bare-root form. They only sell them around February. I also planted some traditional raspberries (I don't know what strain) and some Brazos blackberries and one bush that said it was olallieberry/black_raspberry hybrid.

The raspberry and blackberry bushes are low to the ground and limping along. I'm sure I won't get any berries off them until sometime next year at the soonest. The olallieberry hybrid, though, exploded. throwing up lots of new bushes through runners. And, egads, it had HORRIBLE thorns! Like rose thorns, only worse, because it grows every which way. I had foolishly placed it in a garden close to the walkway, where it was snagging me everytime I brought groceries home. I had to dig it up and move it to a spot in the backyard.

You can buy bababerries and other berry bushes online. If I had known about it, I might have done that instead of going to OSH, because there are many more choices. Including several thornless blackberry bushes.

Speaking of interesting, exotic things to grow, does anybody know what the carb count is on "finger limes?" I read about these on a gardening site. They sound interesting, but I don't want to grow anything I can't eat. They are citrus fruit shaped like a finger that, when you open it up, spill out a bunch of little citrus-flavored bubbles, like caviar. Pic here:

http://www.fingerlime.com/fingerlime...-frameset.html

Yup, and quite happy with it. Sweetmaria's has some good ones right now. The Timor and the Kenya Mbwinjeru are both great.

There is another one I can't live without, though, Sulawesi Toraja. It's kind of like a "sub-woofer" for coffee. By itself, it tastes very, very rich, but it is missing something (the treble and midrange of coffee, you might say). But if you mix a half scoop of the Sulawesi in with any other coffee, it's like Starbuck's on steroids. Deep, deep, deep aroma and aftertaste.

I wish I could get mine to the bolt stage. The leaves all rotted, and I was left with a bunch of stringy leaf mid-ribs, like spaghetti. It may be a garden pest. If so, it's voracious.

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"And so, in my State of the—my State of the Union—or state—my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation—I asked Americans to give 4,000 years—4,000 hours over the next—the rest of your life—of service to America. That's what I asked—4,000 hours."

Had a really yummy one-off experience with lettuce...
You plant scads of seeds in a big flat tray... when they have a few leaves each, mow 'em down with your handy dandy scissors, and have one fabulous baby lettuce salad! I included some radishes too, for a little bite. Yeah, a lot of work for one dish, but my son enjoyed the sprouting & growing, and he actually ate some. Usually the only thing he'll consume that's green is Koolaid.

Stacie

That "Finger Lime" site is hilarious. Clearly written by someone for whom English is a second language. An "A" student who never had the opportunity to really study common usage. A few gems:

I think this is how my French might have sounded to an actual French person after a few years of study.

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The sprouts are tasty, although for what I was paying for seeds at OSH, it wasn't very cost effective to use it that way.

I used to sprout alfalfa seeds. They are much tastier when sprouted, and much easier. No soil needed. Just put some seeds in a plastic covered bowl with a little water in it and they will grow to fill the dish very quickly. I have heard of sprouting radish, but never tried it. I heard it was good.

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"And so, in my State of the—my State of the Union—or state—my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation—I asked Americans to give 4,000 years—4,000 hours over the next—the rest of your life—of service to America. That's what I asked—4,000 hours."

I have some hertiage or heirloom beans that we hope to plant maybe next summer. An older gentleman gave them to my Dad, this variety are reported to be over 125 years old. My parents have already planted and harvested them. Mom said the downside is that the vines will absolutely take over the entire garden.

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Ozzie's Place

we tried lettuce once here in texas.... had leaf lettuce for about 4 weeks then it was too hot for it and it burnt'd up.

This year we have a couple different kinds of tomatoes-- sweet one hundreds, pear, celebrety, and plum; two different peppers - purple and anniheims,; cucumber, eggplant, okra... had squash and it burnt' before it produced...

We are still picking in fact I have to go pick peppers tonite.. they are so full they are being pulled down.

home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes, only two things that money can't buy is true love and home grown tomatoes.

mmmm, cant beat them...

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http://www.youravon.com/cnorulak
carolyn in texas
started 8/11/03 327/268/177
5/20/08/ - 348
onward thru the fog

Oh.... those Sweet 100s! My very favorite!

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~~~Teelbee
Back to GOAL!!!
start weight: 176/goal range: 137-134/now: 138
Reached goal in Aug. 2003 - 4rd year of maintenance.

It has not been a good year here for tomatoes. Or more precisely, the squirrels have feasted nicely on the tomatoes before we could pick them.