Things that make me go "ewww"

Look, I don't scare easy. I take the train downtown at night alone, and not to the gentrified tourist trap by the Staples Center, but to Spring Street by the court house and police headquarters. I walk fast, but not scared. I make enough eye contact with questionable characters to say, "I see you", but not so much so they think I'm saying, "I can take you." I turn my iPod down, low enough so I can hear my surroundings but I keep them on so I don't invite random solicitations for bootleg cigarettes, hats or good old fashion cash money. As Halloween is fast approaching I thought I would write about things which bring on fright. For me, this includes things which slither, rodents of any size (except the barrel shaped 90 lb. Capybara which I think is kind of adorable) and anything that would qualify as a "critter." Now I know many of these "critters" are good for the garden. I accept this and am eager to protect ecosystems and the general circle of life. But then I find these "critters" and all intellectual thoughts and theories give way to irrational fears...

Meet Manduca quinquemaculata caterpiller, also known as a tomato hornworm. This guy, and his ilk, can be found throughout the United States, northwestern Mexico and southern Canada. Apparently, they're often found clinging onto defoliated tomato plants, which is exactly what this worm was doing.


We were working on changing over the crops this weekend and as the hero boyfriend was pulling out the long gone tomato plants I noticed that nasty green guy on my bell pepper plant. In a surprisingly calm voice I asked the hero boyfriend to take a look at this giant caterpillar I found. He was delighted, I was horrified. The hero boyfriend wanted to give the giant worm to the chickens, you know, circle of life stuff. Cool. But there was no f***ing way I was going to touch it.









Cranberry, the littlest chicken of them all, took the "prize." It was like watching some kind of animal kingdom Coliseum, ancient Roman, crazy making. I wanted to run, but I couldn't look away...










In other chicken/worm news, the hero boyfriend took out the meal worms on this same glorious day. I don't involve myself in this process. In fact, I want nothing to do with this process. And really, this is usually when I pull the URBAN farm girl card.

Note: These are clearly not Urban Farm Girl hands









In less gross but also in the vein of odd/Halloween things, is this. One of the very last tomatoes picked from the past season's plants was this conjoined mutant tomato. Yes, all this on the same adventurous day in the garden...lucky Urban Farm Girl.







In happier/prettier news, I am pleased to introduce this fall season's pepper collection! Meet Habanero, Serrano, Jalapeño and Bell.