Mini-Beefstakes and Kadota Figs

This year was the first year I begged for tomatoes and anything fresh from the garden. Fortunately for me, friends were generous.

One of the best surprises were a minature hybrid beefstake. Looking more like oversized cherry tomatoes, these flabbergasted me with their sweet, robust tomato flavor! So much so, that I am fermenting the seeds to dry for next season. It will be a challenge to sprout the hybrids but I am about to begin the drying process.

I will report back on the progress.

The second picture is of the Kadota figs I found at one of the local homestores. And I am happy to report they love their new locations and are bearing fruit, already. I am planning to place the bushes around the pool to keep a close eye on them. I intend to grow them as a bush. (My mother remember fig bushes in Louisiana - not trees.) I happened to catch Walter Reeves on PBS this past weekend doing these exact two processes. I learned a lot about planting figs and can confidently proceed.

The other planting that I have scheduled is a species of cactus (probably from South American) that bears the beautiful pinky-red tunas or prickly pears! To our amazement we stumbled upon the beautiful succulent in Grantville, Georgia while visiting a salvage company. It was loaded with the ripening fruit that I use for my cocktail from a earlier post.