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. 

My First Kangkong Harvest

My Kangkong has been growing and crawling into my other vegetable plants that I decided to cut some of its stems and leaves so it doesn't get too crowded. 

Repotting Tomato Plants for the Third Time

I spent my first hour this morning repotting my tomato plants for the third time. This is how they look like now:

The second time I repotted my tomato plants was when I transferred them from those recycled ice cream bins I used before, to green pails I bought one time at Festival Mall (coz at that time, I had no idea that plastic pots are sold in Ace Hardware and I was too busy to go to a gardening shop... LOL!).

Making Jelly Soaps Once Again

Yep, I'm back in my workshop making jelly soaps once again! Yay!

I've just been beset by a lot of  "distractions" I call work but right now, after all the confusion, meditation, and consultation, I think I'm really going forward with this.

This week, I've made ten kinds of soaps and I hope to make more in the coming weeks. I don't have any help, it's just me and my tiny hands doing all the grunt work so bear with me as I get everything going. I make each batch with love and passion as if they're all that matters in my world. Teehee.

I'm working on other things soap-related at the moment (like the pricing, packaging, website to house my inventories, description, etc.). I'll also be giving away some jelly soaps real soon.

Til then!

How to Grow Kailan and Kangkong Seeds

HOW TO GROW WATER SPINACH (KANGKONG) AND CHINESE KALE (KAILAN) THE EASY WAY

Tomato, Eggplant and Okra Seedlings 2nd Month Update

It's been two months since I ventured into making my own vegetable garden. I've only re-potted my tomato, eggplant and okra seeds once and I've been meaning to transplant them again to much bigger pots where they can permanently grow and bear vegetable fruits. Unfortunately, I can no longer eat tomatoes, eggplant and okra because of my GERD and acid reflux but maybe once I'm healed, I can slowly incorporate them in my diet again.

I'll really find time his weekend to re-pot my growing vegetable seedlings. Must jot this down on my short-term goals book. I need to include this little activity and use the power of goal setting.

Anyway, here are photos I took a few minutes ago to show you how big my okra, tomato and eggplants seedlings are now:

2-month old tomato seedlings

How to Grow Eggplant Seeds - My Mini Vegetable Garden Project

Growing eggplants use pretty much the same procedure as growing tomatoes. I actually planted my eggplant seeds the same time I planted my okra seeds and tomato seeds. As my tomato and okra seeds were starting to grow only after a week, there was still no visible sign of eggplant sprouts so I just let it grow in its own pace. That was Sept. 18, 2011.

HOW TO GROW EGGPLANTS THE EASY WAY

How to Transplant Tomato and Okra Seedlings

Last month (October), the weather has been rainy and stormy that it proved to be bad for my tomato and okra seedlings which needed to be under direct sunlight in order to grow well. They were also crowding in their little recycled pots so I thought of transplanting them. Some survived and some didn't. Here's how it happened.

Transplanting Tomato Seedlings

Tomato seedlings are more resilient than okra. Once their stems grow about 3 inches, and they get to have more than two true leaves, and they seem crowded in their little pots, they can be transplanted to a bigger and deeper individual pots.

The Winners of the Jelly Soap Giveaway!

Here's the video of the manual raffle I did for my Oatmeal Jelly Soap in Lacoste Pink Scent Giveaway. Congratulations to Mitchteryosa and Mommy Jes! Watch out for my email notification. And my sincerest thanks to all who participated. Til my next jelly soap giveaway!