Ok, first of all, don't worry about the tree and don't fuss it. Always remember, plants want to live, and will try their hardest to do so. It would have been best to pop it into a better mix, waiting a few days until you could get a good mix wouldn't have hurt. As it stands now, the paper towel has to be taken out. It is going to stop water drainage and retain moisture. Citrus are notorious for dropping leaves after a repot. Leave it alone for a few weeks, let the roots settle. Give it good light, good humidity, and only water when the mix is on the dry side. If you fuss over it too much now, you run the risk of killing it. I think it would be good for you to try growing some citrus from seed. You seem like I was when I first started, full of energy and enthusiasm. Citrus can take time to flower and fruit from seed (search other posts for indications) but it is immensely satisfying!! :)

My good friends just joined a CSA. I went to visit them and as a thank you gift wanted to get them a cookbook/coffee table book on cooking with farm fresh produce. I was AMAZED at the number of books available out there. This is a HOT topic, and for many good reasons that we've discussed here. Everyone had a book out on it. And I agree, canning is going to make a comeback. All these food scares will only increase as our world grows more hectic. There is an alternative. We once had vibrant agriculture all over this country, not too long ago. And as greenhouser said, kids did not get bored without TV or computer or their cell phone, lol! I think that's why canning went out of fashion for a while. Folks in my mom's generation had childhood nightmares about it . . . please, please, please, no more peas to shell, corn to shuck, beans to snap, cherries to pit, etc.! :)

George Curtis Spoon tomatoes? That I don't understand at all. ( smile) The variety Spoon was first introduced by Park Seed Co many many years ago and called Spoon b'c they showed them in a real spoon to show how small they were. They were and are currant tomatoes. The Wild Everglades one, seeds sold for a fortune online with so much hype it's ridiculous, which has been discussed here quite a bit, are also red currant tomatoes. Currant tomatoes are a different species than our regular garden tomatoes. Cherry tomato are much larger and are not currants. I've grown quite a few red currant ones, some named, some not, and my experience was that there wasn't a heck of a lot of difference between them as to taste, productivity, etc. Currant tomatoes at least half of them, have what's called an exherted stigma, which means the stigma sticks up above the pollen bearing anthers, so those have to be pollinated by insects. In the development of more modern tomatoes, retraction of the stigma was part of the process so that almost all of our regular tomatoes self pollinate. DIStances are given here and there as to how far away any currants should be grown from other types so as to lessen the possibility of insect mediated X pollination, but one person I know, and he knows a lot, says he'd be more concerned about the regular tomatoes X pollinating the currants. What I prefer to grow is a variety called Sara's Galapagos which is not a pure currant, but is the same size, and is probably a natural stabilized cross between a currant and something else, as shared with me by Dr. Chatelet at the Rick Center when I asked him about it. Yes, they are lots of fun for kids to pick, and even for we adults, but it's easier to just let one truss ripen up and pick the whole truss rather than picking individual fruits. Hope that helps. Carolyn

Well, this is the quandry I'm in. The house was priced in the middle of comps when we put it on the market but I guess due to it being early March, most of the comps were from last Fall when the market was better. So even though it hasn't been on the market long as mentioned above, it's suddenly overpriced due to the falling market. I've been discussing the next price drop with my wife. At least we've had a couple of showings in the last week. I wouldn't call Waldorf considerably outside the DC metro area. I'd put it IN the metro area, maybe the extended area, but it's in there just as much as you'd put Gaithersburg, Germantown, Woodbridge, or Manassas in the metro area. Waldorf is probably a shorter commute to downtown than any of those other places in both distance and time (I used to live in one of those places, I know). Many people in my neighborhood work in DC or farther. The neighborhood is a mix of ages (young couples to retirees), occupations (blue and white collar), and races (but mainly black and white). I know the ranch layout isn't popular, but even leaving out the basement, you get about the same square footage of other houses in the price range. Add the finished basement and it's significantly more just due to the wide footprint of the house. So maybe if you go all the way to southern Charles or St. Mary's counties, or some of the less desirable areas closer in, you can get a "lot more house," but I haven't seen that in the immediate area. FWIW the heat pump keeps up with the cold with no problem. It's a very efficient house. Sorry to sound defensive. I think at this point it's mainly about the price.