Whew.

(Green Babies!)

I just got off a twelve-day work week last Friday. Big push/ hot due date for a customer- you probably know the drill. Subsequently, the minute the project was put to bed, all my stress went directly to my rotten, good-for-nothing neck (whiplash in grad school, and natch, it was never properly treated), so I had to lay pretty low this weekend. Did some knitting. Took naps. Drank Bloody Marys. Started some salad greens in flats. My favorite version of lazy.

But look! Seedlings! Today was their first day in the sun. Just for an hour. I swear there is new growth (even though I've read that seedlings store energy during the day and use it to grow at night).

Here pictured:

Pink tomato (a big, tart sandwich slicer)

San Marzano tomato (sauce and paste pear tomato)
Paul Robeson tomato (the best tomato I've ever eaten- seeds saved from last year)
Japanese Black Trifele tomato (a good fresh tomato, I hear- I've yet to try it)
and one Supersweet 100 for my in-laws. (I don't like cherry tomatoes, but I grew this last year. It's astonishingly prolific. Too prolific- I've got tomatoes sprouting in my worm bins from using "finished" compost as bedding. Tomato seeds are notorious for surviving compost.)

There are a few straggler peppers I haven't put out yet- peppers need a lot of heat and their feet are a bit cold, so they don't even have true leaves yet. Which leads me to my wee pepper disaster- and hey, here's a fun recipe for you to try!

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How to make Pepper Surprise:
1) Fill expanded peat pellets with seed, correspond to a hand-drawn diagram.
2) Tip peat pellets onto floor.
3) Watch in horror as they bounce all over the floor like little tires.

I'll never use peat pellets again- for many reasons- but this was the topper. No more peat pellets! Nein, nunca.

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Fun Fact!
The reliable way you can tell the difference between peppers and tomatoes when they are babies is this- tomatoes have hairs on their stalks, and peppers don't. Other than that, it's a tough business. All nightshade babies pretty much look alike.