Pampered Chef is excellent quality for the most part. There is the very odd item that doesn't work as well as a person would like but this is the exception rather than the rule. It is also pricey. The onion chopper was passed along to me by a friend who was cleaning out her kitchen stuff. She isn't keen on cooking from scratch I don't think. I find it very handy. Didn't know it was one of those things they flogged on tv until I just looked it up. I'm sure you can find it on ebay for a lot less. PS you still have to do SOME onion work so tears will still be shed. It does do a nice neat job and saves time though. I just bought a cheap knife set at Costco the other day. We will see how long they hold their razor sharp edge. They are the color coated blades with matching blade covers. For what I paid if they last a year I will be satisfied. Here is a link that might be useful: Viladia chop wizard

I've done a fair amount of research into this question and have found that the best way to preserve seeds is to ultra-dry them. Research done in this area indicates that seeds may remain viable for up to 40 years if properly preserved. The best method appears to be to seal the seeds in a container with silica gel. Normal "dry" seeds are (IIRC) in the 5%-8% moisture content range. Ultra-dry seeds are in the 1%-3% range. For long-term storage of seeds, the quality of the container matters. Plastic containers are all moisture permeable and unsuited to long-term seed storage. One study compared dozens of different kinds of containers and found that only pure glass (glass tubes sealed by melting the glass tip closed), metal cans (think "canning operation") and metal-glass containers akin to mason jars were suitable for long-term storage. Of these, the mason jar is probably the easiest to use. A little less effective, but still pretty good, would be commercial glass jars like the kind used to hold jam, that is, a container that is all-metal and glass with a good seal. The method I settled on was to use small envelopes (coin envelopes) to contain the seeds, label the envelopes and store them in wide-mouth quart mason jars with an inch or two of silica gel in the bottom. About 25 such packets to a quart jar seems to be optimal. Since I access the seeds periodically, I use more silica gel than they used in the research studies. The silica gel is blue and turns pink when it has absorbed moisture, so there is an easy indicator of when it's time to recharge the silica gel (which you can do by drying in an oven for a couple hours.) Note that heat is never a friend to seed preservation, but the literature on the subject indicates that seed drying is a better process for preservation than even the most advanced (and expensive) cryogenic storage. Apparently, even seeds cooled to near liquid nitrogen levels must be planted and their seeds harvested for re-freezing every decade or so to maintain viability. The research suggests that most seed banks around the world would benefit significantly from drying over super-freezing. Some seeds are NOT suitable for ultra-drying. They include seeds with very heavy, hard shells which may not allow the moisture to exit the seed. Fortunately, these types of seeds are relatively rare. So far, I've built my seed collection to nearly 100 different types of seeds. Rather than try to organize them into any specific order, I just label them with a name and a number, and use a database to match name/number for lookup. The jars all contain seed packets by number: 1-25 in the first jar, 26-50 in the second and so on. With a click of the mouse, I can view the seeds by name (with corresponding position in the appropriate jar) or number (which tells me which seeds are in a particular jar. I consider seed storage an important part of self-reliance, I grow a significant portion of my own produce, starting out after asking myself the question, "What would happen if the food supply system broke down?" and, "Why are peppers $1 each!?" What started as an experiment ("How much of my own food can I grow?") has become an interesting hobby and a source of superior produce. (I haven't bought a pepper in years!) The recent droughts already have experts predicting that food costs will double this year. With the dollar teetering on the edge of collapse, being able to grow your own food just seems prudent to me - and a stable supply of good seed is critical to that effort.

Today I cut toms across their equator and squeezed out the seeds, then the halves went into a pot of boiling water for about twenty seconds which was more then enough time to loosen the skin, it also rapidly blanches the flesh. I took out the halves with a strainer and put them into a colander under cold running water. I next slipped off the skins and squeezed the tomato through my fingers which crushed the flesh and forced out the stem knot. All of it went into a container while I did more batches. After all the tomatoes were seeded, blanched, skinned and crushed I drained off the extra moisture which had pooled at the bottom of the container. I filled sandwich sized ziplocs with the crushed toms, squeezed out any extra air, and into the freezer they went. For me, this was simple mass production and took care of a peck of toms in about an hour from start to finish--including washing the pot, strainer, colander, container and sink. T PS--wear your ancient old t-shirt when doing this because skinned and lightly cooked toms are very squirty when you squoosh them through your fingers. Afterwards I looked like a Jackson Pollock painting ;-O

Here's the opening paragraph from a Penn State Extension publication http://extension.psu.edu/plants/vegetable-fruit/news/2010/factors-affecting-pungency-in-sweet-onions : "In order to produce a truly sweet onion, a number of factors must be considered. The process begins with the selection of a variety that possesses suitable genetic characteristics. Variety is the main factor in determining pungency in onion cultivars." And this is from a University of Florida Extension publication http://hendry.ifas.ufl.edu/HCHortNews_Onions.htm : "Sweet "Vidalia" onions have become very popular over the past few years. These sweet, large bulbed onions are produced in the vicinity of Vidalia, Georgia."..."To be marketed as a true "Vidalia," an onion must be grown in the Vidalia area and conform to the Yellow-Granex type. So what is so special about "Vidalia" onions? In a word-nothing, but a very clever sales promotion. The Granex-type of onion, along with the old Texas Grano are short day varieties that do well under Florida conditions. This type of onion is typified by the Granex 33 strain. Granex 33 has been the standard recommended onion variety for farm and garden in our state for many years. Testing and research with sweet onions in the Hastings area, near Saint Augustine, has demonstrated that Florida grown onions could match the quality of the proper "Vidalia." This is good news for local gardeners, who wish to produce their own sweet onions. Gardeners, who wish to grow a sweet bulbing onion should select a Granex-type short day variety." So while it's true there are some environmental factors that can make an onion more or less pungent or sweet. Such as giving them plenty of water, growing them at the right time for your area, giving them plenty of nitrogen, and having low sulfur soil (all of which is just good onion growing protocol). The actual variety of onion is the most important of all. If you plant two different varieties, one of which is known for being sweet with the other being known for good storage qualities, under the exact same conditions they will not taste the same. The sweet onion will be sweeter while the storage onion will be more pungent. That's just how it is. Rodney