The Nightshade Family

Good title for a sit-com, right? But I'm talking about vegetables.

My little porch garden continues to give me lots of pleasure along with a continuing small supply of produce.  The nightshades--tomatoes,peppers, and eggplants--just keep chugging along. Josie and I already 'harvested' our tiny crop of purple potatoes, also nightshades.

Speaking of which, I've been investigating the claim that nightshades cause inflammation and arthritis.  Most of the sources I looked at said that there are no scientific studies to support this claim -- but if you have arthritis and you find that avoiding nightshades makes you feel  better -- then that's what you should do.

The green peppers are blooming and bearing . . .

The jalapenos are hotter than usual . . .

And this one purple/yellow/orange tomato whose name I don't know fascinates me with its strange markings.

It's the purple of an eggplant . . .

The tomatoes are medium-small and mild-flavored--tasty if not as good as a Cherokee Purple. . .

Some of them really look like planets.

The Japanese eggplants seem determined to go on producing.

All of these plants would no doubt have done even better with larger pots but I've fed them monthly and watered them daily--sometimes twice daily--which is something they wouldn't have gotten down in the garden.

I have plans for expanding my porch domain next year . . .