I just got up to admire all my goodies! I feel rich today.:)
Thank you All for coming, it is you the guests who made the party a success!
Carmen, I could not had done it without you, you are my greatest help.
Laurie, you are such a nice person to have around, it is always good to see you.
Remember there was a lot of pictures taken? well, we are still waiting for those to show you...in the meantime will show some that Cheryl took.
Larry, before going to bed Willy asked me to thank you for helping watching the gate and the kids, he said that you didn't have to do that but you are very nice!
We are eating this morning Doug's quiches, so good! Willy ate the last slice of the sausage one, he said they are the best! If anybody knows how to cook is Doug.:)
And today at my house we are having an Italian cooking party, where a lady coming from Italy is going to show how to make pasta, we will take a lot of pictures.
Silvia, you and Willy are the best. I'm glad that I got there a little early and had a few minutes to get to know him. Maybe next year we will have time to compare our aggressive investing styles.
I apologize for giving you the wrong head of garlic. Next summer I will get you a special garlic to try when I order again.
I tend to be acutely aware of the dogs. I have 3 rescues that would bolt if they had a chance. Nothing ruins the moment like having to spend the afternoon looking for your dog ... or worse.
Someone asked what an Inu is. I have 3 Shiba Inu. The name in Japanese roughly translates to 'little dog'.
Wow, wow, WOW!!! What great pictures! What a lovely home! What yummy food! What fantastic plants! What great people! What a wonderful time! I'm so sorry I keep missing these... Sylvia, you are perfect hostess. You have Martha Stewart type touches all over!
Thank you for your kind words. I saw the preview of the pictures and soon I am going to post them for you and other garden friends that didn't come.
You have to try to make it to one of the parties some day, they are so unforgettable! you would love the one that we just had, talking to the gardeners that we read in the forum is just so nice!
Walli (M) deserves our respect, he knows so much! him and his wonderful wife are so down to earth. From now on each time he posts something I am going to pay attention like if I was in the school,lol.
I am sending a big hug to the great garden friends from Tampa Kathy&Terry, Derek&Aaron.
After the Italian party, I went to pot my trophies.:)
Some scenes of the Italian party where the guest made homemade semolina pasta and used my over grown zucchini with cheese for the sauce.
OH MY GOSH SILVIA! That papaya you gave me was out of this world! My grand doughter and I ate that whole jar of papaya/pineapple mix, that was awesome, then we attacked the papaya while we were working on her wedding stuff. I am doing all the bouquets in vintage crystal and I tell you it is a big job but they will be beautiful and different. thanx for all the goodies Carmen
After the Italian party, the only thing that I know is that I am not making homemade semolina pasta anytime soon,lol, it takes too long!
I am happy to hear that you like the papayas, today we harvested more and I will be making them in the jars with the pineapple mix, they can last like that for a long time in the fridge. My dentist is addicted to them and I always take at least one jar for her. The fresh ones are good too, you can put a little of the red lime.
Did you try the calabaza and acorn soup? a French chef made it with ham and it was probably one of my favorite soups! no recipe available for that one, lol, he told me is all in his head.
Carmen the wedding sounds wonderful and the bouquets are going to be beautiful when you are done with them. I sent you the info on the photographer...
Sara asked me if I made the blue glass in the bathroom and I said no, I am not crafty but Cheryl is, did you see her painting in the living room?
Silvia. Willy and Cheryl once again your garden party was out of this world..everything was perfect....it was really nice meeting new friends and seeing old ones again.. Everyone was so friendly and kind..Carmen you did an awesome job with the plant swap..it went so smoothly.. wow!!. there were so many plants to share..I absolutely love my new collect of plants..thank you to everyone who shared their plants and took the time to educated me on how to keep away pests. Mark thank you for my special gift it was a lovely surprise.. Silvia keep posting all the amazing dishes that you create. I love looking at them.. maxine .
OMYgoodness that is a beautiful painting Indeed Cheryl is very talented that is a great paiting. You may not be crafty with craft but oh man are you crafty with the garden.LOL The papaya had a few seeds so I will be trying my luck with them. As far as food I didn't realy eat much as I didn't go inside too much, I took a few small servings out side but by the time I got to it there little critters in it, Florida got love it. The one thing I did enjoy was a slice of mushroom quish. I am dehydrating 1/2 the papaya for later use. Carmen
Maxine Thank you for my special gift you are awesome. Today I took a quick trip to the African Violet show in Altamonte Springs, it was extreme!LOL I bought a HUGE African Violet called "Tiger" and I am in love with it, Just huge and gorgeous, did say huge LOL Thank you for all your help too. Carmen
It was so nice to see you! and thank you for bringing Tom's plants with you. We all had fun and I am still amazed at all the food and the plants everyone brought to the party, my special thanks to Mark. I am so looking forward to the next garden party! Maxine, I will make sure that I make new dishes, and pickles and jams.:)
Carmen, the show sounds really interesting, Cheryl would love to see one of those you know how she loves the violets.:) The papaya has almost no seeds, it is a hybrid and won't come true to seeds. I am growing for the next season a Philippine variety and a red Queen...
Thank you Writersblock, hope to meet you one of these years.
Here is some preview of the pictures, for you, Carol, and everyone else that didn't come to the party. One of the pictures in the link has 3 people, one is the best garden web poster M and his wonderful wife and me,lol.
Today I am reading Amber's mom wonderful book, beautiful and useful chapters, easy reading too just like I like it. Thank you Sherry for thinking about me to give me your well written book!
thank you for a great road trip, met some of the best people! came home with some very interesting plants, the plumeria is incredible,will return cuttings to you this spring! we both had a really good time! thank-you! m&j "food" was incredible!!!!!i think i could just keep going....thanks....m and thanks for the take homes!
Hi M! I am soo happy to hear from you! And to know that you and your lovely wife J had a good time, the pasta salad was so good and we had it for lunch today, Willy said is like an antipasto and love those artichokes there, but we forgot to give you back the container. Thanks a million for all the wonderful plants that you gave me, I am so proud of my new Budda's hand!!! The tags in the plants are the best that I ever seen! it is going to help me so much for planting. You and J are unforgettable! thank you both for coming to the party!
Wow, once again Terry and I were able to spend a beautiful day with awesome people. We love meeting each and everyone of you and always come away feeling more blessed knowing you.
Silvia, you have an amazing family and we so appreciate all you did to put this together. Once again it was such a great time. Thank you so much for everything.
It is a pleasure to have you both at the parties, I am so glad that you were happy and I hope that you always come to the garden parties, they are a lot of fun because our guests have the best energy in town!
The pickle eggplant is really easy to make, and you don't have to can them if you don't want or have the time. They keep well in the fridge.
I am so sorry to have missed your party yet again. But Ralph had to work and you know how retail is. Looks like you all had a great time. I can't wait for him to be able to retire again.
We all had a great time! We met new garden friends, sample a lot of good food and the plants were unbelievable! I am sure when Ralph retires again, you will be happy and you can come to the garden parties, we missed you.
Note to myself, next time that M&J are coming, I will have to get ready for months! They were the light of the party!
Hi Doug and Pam, It was great to see you guys again. Next time I will eat inside first before the bugs, that thing was huge wasn't it. Thanks for chasing it away and thankx so much for the cup cake I would have missed out if it hadn't been for you. LOL
The party was a huge success thakx to all the wonderfull people Hey Doug... I'll make sure to wear my happy police uniform next time LOL carmen
Hi Doug and Pam! I just love you both!!! You guys are the example of what a good couple should be and Willy and Cheryl said the same, it is so nice to see you! I am glad that Pam liked the papaya salad, it is very healthy. Remember Mike that is in charge of the community gardens? He is a very good cook! and he said the quiche was delicious! he had the spicy one, coming from him that is a big compliment.:) Cannot wait for the next party! I promise that I won't eat another quiche again till we see you next time,lol
Carmen, you were doing your job so well! that you forgot to eat,lol. Next time, we will take turns so you can eat. The swap was a big success because you are the greatest helper! Tell that to your hubby, he is so nice that he waited for you patiently. On the other hand Willy was celebrating the garden party with our friends till very late.:)
You can only post 1 picture at the time with the new way of posting pictures, unless you want to use Photobucket like I do.
The picture shows a little bit of the big bounty of plants that M brought to the party! And I see Larry thinking...lol
Carmen, somebody in the cooking forum wants to know the recipe for your Florida cranberry tea, you can post there if you want or give me and I will, it is up to you...
Silvia...I have no idea where tom is... I have left him several messages. text and email...even took his plant to Tampa with me on Monday.. no contact so far..mark I am giving his kaffir lily lots of TLC while I wait to hear from him...I hope he is ok..
Maxine, I hope that he is okay too. He is very courteous so something happened or he is busy that he didn't show up on Monday. Tom, check with us if you see this, we are worried.
Did anyone ever hear from Tom? I've been watching this thread to see that he is ok... I haven't seen any posts from him in between. Saying a quick prayer.
Thank you for your concern and the good news is that Tom is okay! he is just very busy right now but he sent me an email and he said that he will get back to me on the weekend, he will probably then show up on the forum to see what we are up to, lol. Carol, the photographer took a lot of photos, when she is done with the final work, she said it takes 3 weeks, I will be posting them...
Tom, we missed you big time! I am sure glad that you are okay and back with us.:) And you missed meeting new friends, next party you have to come. We had such a great time and I am still waiting for a whole bunch of pictures to show you and the garden friends that couldn't come...
And you missed meeting new friends, next party you have to come. We had such a great time and I am still waiting for a whole bunch of pictures to show you....
Hi Silvia,
I won't miss the next one, and I can't wait to see more pictures :-( :-)
We missed you at the party, I hope that you and Ana can come to the next one. We had a lot of fun! I planted the big tomatoes in one side of the house and the small tomatoes on the other side. After the party, everything is ripening fast! Today I made charred tomato salsa, it is one of my favorites!
Small tomatoes
Some of the big tomatoes, Neves Azorean red, Brandywine, Indian Stripe and Monoka's Hat, the best heart tomato. They are all big, I think over a pound each and very flavorful!
Silvia, I try and try, but I never manage to have tomatoes ripe at this time of year--especially not the big ones. Mine just won't set fruit until temps drop (which here was not long ago) so my plants still only have a few, small green tomatoes on them. I don't know how you do it!
Bill, this season I think I kept them longer in the porch because it was too rainy, and after it was too hot. I have the big tomatoes in afternoon shade maybe that helps.
And I am also having a banana explosion,lol. I harvested not long ago 2 bunches and now the same bananas are producing again!
Hi Bill, I missed this one too. Lets make a plan to have a "reunion" at Silvia's next shindig, think you could get Michael to come along?
Silvia, I try and try, but I never manage to have tomatoes ripe at this time of year--especially not the big ones. Mine just won't set fruit until temps drop (which here was not long ago)
Since I'm Zone 10 and my garden is only EIGHT feet from a lake I'm quite challenged with bloom set due heat AND humidity, so for large fruit I'd recommend Beefmaster, and my new "best friend" variety from Lou/Silvia - Monomakh's Hat, a Russian oxheart that has set just as well as Beefmaster under extremely harsh conditions and also has that wonderful old-world tomato taste....
Thanks for the tip, Silvia. I'm going to try giving the tomatoes more shade/protection when it's hot and humid, next summer. Your bananas are incredible!
Thanks, Tom. I'll try those varieties. I'm especially interested in that oxheart. I'm going to do my best to make our "reunion"!
Bill, I will have fresh seeds from the Hat tomatoes for you to try this spring and the Okinawa purple sweet potatoes if you like some slips...
Just harvested oxheart tomatoes, tomorrow they will be ready to eat fresh or in recipes. Sometimes I make tomato sauce with them because they are meaty and have good production.
Hello Sylvia! My name is Marla and I have been watching your garden grow and others on this site! I have been gardening for a few years now but those on this site in my growing zone have encouraged me beyond words! I hope to hear of your next swap and to attend. Mine is a work in progress. Must attend to the chicken yard first as they love escaping! Will send pictures and please if you might, send me information as to when you will have another swap. Those purple potatoes sound grand!
Welcome to the forum! And yes of course, I will post all the info on the next party that we will have , sometime around April. We are a nice group of garden friends and always like to meet new gardeners, looking forward to see you then and to look at pictures of your gardening adventures.
Great Bill! Looks like Silvia is now committed for a spring party ;-)
Hi Marla, good to see a new face :-)
Here's a picture of two Monomakh's I pulled yesterday. I'm just starting to get tomatoes now and I have to pull the early ones as soon as they break or the squirrels will get them all :-(
Tom, I am looking forward to have a reunion with all the old friends and the new ones this spring, time flies.:)
And those are some good looking tomatoes! You are going to like the taste of the heart tomatoes, they make good slices for BLT sandwich, some are so big that they fill the bread. I made a roasted tomato soup with them for a dinner party tonight, also a charred salsa. I will take pictures tonight to share...
whgille
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