BOZOSLIVEHERE

Black Peony Poppies

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The poppy is a flower that I have been interested in for as long as I can remember. Their magnificent, short-lived beauty, pretty green pods, and seed dispersal mechanism once fully matured has always fascinated me. Here are some photos of poppies in their different stages starting with photos of the flowers of my first successful attempt at growing poppies.

It's currently rainy season here in Mexico City, so I am growing the plant indoors in a tent. Thinking I was smarter than every gardener on the internet who said "they do not survive transplant", I successfully germinated over thirty poppy plants - and ended up with one survivor. The resistant nature of the poppy plant is an incredible thing. The germination of the plants is quite sensitive: the seeds must be cold-stratified (30 days or more in the refrigerator or colder temperatures in order to activate them for germination) and then must be planted on the surface of the soil. The soil must be kept moist 100% of the time until they germinate, and for a little while after until they establish themselves. Poppies grow a very long, thin taproot that, at the beginning of its life, is about as thick as a human hair. This is why the other plants didn't survive transplant. I had germinated them in germination trays with individual cube-shaped cups for each plant and, while I had a nearly 100% germination rate, I was unable to keep the cubes intact when pulling them out of the trays. A few of the plants survived a few days, two made it to a few weeks, and one made it to maturity.

Dutch Oven Sourdough Loaf

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread (Overnight, 2600 m)

Ingredients

Ingredient	Grams	Notes
Bread flour	450	≥ 12% protein
Active starter (100%)	100	Fed 4–6 h before mixing
Water (lukewarm)	325	Slightly warm offsets altitude
Salt	9	≈ 2% of total flour

Steps

Autolyse: flour + 300 g water, 45–60 min.
Add starter + salt + 25 g water; mix.
Bulk: 3–4 h @ 22–24 °C; 3–4 folds in first 2 h; ~60–75% rise.
Shape; basket seam-up. Cold proof 8–16 h.
Bake 245 °C / 475 °F: 25 min covered + 20–25 min uncovered.
Cool 1.5–2 h.

Flavor Variants (Sourdough)

Rosemary, Cheddar–Jalapeño, Cranberry–Walnut; keep add-ins ≤ 25% flour.

Optional Variant: 15% Whole-Grain (Whole Wheat or Buckwheat)

Add flavor depth and complexity by replacing 15% of the bread flour with either whole wheat or buckwheat.

Sourdough Day

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Nearly a year ago, I decided to get into sourdough breadmaking. I made my own starter from flour, water, and nothing the natural yeasts that are found in whole-grain flour. After about a week, I had my first starter. It took a lot of tries to get right, especially considering that I live at about 2800 meters (approximately 9000ft) above sea level. Everything changes at altitude. Water boils at a lower temperature, atmospheric pressure is lower, ferminting/rising the dough takes much less time and can over-ferment before you know it. I must have tried a dozen times before "getting it right". When I say "getting it right", I mean successfully baking my first actually edible loaf of rustic sourdough bread using my starter and a recipe I'd been tweaking and perfecting with the help fo ChatGPT. Note to home cooks and bakers: ChatGPT (and certainly other AIs, but ChatGPT seems to handle this type of query best) is your best friend. It can help you figure out why things are going wrong because of conditions like altitude, humidity, temperatures, how you're working your dough, or any other problem you might be having.

Poppies

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:05:00 -0600

The poppy is a wonderfully interesing plant. Here are a few photos of a plant I have growing indoors in a grow tent (it’s too rainy here now to grow outdoors) about to flower along with a selection of photos demonstrating their seed dispersal mechamism.

Poppy flowers about to bloom

Mushrooms

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Just some pictures of some mushrooms found in the forests of the Tlalpan borough of Mexico City.