Prolific Peppers & Bee Stings

/ Cynthia


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?
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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:)

63 thoughts on “Prolific Peppers & Bee Stings”

  2. 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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  5. 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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  7. 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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  11. 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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  12. 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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  13. 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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  17. 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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