Very interesting ideas and crops here!

http://www.wired.com/2014/06/potato-bean/

This was the last one to be held at the Bayshore Garden Club...good turnout, speaker was Chris Rollins of the Fruit and Spice Park in Homestead...his topic was fruits of southeast Asia. I got cool seeds, chatted with friends, got to taste my first ever black Muscadines, and was reminded that some Longans can be very flavorful (like the ones that Chris brought MANY clusters of to share), others very bland. I will be curious as to where future meetings will be held. As always the potluck was wonderful and I was surprised how many people tracked me down to say how much they liked my vegan spicy Indian curried rice. (After many years of using garam masala I am getting very fond of tanduri masala).

http://www.fruitandspicepark.org/

This family business is a great source for cool seeds by the pound (especially brassicas) plus rhizobia bacteria for legumes...I've been buying from them for years.

http://www.welterseed.com/

A LOT of Googling this summer has me hopeful that the purple garlic that came from Mexico and was sold by Publix briefly July into August was one of the "Creole Garlics" that can set bulbs in mild southerly climates...one variety even thrives in Cuba! I gave one to Mary Jo, I have 5 more in the fridge, will wait until October to begin planting in stages. I'll break them up into cloves, plant some in the ground, plant most in various Water Wise Container Gardens...fingers crossed. In Denver I took garlic bulbing for granted!

http://www.filareefarm.com/cre.html

http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/creoles.htm

On the left is organic apple juice inoculated a little over a week ago with Bragg's Apple Cider vinegar, including some "Mother".....a SCOBY is forming. On the right is apple juice inoculated with very strong vinegary kombuca tea and a small piece of SCOBY.....a SCOBY is forming there too. My goal is to make my own organic apple cider vinegar one way or the other.

Cool looking car that could be a real game changer! Be sure to watch the video!

http://www.intelligentliving.co/salt-water-powered-car-gets-european-approval/

My perennial alliums for Florida obsession unexpectedly got a boost today.....I went to south Tampa's wonderful Vietnamese owned DoBond Market where I buy my 'Lila' taro tubers to grow in summer to get some culinary and galangal ginger to grow....scored. Then I spotted these bags of "shallots"...after a LOT of research and obsessing the last couple of years I THINK that regular shallots are taller than wide (that is what I see in every grocery store) and are grown all over as an annual from seeds....."Potato Onions" are actually a sub-species of shallot that are wider than tall and in the right climate and conditions multiply under ground as a perennial. For the first time ever I saw "shallots" wider than tall so I bought a bag to sow in stages this fall once we cool down a bit. EVERY bulb in the mesh bag is wider than tall...have I FINALLY scored "red potato onions"?! Bag says 'Product of China'.