It's that time of year when the passionflower vine's green egg-shaped fruits are ripening. Yesterday I picked a handful for eating. Sweet and tropical, they're almost like eating a pomegranite;  the flavor is in a pulp sac enclosing small hard black seeds.  Another reason to buy a good juicer...

All summer I've been harvesting the vines, with their exotic purple flowers and fruit, to dry for passionflower tea.  (see earlier post: Recent Interview for a description of the tea)

In the garden, while I begin to clear the beds for fall planting, there are 3 humming birds visiting the abundant flowers on morning glory vines that have sprung up on all the fences.  The flowers bloom in two shades of red, white, blue, purple and pink.  The hummers love the reds and purples. 

In the far corner, where we composted the debris from clearing out the flower beds in the yard this summer, bits of rhizome took root, and now huge red and yellow canna lilies bloom there.

Most of the summers veggies have finished, though I'm still picking a tomato or two every weekend.  Yesterday I pulled up foot-long daikon radish and set them to pickle in a salt brine with ginger and red peppers.  In a day or two, they'll be slightly fermented and ready to go in the fridge.  Daikon is considered, in chinese medicine, to help the digestion.  I like its mild taste and tenacious growth habit.