I'd planned to make more green papaya kimchi today and add some fresh ginger, but instead I'll make my first ever batch of pickled ginger and add some green papaya.

http://japanesefood.about.com/od/sushiforbeginner/r/gari.htm

When Paul Zmoda noticed that I'd hope to find at Lowe's an acidic cleaner based on phosphoric acid, he suggested Coke! I checked...pH is 2.5...white vinegar is 3.5 and the pH scale is logarithmic, which means that Coke is 10 times more acidic than vinegar. You could not pay me to drink Coke but I'll buy some store brand to try as a weed killer. And the sugars would feed beneficial bacteria.

Lots of folks on FaceBook have been talking about weed control with other than Roundup....straight vinegar, vinegar based mixes, salt, boiling water, etc.. I got SOME kill in grasses in my brick driveway using that mix of vinegar, epsom salts and Dawn, but little effect on purslane and spotted spurge. I read all the labels today at Lowe's of gallon jugs of acidic cleaners, hoping to find one based on phosphoric acid.....sulfuric acid would be acceptable. But none. So for $7 I bought a gallon of ZEP tub and tile cleaner containing glycolic acid, which is made from sugar cane and is in many creams and lotions to deep clean skin and reduce wrinkles. I'll use up the rest the vinegar based spray on the driveway, then try the ZEP on my carpeted driveway where nut sedge has gotten bad. I'll keep people posted on the results.....$7 for a gallon of a natural acid would be great...IF it works!

I heard a brand new bird call in the Tithonia diversifolia outside my office window and spotted a very petite bird moving very quickly all over a branch, pecking off something all the time (ants?) and making short high-pitched "cheeps"...took a few minutes of googling to find it...Downy Woodpecker!

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/downy_woodpecker/id

I know folks who rely a lot on smoothies, but my zero sweet tooth makes them challenging, especially chocolate ones. But this new type based on pineapple juice and green peeled papaya, with several Vitamin C tabs tossed in for added nutrition and extra tangyness, has great flavor and texture. Since it takes me three days to drink my largest Ninja blender full, I wonder if the bromelain and papain enzymes pre-digest the soy protein? I add zinc, iodine, moringa leaves, turmeric powder, food grade DE, L-arginine, strong kombucha tea, dry oatmeal, chia seeds and other nutrient sources to make these smoothies very nutritionally dense. Some of us have lots of green papayas now, so I want to share this use along with using it raw in salads or to make kimchi, or added to soups and stir fry.

What a shame that this inferior strain of Cereus peruvianus sets so few fruits from so many blooms, and those that do form are small and have just so-so flavor.

Jon and Debbie Butts, I just dug up from a front roses bed a clump of your "EcoFarm Replicating Onion", got 7 divisions from it and planted them in an old Water Wise Container Garden made from a storage tub on the back patio and labelled them. They are the only alliums in that garden to avoid any confusion. If they did that well in a very dry and rarely fed low care rose bed I wonder how they will do in these lush new conditions getting plenty of kitchen gray water. Thanks for giving me a new perennial-in-Florida allium to study! I ate the two divisions that had no roots...very good onion flavor.