Zemmaj - Hi Marie: I'm glad I tuned in today or would have missed your post. That sounds like a wonderful recipe. I do have quite a lot of citrus and raise a few bees as well, so that should work into our pantry saves very well. This should work well for orange and limes too, I would presume. Perhaps even mandarins - which ripen around X-mas time and the tree is always so loaded. It is sometimes hard to find ways to use all of the fruit. I know what you mean when you say folks really like the homemade kind - we are really appreciating the taste of the finer foods in life here now - since I retired, there is more time to spend producing it. We truly enjoy all of the fresh things from the garden. Though I've never entertained any serious ideas of working out of my kitchen personally - most of us in the family have worked around food at some point in our lives, so wondered how others manage to compete in that field. Restaurants can be very profitable - especially in tourist oriented places, but quality is always a big factor - when there are seasonal problems. I do have the Stocking Up III book - and apparently missed this recipe. Sorry about that, but nice to talk to you anyway. Would appreciate hearing about your "ventures" - keep us posted, please. Bejay

One of the best bang-for-the-buck knives is the Forschner chef knife made by Victorinox. Cooks Illustrated rated the 8" version (around $25-30) to be one of their favorites, over some that cost five times more than that. I have one, and it's a great value. A little lighter than a forged chef knife, and I like that for repetitive work. It also comes in a 5" version (see the link for reviews). For a youngster, that might be a little less unwieldly than a big chef knife--but it's still a very good quality knife for only about $16. (Available at Tundra Specialties, (etundra.com) for $15--etundra also has all sorts of professional kitchen stuff like cut resistant gloves, etc.) BTW, Victorinox is dropping the Forschner name and now manufacturing them under just the Victorinox label. Same knives, tho. Here is a link that might be useful: forschner victorinox 5

Yes don't mess with your ecological balance,if you can help it. Poisons can affect things you didn't intend to harm.If you have frogs in your garden, you are doing OK. If you already have grogs in your garden, it may be that you have previously tried, but overdone, the beer traps. But I believe the frogs will recover. (That WAS intended as a light-hearted joke, in case anyone thinks I'm taking the mickey, I'm not) I still think hand collection of snails is most efficient and once the buckets- full diminish, you know you are winning. I thought we were pretty well free of them forever but the lizards have moved on and after a sudden few days of drizzly weather, I have found heaps among the broms and bulbs.

Everyone has such pretty gardens above. As for the planning, I think it all depends on what you begin with, costs & style. I love the look of formal & modern landscaping; however, I bought a resale 8 year old home that looks somewhat traditional with an existing patio & a flat square backyard with a 6 ft privacy fence surrounding it. The patio is a curvy number with smaller interlock brick with a beige stone. It kind of sets the tone for the yard. It's not what I would have done, but it's nice enough that I can't justify replacing it. The original back fence line garden came with a few clumps of ornamental grass, a willow type shrub, a few other false spireas & a peony. In a bed that was about 3 feet deep. Already overgrown with weeds. So I spent the 1st summer cleaning that up, saved a few choice plants, planting 12 trees - front & back yards. And I started making fence line garden beds. Obviously have to plant the larger foundation plants & get them thriving first. So in 2 summers I made about 300 feet of garden around fence areas between the front and back. Planted the trees, 30ish varying shrubs, 45ish roses & quite a few perennials. Lots of edging & mulching. I also have a 6 ft fence along the front yard on one side. When we moved in there was no plants along the sides of the yards. I am very happy with the progress so far. But I want to extend more, add more, etc. Because my yard is very flat it was relatively easy & cheap to get as many beds as I have. If we had to do more hardscaping it would not be as simple. So I think a lot of someone's garden planning comes from the complexity or issues their actual property has ie. slopes, drainage, soil types, etc. Also I live in zone 5 so hardiness is a factor. I love boxwood hedging around beds, but it's easily ravished by winter winds, sun & ice damage. And I'm too lazy to winter protect that much. There are just so many variables. This is a picture of 3/4 of my back fence line last September. Started out as a 3 foot deep straight line bed. Here's another view of the back fence. There's is a small square patio tucked in the right corner. The stones for edging were used because there was a big pile of them in the corner when we moved in. So this came from an evolution plan. This is my side fence garden bed. Once the hornbeams & limelight get bigger I will widen this bed again.