mojavebob- Unfortunately Olena Ukrainian is not a heart and its too bad its not because it has been a highly productive plant for me. But it is PL. I have not tried any PL hearts but I believe there are some out there. Personally I can deal with the wispy droopy foilage that most hearts have. But I can understand how it can bother some people. What they lack in apperance they make up for in taste (most of them any way). The two heart varieties I would suggest for someone who cant handle the droopy, wispy and sparse foilage would be German Red Strawberry and Ukrainian Heart. Both of these varieties for me have heavier foilage than most hearts. I've also noticed that these two varieties once established in the garden are a lot less wispy and droopy than others. And the really good news is, in my opinion they are two of the finest tasting hearts you can grow. Oh, one other heart I took notice of this year, that also might intrest those who shy away from the hearts is Hugarian Heart, while not the tastiest heart I've ever had, it is a Bull at producing fruit and big ones at that. Heavy foilage, no wispy or droopy foilage. Damon

Aha, my source for Ste. Colombe appears. LOL Gary, I'm doing my darndest to get the newer described varieties out there and L knows that as well. I send the best of what I grow each year to several seed sites where I know the owners and trust them and I also list them in the SSE YEarbook. There are quite a few seed site owners who get their starts from the YEarbook so that's another way that new varieties get out there. And I also distribute them in that free seed offer that I make elsewhere. No, I didn't think Tania would have Ste. Colombe described yet. I know she's behind on some recent SSE Yearbook varieties as well as scanning seed sites to post where she indicates seed sources. And yes, Ste. Colombe is a great variety. And I see by looking in my notebook near me that this past Spring I sent Ste. Colombe to two SSE members who are very good friends who have huge listings as well as to Glenn at Sandhill and didn't have enough seeds to send elsewhere b'c I had few seeds and they went to those SSE members who requested them from my listing. I didn't have enough seeds to offer in my seed offer. But I normally send to Sandhill, Gleckler's, sometimes to Mike at Victory Seeds but he's way behind on trialing as it is, sometimes to Marianne Jones and usually to Linda at Tomato Growers Supply but this past Spring when we talked she said she too was very behind on trialing and had only trialed one variety from the year before, that was Orange Minsk, which she loved so I know that one will appear in a year or two and is already available at other sites. So I won't be sending anything to her until later this Fall. As it is, the seed production for ALL of my varieties is now done by others, actually four folks this year, bless them, and seed production for Ste. Columbe is being done in KY and I haven't had any feedback lately. All the others are being done by 3 folks in NC. So never fear, I'll distribute stuff as fast as I can and have been doing so. The fact is that I get more feedback from my seed offer than I do from SSE members who get seeds from me so in a week or two I'll be putting up a feedback thread elsewhere to see how some of the new varieties did for those folks. Yes, L, you get Meme Beauce, but you have to remind me and if you don't have enough Rose d'Eauze seeds let me know as well. But Gary was able to germinate his. ( smile) Gary, I didn't review that thread about Couilles so it could well be that it was renamed in Belgium, not France; that's the French speaking part of Belgium. ( smile) Carolyn

I'd never grown an oxheart until this year... goodness me, what I've been missing! We grew a yellow oxheart that I got seeds from Southern Exposure that is purported to be Livingston. I don't know for sure, because when I got the seed package, all the front said was Yellow Oxheart. I can say that they were mostly in the 1 - 2 pound range and very meaty. We are hoping to grow a red oxheart of some kind next year; yellow tends to make a funny-colored sauce. But I saved some seeds from the largest ones and will grow these again, too.

Hi Gina! Although I can't furnish you with recipes I can offer some suggestions... Since a blocked artery caused the heart attack than means he'll have to cut down on the bad fats as well as sodium... The first month or so I went overboard, cutting out just about all fats and anything with salt... Hubby was mainly eating fruits and oatmeal... Needless to say that wasn't good, he wasn't getting all the things his body needed to stay healthy and became as weak as a new born kitten... I contacted a dietician and she told me hubby could have as much as 60 g of fat, the good kind, and 2000 mg of sodium a day ( depends on weight and height )... The only fats he should stay away from are saturated and trans fats... I came up with the idea of keeping track of everything I feed him, the amounts, the fats and the sodium and that turned out to be a life saver... ( I disregarded keeping track of his cholesterol because new studies state that it's the bad fats and genes which clog the arteries. ) You'll really be surprised on just how much one can eat, without gaining weight, if you cut back of fatty foods... After the first few days I knew I was going way overboard, he was only getting 20 to 30 g of fat and 900 mg of sodium... Hardly enough to sustain a 5'6", 150 pound man... After the second week I had a good handle on just how much I could feed him and still stay within the guidelines... Now for the suggestions... Read the labels, REALLY read them... If something says fat free make sure you check the serving size... Cooking spray for example, it says no fat but a serving size is a spray lasting for 1/3 of a second!.. How does one time 1/3 of a second??? By the time you count to 1 you already have 1.5 g of fat and if you want to coat the whole pan we're talking close to 4 or 5 g of fat and the scary part is that, with some sprays, a good part of that is saturated fat!!! For me, a much better and cheaper way is to dab a paper towel with canola oil and wipe the pan until you only see a sheen and no droplets, no saturated fat, in fact only a trace of any fat. The same goes for salt, READ the labels... Hidden sodium and fats are really high in convenience foods, cake mixes, prepared goodies, Hamburger Helper, canned stews, chili and such, as well as restaurant food... So far I've found No Added salt canned veggies ( hubby prefers canned to frozen, why I don't know! ), tomatoes & tomato sauce and even no salt ketchup all at the local store. I picked up some no sodium baking powder at the health food store. On your meats, if you trim off all the fat you can see, beef and pork aren't really all that bad... Two & a half oz of pork only has 3.4 mg of saturated fat, 2.8 oz of lean beef only has 2.7 g of saturated fat while a chicken drumstick has 3 g of saturated fat... ( facts from USDA book Nutritive Value of Foods )... If you want to use ground chicken or turkey grind it yourself, when you buy it in the store they include the skin and fat.... It's really hard to tell a man he can only have 3 or 4 oz of meat but he'll complain less if you really fill him up with other foods... Low fat low salt foods... Example, 4 oz of baked chicken ( skin removed), cup of peas, cup of creamed corn, two medium potatoes ( no skin, boiled ), cup apple sauce, two slices of store bought bread and 12 oz of apple juice... Total fat 9 g, total sodium 474 mg. ( close to 300 mg was from the bread alone )... If I could find no salt bread I could feed hubby 4 meals a day just like this and still stay within his limits... ( if he could eat that much... lol ) A few hints... I still give hubby 'fried' potatoes BUT I 'fry' them in water and add 1 tablespoon canola oil... As the water boils away the potatoes cook and the oil starts to brown them... You have to keep flipping the potatoes to get a nice 'fried' color... I still drain the potatoes on paper towels... I grind my own beef and pork for hamburgers and patties then 'fry' them, covered, in a little bit water until cooked then a few minutes without the cover to brown them up a bit... Some times they're a bit on the dry side but a squirt of no salt ketchup or a thick slice of a juicy tomato fixes that... Above all tell your sister-in-law to cut back on his fats and make sure he takes all his meds, every day... He has to get his HDL's up and the only way to do that is quit smoking ( very important for a heart attack patient ), some sort of exercise for 30 minutes a day and cut way back on the bad fats... She doesn't need the added stress of taking care of a hubby who has had a stroke. Rita