Daisy, Thanks for the link; that's good info. To all: Well, I might have barbequed crow soon! I'll be eating crow, or taking my foot out of my mouth, or whatever the proper expression should be! While asking around here about cement types I came to realize that I have had them backwards. We use type 2 most commonly and type 5 is used for special requests, usually desert type areas overseas, i.e., Middle East. So, I'll admit my mistake and take the consequences but I couldn't leave you all with the wrong info. (Its not likely that you are terribly concerned about pipe linings. It is the use of cement types and their purposes and curing them that got us into this discussion.) You all have been so generous to give information and tips to everyone who asks. I couldn't bear the thought of leaving bad info in this forum that might one day mislead someone.

Carver used the air drying cure. I am using the USDA method of high heat and HIGH humidity. Good disease frees tubers will store well under either method. I presume that the USDA method would give the highest flavor quality. This year was a vintage year for sweetpotatoes here. I raised several varieties from Ivis white [tastes just like a white potato], light yellow [O'Henry], Nancy Hall [yellow], and Beauregard [orange].

Please don't get me wrong I am totally supportive of someone that has gone to all the work of breeding and selecting out of hundreds or 1000's of seedlings and taking years to make sure they have a superior "New and Distinctive" plant getting a patent. I respect and highly applaud their efforts. example: I think that most of the crape myrtle varieties that Dr Carl Whitcomb (lacebarkinc.com) has developed deserve a patent, and on and on...Many deserving patents out there. I am an amateur plant breeder myself and know how time consuming it is to get a new and distinctive plant. Universities develop many new and distinctive varieties of edible plants paid for by you and I through tax dollars. However, they are now patenting all of them. I would love to get a license to grow the "Covington" Sweet Potato patented by North Carolina, but I am a small time player and I can't even think about affording the licensing fees. which is not the same as royalties. This is totally against the mission of the Land Grant College in my opinion...As an ex extension agent myself I am appalled by the way things are digressing with their intended mission. I am trying to get a license with LSU to grow Evangeline but here again, it will probably be reserved for the huge growers that plant hundreds of thousand of plants. We'll see. BTW, Evangeline is a very nice sweetpotato, better than beauregard for sure. But read these patents, and you see in the description that someone got a sweetpotato that was unknown to them, they grew it out over two or three seasons had it virus indexed and now they think they deserve a patent? That does not make it a "New and Distinctive" cultivar. This is the stoke's Purple>>>> http://www.freepatentsonline.com/PP17976.html didn't have time to find Mahon they also claim that it was the only Purple Skin-Purple Flesh known to them. they should have done a bit more research and they would have found that there are several such varieties. Patent officers don't have the time to research every patent applications so will let just about anything through. If the person wants to file a patent infringement, it would be up to the courts to decide. Shoot, I have grown several varieties many many years and always select the best seed stock. Do I deserve a Patent? Absolutely not, It just makes me a conservator. I was proud to bring back an heirloom sweetpotato called Cordner's Red. It was gone from everyone's memory until I found an old farmer that had maintained it since the 1950's. It was almost extinct. It is very distinctive and definitely "New" to the Market anyway. No one would have know any different, if I said I developed it by growing it two or three seasons. Should I have patented it? BTW Patents last 20 years from the time the application was submitted. And as an limited offer, If someone can get some of the patented Mahon, I will give them about three named "Heirloom" varieties, that I think are identical to grow out side by side for a trial. I don't want the patented one even near my place for obvious reasons.

I have a cousin who wrote a cookbook as he used to be a chef in his earlier years. He was also in acting and was a radio announcer for a radio station in VT. His cookbook didn't sell as well as he hoped. I did provide him with a few favorite recipes however, just to help fill some additional pages. Because these threads tend to drop off after a preset amount, we have no control over very old posts, unless they are 'resurrected' before dropping off. Writing a synopsys of all the facts is a daunting task. I just hope that new-bees spend a few minutes to do searches before sending personal emails. Had I not taken the extra effort to copy and paste the above, it would have gone unshared. Once in a while I come up with a neat trick, and always like to share the experiences. My most sucessful has been to use the acid blend when making jellies. I have to say that I have not seen a single jar of my jellies spoil even after using all Splenda as a sweetener. Several years ago, no one ever heard of Clear Jel, until I posted links and mentioned using it, as well as the Pomona pectin. These 'tidbits' are now showing up in real web search links to the GW pages. Nice to know that they are not buried long after a few 100 links before them. As to been there, done that, I sure have had my share of that!