First, the peppers. I’m growing three colors of extremely spicy Scotch Bonnet Pepper from seeds I harvested myself. I managed to get my hands on a few true Jamaican specimens – the standard red, an identically-shaped chocolate (think slightly-too-old-eggplant, not Toblerone), and a longer, narrower, and pointy yellow. These are the only seedlings I don’t have pictures of just yet, but the peppers aren’t there yet anyway of course. I planted these in mid-December in dirt, so whichever one I end up planting will have to make the transition. (They’re far enough ahead of the rest of the pack that it should be easy to choose which is healthiest.) I’ll be interested to see if they’re hybrids: will the one presumed to be yellow actually grow up that way, or was it a hybrid which will breed back to a parent’s color, as many hybrids do?
Okay, I lied. I don’t have pictures of Lemon Verbena, either, since I don’t have a plant yet, and it can’t really be grown from seed. More on all that mumbo jumbo later. For now, suffice it to say that I can’t wait to have a dense shrub of this herb infusing my whole garden and possibly house with its fragrance, which smells like angels’ wings. (I know; I asked God if it did and She said yes. It really does.)
Next up, Arugula. I bought hardware-store Arugula seeds and
they were the first to germinate and then to sprout right up. I love this salad green; its peppery and almost meaty flavor does equally well in salads and on sandwiches. Here are some close-ups of it just after emerging from its seed, and then, weeks later, of it sending out its first “true” leaves.On to Mâche (Lamb’s Lettuce/Corn Salad (I don’t know why I hate that last name but I really do)).
I got two types of seed for 
this tiny salad green. One, from an online retailer, is called gros graines, which is French for “large seeds.” The second, whose seeds look the same but smaller, are Burpee seeds I grabbed at Target. The germination rate of the Burpee seeds is significantly higher – the gros graines was just about impossible – but the purported melt-in-your-mouth texture of the bigger seeded guys might be worth trying for.
Next up, Anise Hyssop (Licorice Mint). My boss introduced me to this herb last spring and I’m totally hooked. It’s a really cool heirloom herb, whose flavor is a gentle infusion of mint and anise. (Which I, like so many of you, really thought I hated for the longest time; perhaps we’ll go there sometime in another, baking, forum.) These little guys are also just sending out their true leaves, which already begin to resemble their future selves.Marjoram seemed like a good idea but your author is sort of
persnickety about herbs, so he had to have Zaatar Marjoram, which grows wild in Syria and Israel, and whose flavor is closest to a blend of thyme and oregano. These ridiculously small seeds were tough to germinate, and only a few did. Fortunately, I think that those few are doing well, also sending out baby true leaves.Another hardware store find was Brandywine Tomato. This 19th-century Amish-bred heirloom
variety is meaty and juicy and just the picture of what a tomato should be. Some seedlings already have well-developing
leaves, and some are just sending theirs out. This tomato is probably way too big for the system I’ve set up, so their stay in it may be brief; we’ll see how it goes. What I really like about these seedlings is how clearly you can see in them the difference between a plant's "seed" leaves (cotyledons) and its true leaves.Lettuce had to make it in, of course. I chose an old standby, Black-Seeded Simpson. Waiting for a
whole head to grow and then chopping it off seemed inappropriate for my little setup, but I’ll hopefully be able to take leaves at need from this leaf lettuce variety.Like any pastry person would, I saved the best for last. Alpine Strawberries should wind up a gem in this collection. I chose them for their intense flavor (and as an added bonus, they won’t send runners out into my other containers). Granted, one plant won’t yield a lot, but those few berries it does bear will be insanely good. As long as I can end up with one four-ounce jar of jam, I’ll be happy. (Possibly so happy that I lose some other plants and
plant more of these… we’ll see how it goes.) They were tricky to germinate but not difficult. It was a matter of finding a cool but decently-lit area – they like light for germinating but also 55-65°. So, I gave it to them, and, weeks before expected, they sprouted right up. Now, several of the 30 or so seedlings that have come up are sending out true leaves. Perhaps the truest leaves of any so far; easily the most defined.Stay tuned for more technical junk and pictures of technical junk, and maybe some pictures of plant junk as it becomes available and interesting!
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