Anyone eating corn for nutrition...be it now or 100 years ago...is "doing nutrition wrong." It's never been a nutrient-dense food as far as vitamins go, though it does have some nutrient quality in the way of carbs and vitamin B. It's a minor, yet noticeable, vitamin A+C contributor to nutrition. Also, the notion that our lines of supersweet corn came from radioactive/mutating experiments is grossly off the mark. Most come from lines of natural selection and breeding by John Laughnan at UI working with a gene most other breeders wouldn't touch. It is a total bastardization of John Laughnan's work (who, unlike what was stated WAS a plant breeder and botanist at U.Illinois) to claim he was by-chance poking around human-mutated "radioactive" corn to make supersweets happen. His work on the sh2 gene is one of the most important breeding pushes in the line of sweet corn. His crossses with Golden Cross Bantam (not to be confused with Golden Bantam which has been around since the early 1900s) for enhanced sweetness are his babies and it was developed with much resistance from his peers because they didn't see the value of the sh2 gene, which usually caused undesirable shrived kernels (because of less starch content and higher sugar content). One of his crosses, Illini Chief, is still sold by Burpee (who developed the initial Golden Bantam, btw), Shumway, and a few other seed sellers over 50 years after it first hit the market. Until his research into this gene it was believed to be a gene that led to inferior product rather than a line worth investigating. When his work led to incorporating the sh2 gene into corn which can produce full/plump kernel cobs, people paid attention. Btw, this was not a 1959 discovery, as stated by the author...he published his initial work on the sh2 gene as a breeding gene worth investigating in 1953 and his work started years earlier. I have no idea where he/she got her information on Dr. Laughnan from, but he/she should check that source again. John Laughnan is a bit of a hero to many in the breeding industry. This kinda pokes me wrong a bit personally to see his name/work trashed like this...and his work cheapened to being some fool who stumbled upon his discovery. It's so off the mark it's insulting. He was far ahead of his time given that supersweets took another 1-2 decades to even become popular in breeding. His work with developing the sh2 gene from a shriveled-kernel "undesirable" gene into a farmer/consumer market changer ranks right up there with Lamborn and Parker's work with the sugar snap pea that led to the "modern" sugar snap we've enjoyed since the 1970s. It was a game changer that went ignored for far too long given the long cultivation history of the plant(s). This post was edited by nc-crn on Sun, May 26, 13 at 20:56

I've never seen root rot on a jaboticaba. Mine, which are in ground of course, are in the lowest point in my entire property. There have been some multi-day rain events that have left standing water in this area for a full 10 days without any root issues. During dry season, I'll let the hose run completely flooding the area. That doesn't leave any standing water for more than a day, but I usually have to do it a day or two in a row before flowering commences. Good luck. Harry

Reporting in from last night's italian dinner.... I ordered napoletonia? pasta (tomato sauce pasta) - 1.5 for the tomato sauce and NORMALLY 5.0 for the pasta - lunch serving - I ATE THE WHOLE BOWL DINNER SIZE. Goodness me! I went over my points by 2.5 yesterday (Had a glass of beer too! Bad McPeg). Today I have been ensuring to have my fruit salad (breakfast), had a lovely bread with raisin sandwich with small amount olive oil marg and going to have a no point mixed veggie soup mid-afternoon before going over to our friends for movie and chinese tonight. WALKED to and back to the store for groceries - I have one of those pull carts on wheels because I LOVE WALKING - especially when it's sunny. So hopefully I recovered a few points round trip. Going out again for a walk to the garden centre and back. Try and recover a couple more points and soak up the sun. It is an actually crisp, cold sunny day in Scotland - our area has complete escaped the UK snow during the last week. I love walking in this weather - sheer delight! Planning to take a bottle of strawberry flavoured water because there will be beer and wine and after last night I need to watch today and tomorrow. I enjoyed myself last night - did not touch any cheese garlic bread that surrounded me, nursed my beer throughout the meal and ate like I have never seen food before (tee hee). Ah but I love a good challenge. So that was my adventure last night and today and I walking and stretching. Can't stay on too long - need ta get moving again. Hope everyone hangs in there. Beverly, you are still doing fine because you keep trying new things and you are not quitting on yourself. What a star you are! Yellowhair I am glad to see you recovering and getting back on track again. Fabulous. I agree with your comments on crockpot cooking. Slow cooking is great but so is pressure cooking if you have less time. MaryAnn - okay so ya had a donut. I will have a few when I visit home or maybe just one because I now know better. You can't deny yourself life's small pleasures but you are well armed with knowledge now to recover and not feel bad for enjoying that donut. I know there will always be donuts but it will taste so much better for me if I can achieve my goal by end summer and have one wearing size 12 pants. Then it will be worth it! Big Mama, I know you have had a tough time but you keep coming back. I have absolutely no idea what it's like for you I can only understand food. I admire you for taking care of yourself and still coming back to talk to us. Don't let go - I am reaching out to you and hanging onto your hand! You can do this. Forget yesterday if you had any bad ones and focus on taking care of yourself today. Take some time today to give yourself some pamper time - a nice walk or soak in the tub, get a nice haircut/curl, buy a new pair of funky socks/shirt or something...or simply turn off the phone, close the door and have some quiet time with a good book. Let's make today count - no matter what we do. Life is precious and so are we! Cheers, gotta stroll! McPeg

I lost the first 15 or so pounds on a crazy diet about 10 years ago. But, I kept it off, for the most part. I gave up diet soda a few years ago, and told my doctor I was going to lose 10 lb. in the next month...so I dieted and I gained a pound. I quit thinking about it and over the next year, I lost 30lb. It came off so easily that I thought maybe I had some kind of chronic illness, but the only difference in my life...which was a big one....I had a total knee replacement, and though I always had to walk quite a bit taking care of my animals, etc., being totally pain free has made a big difference in that I can get outside and do more and I don't have to sit around inside all the time....because, when I do, I eat more. The "crazy diet" was the Shangrila Diet, where you drink oil before every meal. (I told you it was crazy and I have been on every diet you can think of and some you can't.) Some things I don't eat on a regular basis...like bread. I almost never eat it, although I like it okay. I also don't eat dairy...or very little, except for butter. I keep ice cream in the freezer...several kinds but I eat very little of it. I live a long way from town, so if I don't have something, I don't go get it....so I don't keep snacks in the house usually. The main difference in my life is I don't think about food all the time. Sometimes I actually forget to eat. That is so odd for me because when I used to try to diet all the time, I became obsessed with food...especially the carbs I tried to cut back on. (Went on the Carbohydrate Lover's Diet too.) I still love to cook, and I go to Pinterest and save recipes I want to try and I usually will make a new recipe once or twice a week, but I just don't eat so much at one time.