I have OODLES of green papayas here, and have only made green papaya salad once and that was years ago. I've discovered at potlucks that I GREATLY prefer the sweet/sour Filipino style like my neighbor Margie makes vs. Thai style with fish sauce. This recipe looks good, will try it once I get me a ginger root.

http://overrice.blogspot.com/2010/06/green-papaya-salad-achara.html

First hopeful rain forecast in MANY weeks here!!

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Tampa&state=FL&site=TBW&lat=27.959&lon=-82.4821

It seems to me that passionate gardeners are always learning, always being humbled by what they don't know, by the mistakes they make that they in turn learn from. I am fifty nine and had my first vegetable garden when I was fifteen here in south Tampa, and in all those years since I've met just a few gardeners who were legends in their own minds, who saw themselves as "experts" who had arrived at some plateau of "wisdom", carrying themselves like a guru. Such a contrast to truly brilliant, skilled gardeners and rosarians I've met and been friends with, who ask questions, who learn every chance they get instead of reflexively lecturing, whose egos were kept in check by being aware that what they don't know far outweighs what they do know. I might have the quote off a bit, but Thomas Jefferson said "I am an old man but a young gardener". No wonder so many happy gardeners live to a ripe old age!

Mystery Brassica

This wonderfully vigorous, mild, crispy-stemmed brassica has once again appeared in the baby pool garden that each summer I grow 'Fife Creek' okra in. It has been evolving a few years now, seemingly the descendant of an original spontaneous cross between Purple Kosaitai and Appin. It now shows none of the lavender that was apparent the first few seasons as it continues to back breed and evolve. Whatever it is, it is a very desirable winter veggie here in south Tampa.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Tampa&state=FL&site=TBW&lat=27.959&lon=-82.4821

No rain for weeks now...so much for a chilly wet El Nino winter for Florida!

http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/weather/forecast.html

Mystery Vegetable

A couple of blocks north of me is a Korean family that makes intense passionate use of their very small front yard, with most crops grown in buried 5 gallon buckets....I wish they knew English so I could ask where the drill holes are! Recently I walked by and saw in container gardens what I was sure was a species/cultivar of Plantain (Plantago, not Musa) but the leaves dwarfed the wild European plantain that is a common lawn weed in Denver and that I always found WAY too tough and bitter raw or cooked. Plus these had leaves with small points and the growth habit was very upright vs. a ground-hugging rosette....but I felt 99% sure I recognized the club-like flower spikes as a plantago....that day there was no one home. Two days later I went back with my camera, but the plantains were pulled up and drying on a hedge. He and his wife CAUTIOUSLY came to the door, and relaxed a bit when they saw my interest was gardening. Due to our language barrier I did not learn the name of  it, plus what I saw was a mallow they were growing in a back corner, nor anything else. BUT....he pointed at the sun and the plantains,. made motions with his hands about "water" then listed some spices and oils as he tried to teach me the recipe. He gave me a few spikes of seeds too. After I gestured he let me taste what I feel 95% is Gynura procumbens, then gave me two big cuttings that I turned into four and am now hopefully rooting them to share...the flavor and texture was like Okinawa spinach but firmer and milder....I forget which species of Gynura that it is. After I took this pic of the drying plantains I obsessed for about an hour (who, me? obsess?) and feel fairly certain it is Plantago asiatica...I need to look up when to plant them here. I nibbled a piece of leaf raw that first visit...very tender and mild. The plants were EASILY 6-8 times bigger than the wild plantains in Denver, but had shrunk amazingly as they dried. OH what I could learn from those folks if only we could really talk! I left them my contact info on an index card, and will soon take them some envelopes of seeds in hopes they can figure out what they are. That is one thing I love about gardening....always a chance to learn, always barely scratching the surface!