How lovely! I've gotten pretty good at growing vegetables, but flowers, not so much.
Poland has a variety of hardiness zones, which will determine how much longer you have in your growing season. I would suggest things like brassicas (which include kale and broccoli), as they can handle temperatures a bit below freezing. But keep in mind the size of your balcony, as they can get pretty big.
If you can buy seedlings of annual herbs like parsley, dill, basil, there's still time for a good harvest even in the colder areas of Poland. Do you have space where you can bring some pots inside?
Fair point, I have flown too close to the sun before, and used so little water that my pasta came out with undercooked clumped spots. So reduce water volume with care.
I usually use as little water as I can get away with, as the resulting pasta water is much more starchy and works better in sauces.
Huh, how odd. Not what I would have expected, but in that case, go for flavor!
Interesting, what about a version with a little bit of both, for both the taste and smell?
Yum, I haven't tried chocolate sprinkles before, how's the taste?
Poblanos are probably my favorite peppers to grow. Very mild heat, but tons of flavor, and fantastic for rellenos or enchiladas.
[Image description: close up of a large green poblano pepper on the plant]
Featuring some crispy fried shallots too.
[Image description: a plate with a pile of mashed potatoes topped with a sausage, gravy, and fried shallots. Peas and roasted carrots on the side, and a glass of beer in the background.]
But there's something about the roots of these new cuttings that gives me trypophobia-esque heebie jeebies.
[Image description: a hand holding a segment of a tomato stem. The lower part of the stem has straight white roots sticking out from one side.]
[Vegan] and [Vegetarian] are quick ones that come to mind. Maybe also like the region of the cuisine? i.e. [Chinese], [Peruvian], or maybe the type of meal [Breakfast], [Appetizer].
So I'm a geologist, but this happened a ways back when I was still in school. One of my classes had recently taken a trip to see an outcrop of igneous intrusions in the local hills. I got invited as a plus one to my fiance's cousin and her now-wife's wedding, and as he and I were driving to the venue, I said "oh hey I know this place, there's dikes everywhere around here!"
He looked at me with this shocked expression, and realizing what I just said sounded like, I hastily explained the geologic definition. He made me promise not to speak a word of it at the wedding.
I've seen the two of them at the occasional Thanksgiving in the years since, and though I find humor in it, I've never felt like I could judge if it would be in poor taste to mention the geology beneath their wedding venue.
(Geology fun fact: if you look at the vertical veins of darker rock, notice the gradient spreading out into the lighter rock. That's where the heat of the intrusion literally baked the older rock, and the pink right at the contact is where the silica actually melted into a glassier form.)
[Image description: ridge of a sand dune at sunset, a shadowed mountain in the background. Numerous footprints along the dune ridge, with wind ripples in the undisturbed sand.]
Sounds like a good time to me!
Your comment about grandparents hits true, I have fond memories of my Bestemor's numerous houseplants, of which her African violet was always my favorite.
Oh they certainly do, once you've had homegrown, store bought will forever taste bland. And there's such crazy variety, some are intensely sweet, others tart or savory.
Located in inland southern California, zone 9b.
[Image description: split image, the top photo is four tomatoes on a cutting board, the bottom photo is hundreds of multicolor heirloom tomatoes covering a kitchen counter.]
[Image description: a blue bowl with fettuccini pasta with meatballs in an orange sauce, topped with grated parmesan and diced sage.]
Rough recipe:
-Start your pasta (I used fettuccine) and broil your meatballs. I was lazy and used pre-cooked meatballs from Costco that just need a little browning.
-Saute thinly sliced shallots in oil until they started to brown, added in diced garlic, pepper, and some dried Italian seasoning blend.
-Once those cooked to golden, I pushed them to the edge of my pan. I'm using a pan that's really too big for the burner, but by moving where the heat is at, it allows me to keep the onion/garlic mixture warm without cooking further. A normal recipe would say remove from pan, but I'm lazy and don't want to clean the extra dish.
-On the hot side of the pan, add a bunch of oil and a small can of tomato paste. Fry the paste in the oil until the excess water is driven out. You'll know it's ready when you start seeing little brown caramelization patches as you stir the paste.
-Start adding splashes of vodka to the paste, stirring and adding until the mixture has cooled enough that the alcohol isn't immediately boiling off.
-Turn the heat down and add chopped fresh sage, oregano, thyme, and a little bit of rosemary, and mix back in the onion/garlic.
-Add a splash of heavy cream until it reaches the right shade of orange.
-Once your pasta is al dente, add it to the pan and mix into the sauce. Add ladles of the pasta water to loosen the sauce as needed.
-Add the meatballs and serve, topped with grated parmesan and diced sage.
I did some searching, and apparently he's a Five-spotted Hawkmoth, aka my garden nemesis, the tomato hornworm! Never knew those hornworms grew into these adorable giant moths.
[Image description: Large moth sitting on back of hand, covering about 1/3. Moth is fuzzy, with grey striping and prominent yellow spots running down its back.]
From left to right:
[Image description: Four brightly colored sliced carrots on a cutting board; being gold, purple with orange and green interior, red with interior rings of red and white, purple with purple and white radiating from center.]
I'm located in inland southern California, zone 9b. Normally I'd be harvesting ripe tomatoes by now, but I'm certainly not complaining about this cooler weather. This is the second year I've grown tomatoes over this arch, really love how it looks when fully covered.
[Image description: Split image of an arched trellis, the first with wild tomato vines blocking access, the second with the vines trimmed and woven up into the arch, and the center of the arch accessible.]
It's definitely a learning curve to start your plants from seed, but seeds can be gotten cheap and are easy to transport. I find beans/peas to be pretty easy to grow from seed, and their vertical growth means they don't take up too much space.