Greetings!

Last week, when one of my elder sisters was feeding our ducks and chickens near my vegetable garden she saw ripe papaya on one of my papaya trees near the cage of our ducks and chickens. This is the first time that we got to harvest ripe papaya inside my vegetable garden. The majority of the papaya that we get to consume came from the papaya that is outside the garden. She handed it to me and I am very excited about its appearance so I wasted no time, I looked for a knife and a plate and readied it for peeling (photo below).

As I am peeling it (photo below) I noticed that its color is red-orange, not the typical light yellow-orange that we always get to harvest on my papaya that is outside the garden. At this moment I realized that I am peeling a nice variety of papaya.

Here's what it looks like (photo below) after I peeled it. I am actually not sure what variety of this papaya is because I just germinated the seeds to one of the papayas that we bought from the market last year. As I am drafting this blog I actually harvested a second ripe papaya from the same tree where my elder sister harvested the first one.

And here it is after I sliced them into bite sizes. Also, to my excitement, I messaged another of my elder sisters and I sent her the photo of the second papaya that I harvested.

I sent her the photo of the second papaya that I harvested to boast and also to entice her. Haha. After seeing the photo that I sent her she immediately knew what variety of the papaya is, she said, it is a "Red Lady" papaya (I forgot that this elder sister of mine is selling seedlings of trees and plants).

Then I put it in the fridge because I love eating chilled papayas.

Because the papaya is very juicy and very sweet when newly harvested from the tree and because I also frequently see this type of papaya being sold in malls I decided to grow more of it. It is a good thing I have some nice seed-raising medium that I bought from a well-known company months ago.

Here are the seeds that I got from the papaya.

I wasted no time, I prepared all the materials needed in germinating the seeds. It is quite easy to germinate papaya seeds just like what I experienced on this Red Lady variety before. Below are the materials that I am going to use in germinating the seeds.

And to help my fellow small-time vegetable gardeners in my country, here is a close-up of the medium that I usually use in germinating most of the seeds that I am planting in my vegetable garden.

To avoid contaminating the soil-less medium I wrapped my hand with plastic while getting some soil that I am going to use (photo below).

Then I put them on the pot.

Then level the soil when I got the desired amount of soil.

Then I put all the seeds into the pot. Covered them with the soil-less medium and it is done.

Harvesting Banana Blossoms

A few days ago, I was finally able to harvest the banana blossoms in my vegetable garden which I have been planning for the past two weeks. That's how busy I am with our rice farm, most of the I am not able to work on my vegetable garden during rice farming season even if my vegetable garden is just beside our house.

Below is a gif image of one of the banana blossoms that I harvested.

And here are the banana fruits of the banana blossoms that I harvested. This will be the first time that this banana bear fruits. Once the fruits are ripe I will be able to tell the variety of this banana whether it is a Latundan or Lakatan (both are my number 1 and number 2 favorites respectively).

Here's a close up of the banana blossom that is still attached to the tree (before harvesting).

And below is a photo of the second banana blossom that I harvested. This variant is locally known as Saba, which is also my favorite in making Banana Cue and Banana Con Yelo.

A Glimpse of my Vegetable Garden

It was mid-June when I started to get busy on our rice farm (the start of rice farming season). And from then on I was not able to do works on my vegetable garden until I harvested the second Red Lady papaya and the two banana blossoms.

After I harvested the banana blossoms I was able to take a quick tour on my soaking wet garden because of the very frequent heavy rains.

Below is a photo of another of my papaya trees, this will also be the first time that this papaya bear fruit.

Below is the Red Lady papaya tree where my elder sister harvested the first fruit and this is also the same papaya where I harvested the second papaya fruit.

Moving on to my quick garden tour here is a glimpse of my one and only citrus in my garden, a Calamansi.

In other part of my garden there's the Okra, one of my favorites when it comes to vegetables.

Moving on to another part of my garden here is a photo of one of the fruits of my eggplant which is my son's favorite when cooked as Torta.

And below is a photo of the black seeded string beans that I planted before the rice farming season.

I am in the mood of taking a selfie so took one with one of the banana blossoms that I harvested.

And here they are side by side, the banana blossoms that I harvested.

Before I end this blog, here is the video while I am harvesting the banana blossoms including the quick tour.