Prolific Peppers & Bee Stings
I spied a particularly fat and juicy blackberry in the patch yesterday. As I reached over to pick it, a bee swooped in and stung me right in the armpit. Ouch! A paste of baking soda and water works like magic to take the pain away. Luckily, it was just a honey bee that stung me. I saw this ominous looking creature in there today and backed off. Does anyone know what this is?
This summer has been so dry here. The gardens are looking very stressed and haggard. The cucumber patch finally succumbed to powdery mildew so I cleared it out and discovered a metropolis of moles. Ugh… my nemesis. They’ve infiltrated the blueberry bushes too.
Calendulas are still plugging away. I add the dried petals to the soap I make.. they retain their color and shape beautifully. The rest of the heads, I steep in jojoba, olive or grapeseed oil. After a month or so, I strain the oil and use it as a base for skin cream.
The heirloom Napolitan peppers I had so much trouble getting to sprout earlier,ended up being good little producers. 15 plants yielded over 100 peppers. I’ve had my fill of them so I’m seeding, coring and slicing these and whatever else comes in and popping them into the freezer to use over the winter. The seeds I’ll save for next year.
It’s cool out today. I have chicken soup bubbling on the stove and oatmeal cookies baking in the oven. My kitchen smells so good. I’m going to pack it all up and bring it to my daughter.
I hope all of you are having a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by:)
Thanks for the tip on how to soothe bee stings, hadn’t heard of that! 🙂
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Most welcome! Thanks for stopping by!
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What a lovely write-up! Yes great tip on bee stings, I wonder would it work on wasp stings also. The creature you have the lovely photo of looks like it is a hornet which are not very nice and keep stinging you, but I could be wrong.
I’m also going to make face cream with my calendula oil, some day soon.
Hope you had a lovely day.
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Thank you ! Sometimes if I don’t have time to make cream I use the strained oil and honestly I think it works just as well. Do you do that too? Something about this struck me as waspish too. Lol.
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Yes to be honest though I have all the ingredients ready, I have not started to make my lotion. I sometimes have trouble with oils, my skin does not seem to like them too much though I have very dry skin – so it should be good for it. I have been soaking (for want of a better word) St.Johns worth, camomile, and calendula, for the past few weeks. I think you are right, oils are good enough on their own. I use arnica oils straight from the bottle too.
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Might be the oils are too heavy. Jojoba is supposedly very light and easily absorbed but it’s a wax really, not an oil and it is pricey
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Yes I am about to try Jojoba out Cynthia.
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Beautiful peppers and sunflowers. You’ve inspired me to start a garden.Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks! I think you will love it
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Looks like it might be a Common Eastern Bumble Bee.
http://www.insectidentification.org/pictureviewer/insect-pic-detail.asp?identification=Common-Eastern-Bumble-Bee&sCurrentPic=pic1
Glad you’re all right.
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Thanks Judy! If this is a type of bumble bee, for sure i wont try and pet it, lol.
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Mildew is often a sign of plant stress, you land does look kind of dry so it could be drought stress, but who knows for sure? Anyway, Spraying leaves with baking soda (1 teaspoon in 1 quart water) raises the pH, creating an inhospitable environment for powdery mildew, it doesn’t clear, it just prevents spreading. Also, there could be a lack of nutrients thereby a weaker plant, I would recommend mulching every year 🙂
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Thanks Jeff! I am sure this is drought stress. It’s news to me that mildew is caused by that. i thought it was a sort of fungus.
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Did you ever pet a bubblebee?
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Interesting comments and tips. I think it is strange that the bee or wasp flew at you and stung you when you were not threatening it. Ehwww…under the arm, what a tender spot! Once upon a time, a wasp flew down into my bikini top. That woke me up! My father got stung in the mouth once when he took a bite out of a sandwich the wasp was on…but the worst, the worst, I ever heard of was when a friend was riding his Harley down the street and one flew up his nose! Can you imagine? Your kitchen sounds like the best place anyone could be today. Hmmm, cookies baking and chicken soup on the stove. There are good points to autumn approaching.
Ginene
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Ginene – I got to laughing about the one bee story after the other. I may never step outside, again! LOL
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oh, Ginene!! Yikes!! I think the nose story is the worst but the other 2 are not far behind. My Dad ran over a bee’s nest with a sit down lawnmower. They came out of their nest after him. It was like watching a cartoon. He jumped off the mower and ran into the house, leaving it to crash into the rosebushes.
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Cynthia, I did the same thing your Dad did so I know how that can happen. I was not quite so brave or bright, I crashed into the chicken house with bees chasing me on the John Deere lawn mower. I forgot about that!
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Oh noo!!
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That’s an awesome sunflower! Love your pictures 🙂
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thanks!
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Reading your blog makes me hungry. Too bad I don’t have chicken soup on my stove – now why not? Great pics but the bee sting sounds horrible. Thanks for the home remedy.
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Thanks, Mary. Your summer is kicking in now, isn’t it? I love that time of the year. I am always hungry, lol, doesnt matter what season it is:)
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I can’t identify your scary creature, but it seems sensible to have backed off, especially after a bee-sting. Sunflowers and sunburst – clever.
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thanks, Derrick! You noticed my “sun thing”. Couldn’t resist
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Gosh, I know this sounds odd, but you are the first person I know to have been stung by a honey bee. I hope you are OK.
I was once stung by wasps and those bites swelled to the size of oranges (I guess I am allergic), but I am always gardening around bees they have never taken the slightest interest in me.
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I’m fine, thanks! I get stung a few times a year. Im not sure it was a honey bee but there were loads of them around andI figured a wasp or hornet sting would have been a lot more painful. How scary to have a sting swell up that big! Maybe because you were stung more than once. Spider bites are no joke either. I’ve had them swell up pretty big (not as big as oranges!) and take months to heal
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Ouch! I’m not a fan of spider-bites, especially those that take forever to heal. It wasn’t a brown-recluse spider was it? I know they are in the south…..
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I don’t know, lol. Spiders are sneaky biters.
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Sorry you got stung. I went for 20+ years without getting a sting then suddenly, last year and this, I got a couple of them. Two tips to lower the odds – pick just as daylight is breaking. I have bald-faced, European hornets and they don’t get up that early so you can pick a bit more safely. And I know it looks really weird ( http://growsoeasyorganic.com/2015/08/06/european-hornets-persist-in-my-garden/ )but I wear a Tyvex suit when picking because of the large number of hornets and bees in my blueberry and blackberry patches. I was bitten by what looked like a bumblebee, too. I’m not sure it was and its nest was under one of my blueberry bushes. PS, if you can let your peppers go red, they are so sweet that I eat them like candy…put them in salads and fry them up with onions and mushrooms for a side dish.
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I read that post. It does look funny but it beats getting attacked by hornets, lol! I will try and let the peppers go red. It’s so dry here that they start curling once they start getting dark. Organic red peppers cost $8.00 a pound here. I pass them up but you are so right..they are sweet and delicious. Thanks, Pat!
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The sunflower and sunbeam photo is awesome! Beautiful.
It’s been brutally dry here too. It hasn’t rained in weeks. Our summer gardens are cooking. I’m irrigating to try to keep our fall plants alive, but we could really use a good soaking rain.
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I’m in South Jersey & same here. Everything in the garden (including me) is looking droopy.
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Crispy here now..including me too, lol!
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Thanks, Bill! No rain in the forecast here for another week. I don’t remember things being this hot and dry in a long time. You’ve had a tough season down there this year. The weather was challenging in itself but I still can’t get over that the deer ate your tomatoes. Geez
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Lovely photo of the sun coming through the sunflowers. We too had a bumper crop of peppers this year which are still yielding. Bee stings, YUK! Jo @ Let’s Face the Music
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Thanks, Jo. Nice to get a great crop of peppers! That usually isn’t the case here. Strange and extreme weather here the past few years. Oh well, New England…
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Compare the left photo in the first row of three. Looks like a robber fly, also called assassin fly. This is an Australian webpage, but they have worldwide distribution according to Wikipedia. http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_robbers/Robbers.htm
Dry here too.
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Thanks, Aggie! It does look like a robber fly. Not the most attractive creature but who am Ito say?
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Very nice peppers! Baking soda and water is my standby–I was stung by a wasp this summer, and it worked just fine!
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Wasp stings are a lot worse…ugh!
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Your Sunflowers are beautiful and those peppers look great. We picked veggies out of my parents garden yesterday. My Daughter said it was like a candy store but better. She followed that up with my carrots mine mine mine!!!
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Thanks, Missy. That sounds fun. So great that your daughter likes vegetables! I never grew carrots but I heard that they are sweet and delicious homegrown!
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The description of your kitchen is getting me excited for fall!
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As much as I hate to see summer end, there is something kind of exciting about Fall.
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I agree completely:)
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Ouch! Hopefully the bee sting is subsiding. Don’t know what that fearsome critter is, though.
Great news about the peppers anyway 🙂
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Thanks, Helen. Within a few minutes, the sting was gone. I’m happy about the peppers…still kind of sore about the tomatoes, lol
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Yes, hard not to sore 😦
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That’s a lot of peppers! Do you know if you have picked a peck of peppers by now?
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Think I may have, I’ll check wit Peter Piper, lol!
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Ouch!! Great sting tip 🙂 x
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lol! Sting is the perfect word for that experience
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Sunflowers are my favourite!! I have a TON of Calendula but other than adding them to salads I have no idea what to do with them all!!! Is soap making hard? It sounds like a fun idea to try with the munchkins!
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It”s not hard but the lye is caustic. Maybe not something for kids. Your girls might like making bath salts. Dried calendula petals are wonderful additions to them and its healthy, easy and fun. Great for gift giving too
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Hmmm, bath salts sound fun too! I will have to google it!
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Enjoy your harvest! You worked hard for it!!!
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thanks, Lori! Glad your ducklings were ok.
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I’ll be right over for some soup and cookies! Sorry about your sting. I would be staying away from that other creature too…….
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Come on up, Camelia!
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W have a long hot summer this year too. Seeing yellow lawns and lifeless trees.my heart aches. Wiled fire burn out almost 77,000 acres of forests…..
Wjhere is the rain?
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How horrible! It is still very dry here. It is unusual to be without rain here for so long.
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Let’s pray for God’s mercy.
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