Cluster of Figs

Figs like so many other fruits grow in stages.  Here you have a fig just about ready to eat next to four others in different stages of development.

At this point if you want the fig to continue to develop on the tree but speed up a little, you can nick it with a knife or other pointy object and it will ripen a lot faster. Typically you wouldn't want to do this with a lot of fruit, like apples, because they would not just ripen but also start to rot.

I went ahead and picked this one though so as not to attract too many birds to the tree.  I know they will eventually see this as a good source of food but I wanted to get first crack at it.  Some birds will nick the fruit themselves once they get used to the fig tree fruiting.  They know that this will ripen the fruit and give them a treat for their troubles.

Talking with Amber we thought of some other fruits that have to be picked individually because they don't ripen at the same times.  To name a few: Figs, Coffee, Cacao, Strawberries, Cherries, Apples, Oranges, Pears, and Grapes.  These last few might be a little surprising but they too ripen at different times.  Some of them are picked by machines though but this lets in less ripe fruit along with the ones that are ready to pick so you don't always get the best quality fruit in that case.

What is your favorite fruit to eat?

Some plants Just Don’t Look Real

So we went all around Addison today and placed post card sized fliers about Amber's upcoming book launch party, signing, and chocolate related event.

One of the places we stopped at was 84 Point Coffee off of Midway Road. At first I though the plant must be a fake since it looked pretty unbelievable and it looked like it was just put on top of some coffee beans.

After looking around for a little bit though, as Amber took pictures of her coffee, the flier, and bookmarks we had with us, I began to realize that the rest of the plants seemed to be real enough.  Then I saw bits of it had turned brown and there were marks on it that wouldn't have be put on a fake plant even if they were trying to make it look authentic.

After a quick search I figure it's most likely a variety of haworthia, probably herbacea.  Yeah, I've never heard of such a thing before either but it seems to be related to aloe plants.  Those spikes feel more like rubber, thus my initial thought that the plant was probably a fake.

I had a short conversation with a coworker recently about how terrible fake plants are in an office.  They do the opposite of what real plants do.  They sit there, collect dust, and smell funny.  She had been in an office where the office manager just loved to get more and more fake plants to put everywhere.  When they finally closed that office the fake plants were so dusty you could see the clouds they gave off as they were trying to get rid of them.  It wasn't good.

This is one of many plants I will probably never get but it was neat to look at it for a while sitting in a coffee shop.  Go get some coffee and see if you agree.

Coffee Sprouts

I didn't follow any of the online guides on planting the seeds. I used the old fashion way of just putting it in the dirt and adding water. The online resources were right about germination time though, about two and a half months. The first one is plain to see. The second one is about and inch and a half to the left and can be seen better in the blow up by clicking on the picture.

This is probably just your standard Arabica coffee but it's in my house!

Coffee is an ideal houseplant and can easily be kept pruned back to about any size you like from a full size floor plant to a medium size table plant. Too much smaller and the tree might start to suffer not to mention look funny.

Winter's Arrival

So far winter is having a slow approach. I know it's not winter yet but usually it's gotten colder than it has already. I'm hoping and believe that winter cold will still be some weeks away and that my garden will still have a little time to produce something still.
Even if it doesn't stay back for long, I have started some seeds inside that should prove to occupy my time for a while. I have planted two coffee seeds and two noni seeds. They might not do a lot but the anticipation is all I need to get me through the few cold days we have here.