Debi, I don't know if you would be interested in doing a trade for just one item. Though if you would I would be interested in your Monarda fistulosa, Wild Bergamot. I also was looking down your want list and I have some Castilleja coccinea, Indian Paintbrush. I will send you an email.

Short growing season is definitely a problem here. That's what I get for wanting to live in the mountains. I hate playing tug-o-war with Mother Nature! I will be doing a lot more info-searches on squash and pumpkins this weekend, and will include Cheyenne Bush Pumpkin. Thanks for the info, eaglesgarden. Great idea re: clear plastic for a thermal boost for squash. We planned on doing that for peppers and tomatoes too. How long into the season do you leave the plastic on? Don't want to cook or starve all the earth worms I've worked so hard to coerced into staying. LOL .. With peppers and tomatoes, we thought we'd take it off when temps get around the mid/high 80's, then use mulch or half/three fourths finished compost. Normally, night temperatures don't go too far into the 60's at any time in the summer, but we get large crops of peppers anyway. A while back, we had a couple of years with many days in the 100's and nights in the 70's.. don't want those temps back! Ken, parrots don't need grit in their diet. Actually parakeets don't either, although there are still some few people (no professional breeders) that debate this question. That is a hard one to get novice bird owners and some back-yard breeders, to accept ...because it is still given as fact by many pet stores - most who only sell birds/supplies not breed/raise them. Wild birds: The gizzard is a very muscular organ, but because most of our native birds eat at least some seeds with the hull left on, the gizzard needs help. Particles of grit grind within the gizzard against the seed, to remove the hard outer coat so the embryo of the plant can be digested. bejay9.. re hubbards: I'll have to check into maturity times. Friend of mine said that they are all her family used for pies but she is from another state. I haven't thought of dehydrating squash/pumpkin flesh. I will have to do some and see if the feathered family would like it. They are not very fond of dehydrated carrots - it's the texture, I think. Maybe that would be accepted better. jmsimpson9, Baker Creek seeds lists a couple of 'seed producers' Pipian From Tuxpan and Silver Edge. Both sound very good, but they dont list days to maturity. More research to do.. I'm beginning to believe that I may end up with (too) many different Cucurbita - just to try. (Is anyone else surprised at how expensive some 'seed packets' have become? I haven't priced veggie seed from catalogs for a few years now.. c h o k e)

Boy, those must be some huge tamales Jerreth makes! LOL I've always wanted to make tamales, as I love them but if I made them I'd use less fat so they probably wouldn't taste right. There used to be a man in Bartlesville who would set up a stand on the corner somewhere. My Dad would buy from him on his way home from work. We didn't get to "eat out" in those days so it was a real treat for Dad to bring those home. Of course that was years and years ago and I'm sure the man probably died before I started working in Bartlesville in the early 1980's. That or they quit allowing him to sell on the corner. That's a nice looking pumpkin patch, I'll be interested to hear how they taste. If they all look different from one another, I imagine they taste different from one another, too? Do the seeds all look the same? I'm still watching my one little Warsaw Buff pumpkin. It changed color but I noticed that it has some faint green streaks in the buff so I held off picking it. Larry, my Dad had a paw-paw tree that would make maybe one or two small paw-paws every year. He was so proud of that and he would eat those paw-paws all himself, cutting them up in his hand with his trusty pocket-knife. This was back in the days when no self-respecting man would be caught without a pocket-knife in his pocket. I think it would've gone gang-busters if he had planted a second one, to polinate. Quailhunter, I do love the heirloom tomatoes and the fact that I can save the seed but if I continue to have as much trouble with disease as I have had last year and this year, I may consider going to the more disease-resistant hybrids myself. I may buy a pack of those Whopper seed and give them a try.

I have one that I need to get rid of. It's a pretty mature plant. I'm not sure what the root system is of this plant, hopefully fairly shallow. I'd love some of your sunflower and cranberry bean seeds. I live in West Bellevue.