Went to Nashville's Tomatofest today; far more fest than tomato. A pleasant street carnival, the only actual tomatoes in view were about two blocks away from most of the fun and consisted of over-ripe Marianna's Peace, mis-labeled Cherokee Purples (probably Black Krim's - no cracking), some un-ripe Green Zebra's and un-labeled golden cat faced 10 - 12 ouncers. Lots of fun, but I'd sure like to see a real tomato oriented, actual tomato grower tasting and seed event in the area. Anyone in the Montgomery County area interested in a small get-together?

Sorry for the long wait on the follow up of this. It has been a busy week. Fireduck I have experience with yellow pear. While not the best tasting it was the most prolific last year. It was also the most tolerant of the heat. When all others quit producing it kept putting out. Most complaints are about taste. Think of them as mini romas. The taste is more pronounced when they get cooked in some way, shape, or form. My preference is to slice them in half length wise. Sprinkle with a dash of salt, a light drizzle of EVO. Then a few minutes under the broiler. Let cool, then enjoy. it brings out a lot of flavor from them. Also when full ripe they are more of an off orange color than yellow. Waiting until they turn that color makes a ton of difference. I had some splitting. It was more a cosmetic issue than anything. They will fall off of the vine easily. If the green ones fall off it is ok. Put them inside they will ripen up inside just fine. If you plant I would advise a large cage. I staked mine last year. I ended up having to use a lot of stakes. The plant gets very big. It was oblivious to septoria. Some branches showed signs of it. The rest kept on growing. I will be posting pics most of the cells in the 72 cell tray have sprouted. Yep that is right 4 day germination time. Average temp in the closet I have my grow set up is around 80 to 85 on the top shelf where they are. Also they are on the shelf next to my peppers that are on a heat mat. I think some of the heat from the mat transfers over to the tomatoes. Either way I am happy with the results so far. Happy growing everyone. Nate Guilliams Temple, tx

I saw that Rent A Chicken thing on TV the other day. If I was going to spend that kind of money to rent chickens, I wouldn't rent them. I'd build a coop and buy them. To me, other than renting a piece of equipment you only use once a year or something, renting seems like throwing money away because paying rental fees never ends. A coop doesn't have to be really pricey if you are good at building things yourselves. TSC has some cute coop kits, though I wouldn't buy one. I think it would be cheaper to buy the materials and make one from scratch unless you don't have the tools to cut the lumber. I also would rather choose specific chicken breeds than be given the breeds of someone else's choice because who knows what you'd end up with? Some chicken breeds' hens can leach ay 250-300 or more eggs per year while others might only lay 100 eggs a year. I'd rather choose a chicken breed that I know is a good layer. I bet the Rent A Chicken business will be successful, though, because people think they are too busy to build a little chicken coop. We're do-it-yourself type folks here, and I realize that not everyone enjoys the process of building. One of the worst problems with urban chickens is having neighborhood dogs get into your yard and kill them. You've got to be sure you have either a very secure chicken house/chicken run or a very secure perimeter fence. Your own dogs can be taught to leave the chickens alone, but neighborhood dogs are a real danger to backyard chickens. We grew up in a suburban neighborhood that never let go of its rural roots, so we had neighbors in the 1960s/1970s that had gardens, fruit trees, meat rabbits, chickens, goats and sheep. I don't mean just one neighbor who had all that, but multiple neighbors who had one or more of those animals. If you grow up hearing all that farm noise, the sounds a few animals make aren't going to bother you. I know most city folks don't like hearing roosters crow at 3 or 4 a.m. or all day long, but you'd think cities would otherwise allow hens for fresh eggs. Hens are not loud and if you keep your coop clean, it doesn't smell. Ezi, You might get away with hiding chickens in a garage as long as you don't have a loud rooster. (and, as far as I know, there are no quiet roosters). I think the chickens, though, would miss being able to be out in the sunshine and fresh air. 'When we open up the coops and let the chickens and turkeys out every morning, they come busting out of the coops like they're escaping from prison. They're trained to put themselves up before dark, but on pretty days they push that to the max on warm, pretty, dry days and stay out until it is just at the verge of going from dusk to dark. On a cold, windy, rainy or snowy day, they do have the sense (sometimes) to put themselves up early. Or, they sit on our porch and watch it rain, which means I'm going to have to hose off the porch the next day to remove the mess they leave behind. Poultry's pretty smart. Ours follow us everywhere and are very curious about everything we're doing, especially if it even possibly involves something they might enjoy eating. Dawn

Chocolate Stripes will continue to produce until frost/freeze kills it. But like I said, the fruit will get smaller. For me, CP usually has a fairly large harvest for the beginning and middle of the season and then kind of peters out towards September. Chocolate Stripe continues to produce. Haven't grown BK in a few years but it is back in the garden again this year. IIRC, it was not as productive as CP.