The Ice Cream Bean Cometh!

I spent the better part of a conversation on Easter Sunday attempting to remember the name of a particular fruit eaten in Central America with a friend from that neck of the woods.

After much searching (in our minds), we were unable to actually remember the name of it, to our collective frustration.

This morning, however, I have finally remembered the name of said fruit:

The Guaba.

At least that is the name given to it in Aji Chombo Land. The Scientific name for it is Inga edulis. The English name for it is apparently the Ice Cream Bean, which I find funny, though strangely appropriate.

I remember having some as a child, and what a fantastically strange fruit it was. Imagine if you will a very large tree with pods nearly a foot long by about an inch and a half. Inside these pods are large black seeds wrapped in what looks like dense, white cotton, or cotton candy. The taste is a bit like banana, but sweeter, and with a slightly more fibrous texture.

Good stuff, and the tree apparently helps replenish nutrients into the soil (in a similar fashion to legumes).

Just if any of you are planning to start crops...

Four days away from the plants seems like an eternity.

Four days away from work however, are bliss.

Amazing how quickly stress builds up again, even though there's hardly anything to do thanks to Easter Break.

I think the lack of things to do just piles on even more stress.

Who would ever have though that?

It's either stress from not having much to do AND being in a very publicly exposed location, or the fantastic combination of under staffing, exposure, and high levels of friction caused by inconsistent (highly, HIGHLY inconsistent) customer service policies. Hopefully things will get sorted out soon (since the higher ups have realised just how stressed we are down in the trenches), but odds are I'll be face to face with the Oriental Yeti (Elvis' Pet) before I see any worthwhile changes...

:-(

But I digress.

The Maize Morado is doing very well. Seems to like it's new 'enclosure.' I really am eagerly anticipating the eight foot tall stalks (as are the people in the office I put them in, since they will act as natural shade).

The Roselle is not shooting up like the Maize Morado, but it continues to grow steadily. I imagine this lack of growth has more to do with the low temperatures in this start/stop spring (since it snowed last week). But it looks healthy so I'm going to keep crossing my fingers. I was actually asked about the progress of the Roselle by one of the girls from the Deli Almapaprika and I go to often.

The sub par spring also seems to be affecting the chillies, leading to a lot of uneven growth. One Royal Gold is on it's third set of true leaves, while the other is only just starting the second. And they both germinated on the same day.

The Trinidad Scorpion, the Madame Jeannette, and the Aji Umba Red lead the way for the chinenses, followed closely now by the Barrackpore 7-Pot; while the Ring of Fire Cayenne and the Thai Dragon are doing their usual thing now (growing fast).

Oh, and the Black Nagas are showing their first true leaves!

That last bit of news is absolutely fantastic for me.

It balances out the disaster of the home grown hydroponics...though I may have figured out what went wrong, but it is too late to fix...

Anywho, enough of my babbling.

Que le Den Candela!

I feel so horrible right now...

:-(

Curse me for thinking my body is still a decade younger than what it really is! (although a decade ago I was actually in worse physical shape, so...)

My quadriceps feel like the muscles themselves are constantly being rubbed with Naga Morich juice while being mercilessly struck by the paddles of drunken frat bro's in some sadistic initiation ritual. My back feels like a very fragile and cheap piece of porcelain being balanced on a pinhead.

We've got kiddies visiting the workplace, and every time I have to de-power the gates to let them through (an act which requires me crouching down to reach the master power switch) or to let them out puts me in a world of pain. It's a fantastic and completely pointless visit on the part of the kiddies, many of whom have libraries on their own schools with similar resources.

But then again, PR is PR, I guess (unless the Prime Minister unleashes 'The Forces from Hell' on you. Here I thought the smell of sulphur was caused by sewage. How wrong I was to think so naively...)

Asides from that throbbing pain my abs received a workout at the pokey-stabbey-slashy practice the likes of which they had not received in a year, so every time I sneeze or my stomach does anything, I feel amazingly unwell.

Add a headache, and you have what my darling Almpapaprika would call:

Absolute Rubbish.

I was amazingly fortunate to have been raised in a household with a physician, which meant every time I got ill, or felt ill, if there wasn't blood pouring out of my eyes, or at least one major internal organ protruding from a previously non-existent bodily orifice I was fine.

And now I've chosen as a partner another person of the medical profession.

With the exact same outlook regarding my health.

:-/

I almost forgot to mention (what with the usual daily diatribe):

THE HEATING AT WORK IS NOW WORKING!

Hazzah! They have finally done one right! (having just committed this to print, there will probably some catastrophic failure of another aspect of the building tomorrow morning).

As soon as I found out I rushed home and got some more seedlings to bring over, in an effort to get things back on track. I moved:

1x Aji Umba Red
1x Trinidad Scorpion
2x Ring of Fire Cayenne
1x Thai Dragon

I've got a few more to move about in the next few days. Now the windowsills at the office will provide a good 10 hours of light minimum (plus the lights from the office), as well as a constant temperature (from both solar radiation and the radiators a few inches from the pots), which should get this party started.

I have lost one Habanero Mustard (legginess + tumbling = broken stem), and the Almapaprika seedling and another Ring of Fire seem to be suffering from burns (through what is burning them I have no idea).

Oooh!, I nearly also forgot! Both Strawberry Guavas have germinated! It took them about 30 days, and it has been painfully slow, but they are both out! :-)

I wish I was in bed...