Saturday, August 02, 2008

Salty tears for the Ocean

I love the ocean. Tidepooling, boogie boarding, snorkeling, even sand between my toes and crusty sea salty hair, I love it all! So when I read articles like this it wakes up the activist in me. I already have blogged about the floating graveyard of plastic in the Pacific Ocean... here is some bad news for the Gulf of Mexico, a dead zone created by agricultural runoff in the Mississippi River.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/30/AR2008073002943.html?hpid=topnews

Friday, August 01, 2008

It takes two to tango...

...and to make tomatillos.
I planted a tomatillo plant several months ago and I have been so excited to make salsa verde. The plant has hundreds of blossoms and many have developed into the characteristic paper husk that surrounds the tomatillo fruit. I became suspicious that something was wrong when none of the husks seemed to grow fruit. I searched for tomatillo on Wikipedia and sure enough it says the tomatillo is "highly self-incompatible" It needs another tomatillo plant to pollinate. Bummer!