Ok, I am sorry I made what I thought was a tongue-in-cheek remark, barely serious... "Ironically, you have probably eaten unlabeled genetically modified tomatoes from the supermarkets." There are no labels that indicate the presence of GMO ingredients. If they were for sale, I'm sure somebody bought 'em, just like all of the other unlabeled GMO food. "Some genetically modified corn, complete with BT insecticide genes, inadvertently got into the food supply as corn chips. " Any food in a package is likely to have GMO ingredients, if you understand what all of the code words are for the various wheat, corn, and soy products. "As far as I know, all of the soybeans and most of the corn grown in this rural area are GMOs." Likely unless it is an organic farm, which is impossible to have in close proximity to a non-organic farm. "Many millions of Americans have already eaten GE food without knowing it." No doubt, unless every bit of their food says "organic" on it. "In contrast to that, I don't know of any garden seed companies that carry GE seed." GE seeds are made for large-scale farming, not home gardeners. Unless/until patents expire... "In fact, many seed companies include a pledge in their catalog that they will never offer any GMO seed." Easier than explaining the situation, but good to know people have a general aversion. I still assert that such aversion is unlikely to extend to ornamental plants for most people, but certainly only know what I think. There is a huge difference and I don't even understand why the food issue was brought up, unrelated as far as I'm concerned. "They do that because organic gardeners have already wrongfully boycotted seed companies that they feared might be offering retail genetically modified seed.... I think any seed company that offered GE mildew-resistant Impatiens walleriana would find themselves instantly boycotted. " Knee-jerk hysteria is almost always bad but fortunately all too common in our sound byte atmosphere. Hopefully those concerned will maintain their interest long enough to become more familiar with what is going on in this area. "...it will probably be restricted by a plant patent." That's the whole point of spending the money to produce this result. To make MORE money, as is already the case with Impatiens. Under the umbrella of what Rhizo said, that selective cross-breeding is the standard way to produce disease-resistant cultivars, it's really a moot point.

"I think my back hurts.." Hey Pete, if you only *think* your back hurts just keep on composting the way you are and soon you will *know* it hurts! LOL You are doing very well and I'm sure a lot of us would love to see pics of your compost operation. Keep going and you might end up with a system like Lloyd's! If you can get wood shavings they work well mixed with compost as a mulch. I use it regularly and the shavings disappear within a few months. Actual coarse chips from lumber mills are OK for paths but take ages to break down in my experience. Fresh wood chips from tree services are faster. So it all depends on what a person means by the term wood chips. Cardboard is useful placed between plants under mulch as weed/moisture control. Easier to work with than newspaper IMO. Paul, I never realized you live on Cape Breton Island. We have fond memories of towing a travel trailer all around the Cabot Trail back in the 70's. No one had told us that was ill-advised because of the grades. Of course we were from BC and didn't think the mountains were all that high! We also learned during that trip summer was over in the middle of August and we "enjoyed" a lovely storm coming off the Atlantic while we camped on the far side. Great memories!

Your dinner looks delicious - and a little bit sinful. I could not follow that recipe if someone paid me. I was laughing too hard. The jimster and I must have the same sense of humor. I finally got around to cooking the corned beef eye round I got a couple weeks ago. That particular cut is getting harder and harder to find as the brisket cuts are so much more popular. The eye round is very lean which is why I like it. All of the briskets I looked at this year were too heavily marbled with fat for my taste. Nothing fancy or convoluted about my cooking. I put the 3.5 lb eye round in the Nesco for a couple hours. While the roast was resting I took 1 Tbsp of the pan drippings, 1 Tbsp of butter, a splash of water, caraway seeds and 1/2" ribbons of savoy cabbage. I braised the cabbage for about 2 minutes until it was bright green and slightly limp. Tricia had mentioned savoy cabbage in another thread. I've only seen it in the fall here in Minnesota. So I was thrilled when I found it in a market this past Saturday. You can see in the pic that this cut of meat is very easy to slice thin.

I spend a long time looking at faucets. I wanted a good quality faucet. I also needed/wanted a faucet that pull out. Otherwise, it would not be functional for me. I pull out, clean the sink etc. I wanted to be able to reach pretty far. For example, I fill a large pot of water with the pot on the countertop so I do not have to lift up the full pot from the sink! This meant that many of the high arc "cool looking" faucets were out for me. Many of the 'pro faucets' that have spring loaded head have very short reach, although they look cool. I also wanted to have the faucet in spray mode without holding down the switch. Many of the models require that you physically push the toggle to go into spray. As soon as you let go, it goes into stream. This was no no to me! I needed the spray so I could rinse dishes and vegies under the running stream of spray. I don't want water running in stream mode only... That left me very few models that looked good, was a good quality and still satisfied me. I ended up with a KWC Ono. You have to analyze how you want to use your faucet. Each person has different needs. Be critical and analyze what is important to you....