Stuffed Squash blossoms

So this year I'm growing three kinds of squash; yellow neck- from a seed package, butternut-gotten from store bought fruit, and pumpkin-gotten from a friend who grew white pumpkins last year. Of the three only one hasn't produced-the yellow neck. I'm breaking all the rules, the vines are all planted in my huge container along with corn! In the beginning we had frost, it killed a most so I replanted, I did go overboard.

and now the squash has spilled onto the ground and is going out of control. I am watching the buttternut and pumpkin squashes slowly get bigger.

in the meanwhile tons of blossoms are enticing me, they smell so good in the morning. So this morning I decided to stuff some of yesterdays blossoms.

I went outside, gathered some blossoms, brought them inside, soaked them in cold water to remove any ants.

then let them drain and dry. In the meantime I gathered some leftovers from yesterdays BBQ- some grilled steak, grilled corn, a fresh picked jalapeno, an egg, some cheese. I mixed this all together and stuffed the blossoms with it.

I the heated half a stick of butter in my skillet and fried these blossoms. some people will dip the blossom in batter, I don't I long time ago realized that fried squash without the flour tasted better to me, so I decided the same would be true of fried squash. Yes a few have a small bitter taste- The larger ones didn't get cooked long enough, but these are so yum!

The pictures are from my second batch.

The second batch I removed the tiny leaves on the outside of the bigger blossoms and cooked them longer- none was bitter

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I go against the flow

Pollinating daffodils

Pollinating Hyacinths

Tulip Seed Pods

Amaryllis Seed Pods

You read often that seeds gotten from store bought produce are sterile, or wont grow fruit. Usually what in fact is meant by that is if you grow the seed you won't get the same quality of fruit. I am finding that I going against the flow, I'm planting those seeds in-spite of the nay sayers. What those experts fail to realize is I don't expect the same quality and I don't believe in a kill gene. I have learned how to tell if the seeds grew long enough to have 'viable' seeds- for example a red, yellow or orange bell pepper is more likely to have seeds that will grow than a green bell pepper. I'm also wanting to learn how to cross pollinate flowers. last year I tried to cross pollinate roses, I had started to late and failed. I successfully crossed amaryllises and got seeds! The nay sayers would tell me it will take too long to get a flower. I think the wait would be well worth it. I've crossed tulips (plants I got from the grocery store) and two of the three have produced a pod- the seeds are growing, while I wait till I can put the bulbs outside. I'm working on crossing some hyacinths as well. I gathered seeds from my mom's Japanese Iris and planted them in October then gave a cold time in the refrigerator. I've brought them out and they are beginning to sprout. I did have a few hips grow on my roses that bees pollinated, plus got some seeds from others, these are starting to sprout after they had and still have a cold time in the fridge.

Rose Seedling

Pear Seedling

Avocados growing nicely and other updates.

The first two avocados that I grew from the pit have gotten tall! I had them on top of a bunk bed that I dont use which is close to the window, and moved them. I'm letting them grow some before pruning them once again. I've pruned them several times already and I'll prune them again before moving them outside in may. I'm also planning on re-potting them to a bigger container when the weather is warmer as well.

The leaves have gotten huge, and these two are growing fast. That's a snake plant near them and 4 amaryllises. Two of the amaryllises already bloomed, then got attacked by a paint brush, and grew seed pods that have already cracked open. I'll plant the seeds soon.

Here are my plants on top of the bunk bed, the two nearest the ceiling are the ones I moved.

I also use a phillips grow light in the room.

I grew some pear some pear seeds in my refrigerator, along with some other seeds. One Rose and Three of the pear seeds have germinated inside the fridge. I'll bring most of the seeds out of my fridge at the end of feb, beginning of march.

My trailor will start getting warmer inside during that time. I need a grow matt to try to germinate seed. Also I have tons of seeds that I'm going to winter sow. I planted spring flowering bulbs in containers last fall and have left them outside. The sneaky daffodils tried to send up their stalks in December, only to be put on hold my Mister Winter. I've sucefully sprouted two fuzzy kiwi- 3 others dampened off.

My rose seedling might not make it, It's not been doing well, it too looks like it's dampening off, I do not know if I sprinkled cinnamon on the soil soon enough. Cinnamon is a natural fungicide and dampening off is caused by a fungus.