Do Tell Me What They Are

My friends called me crazy for leaving what they call a "very good job". They can't imagine how an urban yuppie can take a drastic turn in his lifestyle and chose to be a farmer. But they know that once I make a decision, it is always final. I have been trained in my work to take a critical appraisal of every decision I take. It is not like I plunge myself on things out of fancy. So when my friends realized I wasn't kidding about turning myself into a farmer, they have been all out with their support.

The support may not often be the kind of support I want but hey! you can't be choosy with the support you want to get when it comes to friends. You would not believe how many packets of seeds I receive each week from the mail sent me by seed companies courtesy of well intentioned friends. I have misgivings about commercial seeds as I believe they are intended to be grown with inorganic inputs. We want to turn the farm into a showcase of sustainable farming technologies so going inorganic is out of the question.

We can't just throw the seeds away so what we did was grow them organically. Much to my surprise, the seeds responded favorably. But this post is not really about commercial seeds and organic farming technology, that could be the subject of much later post.

This post is about one plant that turned out to be a surprise. Look at the photos! People who visit the farm could not believe it's real. They think its plastic and had to dig their nails into it to make sure its real. Even the globe hopping me (it was part of my old work) have not seen them in the countries I have been into, at least not in the shops of Sainsbury or Tesco which I frequent when in London. I know they are of the squash family but what they are really I do not know. Our mistake, we did not tag them when we had them planted.

Are they edible? Are they simply ornamental? They do look good for Ikebana. Does any of our readers know?