How to Grow Peppers (Sili) from Seeds

Growing peppers (sili) from seeds use pretty much the same method as growing tomatoes. I actually planted my hot pepper seeds the same time I planted my okra seeds, eggplants seeds, and tomato seeds.

Read more:

HOW TO GROW PEPPERS THE EASY WAY

My Kailan (Chinese Broccoli) Harvest

According to Wikipedia:

Kai-lan, also known as Chinese broccoli, is a leaf vegetable featuring thick, flat, glossy blue-green leaves with thick stems and a small number of tiny, almost vestigial flower heads similar to those of broccoli. Broccoli and kai-lan belong to the same species Brassica oleracea, but kai-lan is in the group alboglabra [Latin albus+glabrus white and hairless]. Its flavor is very similar to that of broccoli, but a bit bitter. It is also noticeably stronger. Broccolini is a hybrid between broccoli and kai-lan, produced by Mann Packing Company, Inc.

I shared with you before how I planted my Kailan seeds. Today, I want to show you that I've been harvesting kailan leaves for a few weeks now and it's been a staple in my diet ever since, together with my eggplant, my tomatoes, my kangkong, my okra, and even my sili (pepper). I'll soon blog about the dishes I made with it over at my food blog. 

My Egglants are Turning Yellow

I was ecstatic to know that I could be growing another variety of eggplant coz mine was starting to turn yellow. 

Although, I did have some hunches of why it was doing so. I planted 4 eggplants in one pot and I added a different kind of soil a month ago. Maybe that was contributing to this phenomenon. So I did further research and these are the things I found out:

Memory Foam for our Home

Since I was  kid, it has always been my nature to beautify my immediate surroundings. Hence, I had the best-looking room in the house, I always re-arranged our living room furniture, I made our house a lot prettier than its current condition. When I got married, I also carried this discipline with me even when we were just staying at my in-laws' house. I practically redecorated the place after my mother-in-law passed away.

Here's our house in Bulacan (2002):

My Recent Vegetable Harvest

I've been busy with work that I seldom visit my mini vegetable garden anymore except in the morning when I water my plants so it was such a lovely surprise when I saw how many fruits they've been producing. I've actually been cooking my eggplant harvest almost everyday now and will probably be eating more of those the rest of the week, considering that I am running out of groceries. 

How and When to Harvest Eggplants

The last time I posted about my eggplants, they were just tiny cute eggplant seedlings. I planted them together with my tomatoes and they ended up thriving more. I think right now, I have more than 10 pots of eggplant and not only have they started bearing fruits weeks ago, but those that first did have already grown their fruits so much that I already harvested one of them.

So how do you know when your eggplant is ready to be harvested? Here are some guidelines:

Travel Size Sexy Bonbon Jelly Soaps

I am currently developing a vanity kit for my Frugalicious Essentials and first on the list is creating jelly soaps at travel sizes. Since I'll be gone this summer (I'm off to Bacolod first week of March then I'll be living in Siargao the next two weeks after that, then who knows where I'll be the rest of the summer, hehe), I want to make as many travel sized herbal soaps as possible, not just for my own personal use, but for other people as well who love to travel, swim, stay out in the sun and still be able to take care of their skin by using herbal and organic ingredients on their skin. 

So this morning, I made my first batch of Sexy Bonbon assorted travel soaps. I'm waiting for them to cure and harden so I can introduce  them on my Frugalicious online store.

I'm hoping to give away some of my soaps once I reach 100 likes on my page. So if you haven't visited my facebook page yet, please head there now and like it. You might just be one of the lucky recipients of my herbal jelly soaps!

https://www.facebook.com/thefrugalicious

Frugalicious Sexy Bonbon Herbal Soaps

All my herbal jelly soaps have just recently hardened and are now ready for sale (yay!). I'm just finding the time to post all of them on my online store, The Frugalicious, where I plan to post not just the herbal soaps I make, but also my other trinkets for sale like frugal but quality apparel, handmade crafts, beaded jewelry and other homemade accessories.

Check out what I have there now:

Sexy Bonbon Jeweled Jelly Discs

Sexy Bonbon Peppermint Oatmeal Jelly Bars

Sexy Bonbon Coolwater Cupcake Jelly

Sexy Bonbon Cinnamon Cookie Jelly in Sweet pea Scent

My Tomato Plants Started Bearing Fruits

After breakfast this morning, I went to the balcony to water and prune my plants (as usual) when I noticed that my tomato plants now have a number of tomato fruits! Oh wow! At long last! I noticed that they come from the flowers that were already wilted. Then it hit me, no wonder it took a while for my tomato plants to bear fruit --- I kept pruning the dried flowers before! Ack! This is what happens when I don't study vegetable farming very well and I just learn as I go along. Now that I know better, you also know better. I will never prune dried flowers anymore. Teehee.

Here, look at the photos I took this  morning of my babies bearing their own baby tomatoes. So cute!

Assorted Sexy Bonbon Jelly Soaps Still Cookin'

For the first two working days of 2012, my mornings were spent making batches of my Sexy Bonbon herbal jelly soaps. It takes a few days for them to harden and cure so until then, I won't be able to display the finished products on The Frugalicious --- a site I made where I'll be selling not just my herbal jelly soaps, but my other crafts as well. Most of the time, the stocks run out and get bought even before I display them so I plan to just keep on making during my free time. 

Do LIKE and check out   https://www.facebook.com/thefrugalicious  to avail of  promos and and see what's for sale. (^_^)

My First Okra Harvest

My vegetable plants are growing bigger and bigger and I'm still amazed at how I am able to take care of them for almost four months now. I never had a green thumb before but now I believe that with enough patience, discipline and passion, anything is possible! 

I've already harvested from my Kangkong (and I keep doing so every week) and now my Okra! It's really true what vegetable farmers say... the fulfillment you get from eating food that you grow yourself is priceless and fulfilling. I should know... I just ate steamed okra for breakfast together with kangkong, carrots, eggs, fish, soya milk and brown rice. Yum!

I hope the photos below will inspire you to start planting too. Let's be self-sustainable! 

Sexy Bonbon Jelly Soaps - Sexy Nomad's Frugalicious Essentials

I've been doing my natural herbal soaps together with my natural spa products since 2003 but it was only this year that my husband coined my soaps Sexy Bonbon, a play on words "sexy" and the Filipino word for soap which is "sabon". It sounds catchy (just like Ricky Martin's song "Shake Your Bon-bon") and funnily enough, it sounds Filipino too.