Eric, How did you obtain your Great Yellow? I'm not finding any information for sources on the web. I'd like to add that to my small collection (Stanley, NY9,Imperial Epineuse, Empress, and Pearl) I really appreciate the table you posted. One thing that could make it better would be to list relative ripening timing. While my E plum experience is shallow, I'm not sure I concur with the low marks for Stanley by Eric and Hman. Perhaps it simply favors the hot dry summer climate in UT, but the fruit has been outstanding for me.

Growing most fruit from seed is a crap shoot. Peaches usually come close to the parent, or at least something desireable. Most citrus are polyembryonic, which means the seed has multiple embryos, making it possible that you will get the parent tree, or something close. Plums seem to be in the middle ground. Ive read greengage and other yellow/green plums will grow close to the parent. Japanese plums (especially the hardy ones) are usually crossed with the american plum (prunus americana (or prunus nigra/canadiensis)). They wont come too close to the parent tree. THe only way to ensure you get good "black ice" plums, is to get a tree, or at least get some scion. Ive read its possible to graft apricot to some plums (the asian types may do better, but thats a guess), and I think its possible to graft SOME japanese plums to european. I will say also, that you may not have much luck with peaches in s alberta. Ive lived in calgary. The thaw freeze cycles you get will probably make the trunk explode, or make it so you wont have fruit (the three years i was there, we had snow and frost into June. This means before, during and after flowering. THe best advice I can give if you decide to try peach (hell, I am!) is to make sure the trunk stays in the shade all winter, and that the tree stays cold until the threat of frost goes away. Even then its a slim chance, but who knows! You may have luck with "toka". Most sources state zone 3 or 4. Its a red japanese/american hybrid developed in south dakota, so it should be more able to survive the praries :D

The introducer of Castleton, Prof. Robert Andersen, Stone Fruits Breeder at the USDA-ARS Clonal Germplasm facility/Cornell at Geneva, NY, was a beloved and deeply respected teacher of mine, now sorely missed! There were several other prune-plums of the 66 series, meaning pollinated in the year 1966, that seemed also exceptional (to me) but were never released. Rosy Gauge is another release from the same program and I have a plant along with the Geneva Green Gage. One interesting fact I have noticed is that woodchucks will climb more than 6 feet up a welded -wire mesh enclosure surrounding these 2 varieties and then climb down INSIDE the wire cylinders wrapped around the plants to fend off deer. So much do they love the taste of the leaves and shoots! A revelation for me, living in a critter-infested yard, where I have given up growing anything. Another fun fact: Toka is extremely vigorous, the most vigorous plum I have, AND also very distasteful to deer that will graze everything [ especially my Stacey and Nova pears] to the bone left and right of the Toka, leaving it with only a few nibbles!!Slim fawns will flatten and insinuate their precious selves UNDER deer fencing to get at apple and pear leaves, when scores of acres of Cornell alfalfa, maize, and the entire Cornell Arboretum lie not 50 yards away! Why? There are other mysteries re: deer food preferences/wild & cultivated species of the Rosaceae that completely blow my mind. Konrad, thanks for your great inputs. I used to live in Logan, UT, a Zone 4 a & b climate, depending on location. Green Gage was excellent there, but never very high-yielding; I am envious of the grower who harvested 5-gallon bucketsful of GGs! For those who are so minded, please do visit the Cornell-Geneva Stone Fruits collection on a balmy day. It is situated in a remarkably beautiful location, with a lovely pond in the middle, next to a grove of wonderful apricot trees, part of the small collection. Nowadays, things have become more formal for visitors, since newer faces have taken charge. Not so in our times! We are told it is because of security issues since 9/11, when huge fences were erected all around the clonal repositories, the apple collection, etc. and admission + access severely restricted. Who knows what they were thinking! However, these repositories [and indeed ALL Land Grant Universities] are funded by CITIZEN dollars, and all US citizens have the right to request reasonable amounts of FREE propagating materials OR propagules for personal use from the USDA-ARS. That is expressly mentioned in the mandate for these repositories.

Hi Tim, I liked your posting, you sound like an all or nothing kind of guy! One thing that I sell at the market, that no one here has mentioned (that I saw), is goat milk soap. Mine was made from a glycerin base that I bought, but then added my own goat's milk to it as well as herbs that I grew from my garden. They were a pretty big seller, and I sold the large bars for 4.00 ea. Most days, I made more money from soap than produce! I also had pictures of my goats with a blurb about how it is great for your skin because of the high fat content in the milk, and no detergents. As far as the egg question goes, yeah, you won't get rich on the sales, but they do sell and people up here will pay 2-2.50 doz. for them. This year I will charge 2.50 because the grain is now about 10$ per 50# bag!! You do need to like chickens, which you do, so you will get enjoyment from them and have the fresh eggs for yourself and your fiancee as well. IN NH, if we sell them as "not sized", we don't have to grade them, but we do need to make sure that they are kept refrigerated until they are sold. We just can't say that they're grade A or charge different prices for different sizes. It sounds like you are going to be the hit of the market this year. If you're up against grizzly old men with dirty pick ups full of yams and oversized zuchini's, all you need to do is have a table with a decent selection of produce and a few unique things, they'll be flocking to your booth!! Maybe your fiancee can make some soaps or some beaded jewelry as something different. Will she want to go with you to the market to sell??