Earlier this year, I wrote about how I solved a small mystery in my garden by turning to my various communities — family, friends, and online. It was the last one — online — that delivered in that case.
While we hear lots of criticisms of social media, for good reason, when used judiciously they can be a blessing. The photo at the top of this post is both a reminder of that and an update.
Here again is that essay.
***
Well, it wasn’t exactly investigative reporting, but I discovered that I had a small mystery on my hands Monday evening.
As I checked my plants in the garden, a new item caught my eye. It was a whitish globe on a plant with leaves shaped like elongated Isosceles triangles and clusters of small purple flowers.
The fruit peeking out from behind the leaves was white, as I said, with several faint purple stripes.
I’m pretty sure we had gotten this particular plant from a neighbor a year ago;, and at the time my daughter thought it might be a pepper of some kind.
As I felt the surface of the fruit, it reminded me of an onion, but only sort of.
So I started my investigation. I snapped a photo and sent it to my daughter-in-law, an avid gardener.
“Eggplant?” She offered.
My son-in-law and granddaughters thought it might be a pear apple.
At this point I took the case online and after a bit of searching, found myself inside a very helpful Reddit group devoted to identifying unknown plants.
There, an answer came quickly, without ambiguity.
Another member clarified: “Yes but it’s not a melon, it’s a nightshade (Solanaceae), but it’s also called pepino-melon.”
Okay, I’m going with pepino, for now. Let’s let it ripen.
P.S. It did.
HEADLINES:
Where things stand with the National Guard shooting in D.C. (NPR)
US halts all asylum decisions after national guard shooting (Guardian)
A Backlash Is Brewing Against Companies Helping ICE (Bulwark)
White House blasts Boston Globe, CBS News and The Independent for coverage of ‘illegal orders’ video (CNBC)
New Orleans prepares for possible federal immigration crackdown (ABC)
Military Lawfare Is a Red Line (TNR)
FDA to impose strict new vaccine requirements, claiming child covid shot deaths (WP)
Ukraine’s top peace negotiator quits (Reuters)
Venezuela denounces ‘colonialist threat’ as Trump orders airspace closed (Guardian)
What happens in Gaza’s ‘Bermuda Triangle’ (Al Jazeera)
The mysterious black fungus from Chernobyl that may eat radiation (BBC)
The Answer to a 1,700-Year-Old Christian Mystery Lay in a Lake in Turkey (WSJ)
A Different Type of Dementia Is Changing What’s Known About Cognitive Decline (NYT)
In Northern Scotland, the Neolithic Age Never Ended (New Yorker)
Sweet Potato Dish Stopped Being Healthy 5 Ingredients Ago (Onion)