Sun seeker

Canis lupus familiaris ‘Alba Westie’
Common name: Piper

This is the only nonplant species -- which often occupies the prime spot -- in my balcony garden.

Motivation to keep trying to grow nasturtiums from seed

Besides competing with my mom to see who has the best germination stats by the end of the growing season (I'm currently 0 for 12), I want to make pretty, delicious Nasturtium Salad from this video recipe blog, Food Wishes.

Nasturtium (Trapaeolum): Pretty, Prolific, Care-free, Tasty....

......and undervalued -- at least by me, until today.

I learned interesting and fun facts about these flowers when I searched the Web for growing tips.

Rather than cut and paste excerpts, I will link to the sources:

- for information on varieties and growing tips go to BBC Gardening

- for interesting facts and creative ideas for adding zest to the look and taste of foods, visit Sally's Place

- and for exquisite photos, go to lightspectral's nasturtium photoset and collage.

Fresh page: blackberries

Image credit: Blackberries for breakfast by jek in the box

August 15th, 2008: It's about time I updated this page because the blueberries were no longer looking fresh.

I'll be enjoying blackberries for breakfast and probably lunch, too, tomorrow at the UBC Farm Market Blackberry Festival.

As I did for the blueberries, I'll keep adding facts, thoughts, pictures and pretty words (I'm sure someone has written an ode to the blackberrry) about growing, eating and otherwise enjoying this sweet fruit.

August 16th, 2008:  New facts I learned last night when it was too hot to sleep so I read about brambles and druplets:

Rubus spp.is the best approximation to a scientific name, considering that blackberry may be the most taxonomically complex of any fruit crop....The distinction between blackberries and raspberries revolves around fruit characteristics. All bramble fruits are aggregate fruits, which means they are formed by the aggregation of several smaller fruits, called drupelets. The drupelets are all attached to a structure called the receptacle, which is the fibrous central core of the fruit. In raspberries, the receptacle remains with the plant when fruit are picked, creating the hollow appearance of the harvested fruit. In blackberry, the drupelets remain attached to the receptacle, which comes off with the fruit when picked. A second distinction - raspberry drupelets are hairy and adhere to one-another, whereas blackberry drupelets are hairless and smooth {source} {emphasis my own to highlight blackberry's attributes}.