Sheri, Oh, it is drooling time! I can almost taste the tomatoes now. Sungold, Persimmon, and Cherokee Chocolate: if you get ripe tomatoes from only these three plants, you'll still think it is the best tomato year ever, taste-wise! Dr. Wyche's has always done better for me than Kellogg's Breakfast, but then, I have grown DWY for 5 or 6 years and KB for only 2, so Dr. Wyche's has had more opportunity to excell. Dr. Wyche's is a pretty heavy producer, and quite tasty. It also shows great disease resistance. Black Zebra is a very attractive-looking tomato, but I think Black Pineapple (which isn't really black at all, LOL) tastes much better. I have found that every striped tomato I've ever grown has looked pretty, and tasted no better than average. (sigh) Well, I take that back--the one exception is Indian Stripe. Momotaro is probably better than Carmello, but then, your taste buds and your growing conditions are different from mine, so you might find the opposite to be true. I do not think you'll be disappointed in Momotaro though. I haven't grow Alamo. We love Sweet Million and Black Plum, which is our postal carrier's favorite tomato ever since I started sharing them with her several years ago. You're right--I wasn't wild about Japanese Black Trifele, but lots of people love it, so maybe it was just me. Your Mystery Surprise is probably either a tomato that "lost its label" during the seedling growing process, or is from a new grow-out that DJ is trialing and perhaps hasn't even named yet. (I think mysteries and surprises are fun!) Yellow Platfoot Brandywine is yummy, and so is Black Pear. Brandy Boy is the best. If I could only grow one variety, this might be it. There are a few that taste better, but NONE of them can match BB's heavy production and disease resistance. And, even though there are a few that I think taste better than BB, none of them is loads and loads better, only a little better. I don't think I have grown Black Pearl, but isn't it a smallish tomato, more like Black Cherry? I think it is the Burpee hybrid that is said to taste more like a Concord grape after it has been refrigerated? If it even comes close to tasting like Black Cherry, it will be a real winner. I can tell you are ready to get the plants going. Have fun, but be careful and watch the weather. I feel sure we have another freeze or two to get through before Old Man Winter departs and lets us have Spring. I believe you will have more tomatoes this year than last. Remember that so much of last year.....the excessive rainfall, the continual cloudiness, the cooler-than-usual weather all combined to severely affect tomato production. Conditions like that are beyond our control AND exceptionally rare. This has GOT TO be a better year, right? By the way, my little container-grown Better Bush tomato has now formed a second tomato--it is just about the size of an English pea. I am so worried that a deer or possum will get my first green tomato that I carry this plant inside every single night. (It is a very pampered plant at this point. Today I picked up a lady bug and carried her over to the plant and sat her on a leaf, just so she could cruise around and hunt for any bugs that might be lurking.) I am SO looking forward to the first ripe tomato this year. No matter the size of the tomato, we always make BLT sandwiches out of the first ripe one. I am going to order the world's best bacon from the New Braunsfels Smokehouse just so we'll have it for the first BLT of 2008. (Most of the time we eat healthy and watch our fat intake and cholesterol, but BLT time is special and calls for a total disregard of the healthy eating rules!) Keep me posted on how planting goes. I hope to be out in the garden a lot the next few days if the weather cooperates. We are under all kinds of storm watches today, tonight and tomorrow, but so far everything is going either a couple of counties west of us OR a couple of counties east of us, and that's OK with me. Dawn

I know you didn't ask our opinion on this tree, but since Mary offered you general advice about maples, I want to add a little to what she said. I will agree with what Mary said about maple trees in general. When we lived in Texas we had a large silver maple tree on the west side of our house. It had been planted by the previous homeowner about 25 years before we bought the house and was our only shadetree on the west side of the house, so we were 'stuck' with it. It had a million seeds every year, which we just chopped up with the lawn mower and caught with the grasscatcher. Any seed that sprouted we mowed down with the mower and it really wasn't much of a problem for us. It did have large surface roots, but I was able to plant a ground cover around those roots and it hid them quite well. The surface roots did not cause any sort of foundation problems for us, which was a relief! But the Shantung Maple is a different animal, so to speak. It is a hybrid maple bred to capture the good aspects of maples, like being fast-growing and quite beautiful without the negative qualities like excessive seeds and root problems. A lot of people say its' foliage reminds them quite a bit of that of some Japanese Maples. The fall color is gorgeous. It does not produce a lot of seed and usually doesn't produce surface roots like most other maples do. It is an Oklahoma Proven Winner from 2004 and the proven winners have been widely tested in a state before they are given that designation. I would never plant a Silver Maple in my yard, but I wouldn't hesitate to plant a Shantung Maple. There is a cultivar of Shantung Maple called Fire Dragon that has truly beautiful red foliage. I've linked a website with a photo of it below. The website has quite a few photos of Shantung Maples if you are interested in seeing them, including one tree that is quite large. Here is a link that might be useful: Fire Dragon Shantung Maple

Yes Sir, Campfridge--you hit the nail on the head! When we started camping, we had an old WW I Army wall tent, an old gasoline stove, a card-board box full of utensils, and a home-made ice box. Took some blankets and a roll of plastic sheeting, a hank of clothesline, a bag of snap clothes-pins! Stuffed it all into a 20 year old Mercury Station wagon, and went out to Shawnee State Park, in Pennsylvania! Put the tent up on a site, the wife did the cooking, and the kids (2) had a blast. (The other campers must of thought we were Gypsies, because they wouldn't let their kids talk or visit with ours!) The first night, along about 3 a.m., there was a very bad thunderstorm, and that old tent leaked like a sieve, the rain ran inside (no floor), and there was a no-ditching rule in camp! It didn't take us long to find out how dry and comfy it was inside the car, for the rest of the night. Next day, i strung the clothes-line between the trees, and placed the plastic sheeting on it, and clamped it on with the clothes pins! that covered the picnic table, but didn't do much for keeping the rain out. By the second day, my wife had enough, everything was soaked, and we packed up and left for home! And, 20 miles from the park, the sun came out! And that was the catalyst for my wife to buy a new tent, an ice box, and some sleeping bags! And, we bought a better looking car! The old one was a '53 Mercury Station Wagon, that the previous owner had pried off all of the wood trim, covered the holes with masking tape, and painted it with spray bombs! UGH!! But, it ran good! So good, the guy i sold it to ran it for a long time! And, that was our first camping trip!

Thanks for the recipes Teresa! I/my group loves the struan bread, been making lots of it since you shared that recipe. I've never worked with a sponge or starter before...look forward to taking that on when it cools down. I'm sure I'll have questions and need help...LOL David