I am baffled because I have the opposite point of view entirely. Has anyone ever thought about what your ancestor Gunter in Germany was eating a thousand years ago? Probably cabbage, cabbage, cabbage, onions, garlic, barley, cabbage, pork, and turnips. How about Earnest in England?... pretty much the same. Far from food going extinct, I think there is tremendous diversity now in food production. Industrial production might require GM and capitalization of research through protection of intellectual property, but the fact remains that you are eating tomatoes, kohlrabi, six kinds of lettuce, two kinds of carrots, brussels sprouts, etc. All of those are robust and are grown as millions of mini varieties in gardens all over the world. I mean EVERYWHERE. Seed banks, seed companies, and people's dresser drawers hold huge stores of DNA, all slightly different. In five minutes, I could buy 100 different packets of seeds at the hardware store. Was that even possible in the 50s? And that is F1 or F2. Some okra farmer in Alabama has seeds produced through 50 crosses. People can and do create and study their own cultivars of darn near everything every season and then trade them internationally. How will that change? Activism is all well and good, but GM and Mxxxxxxo are small in the big picture and probably getting smaller. Remember that they have to invest millions in a cultivar just to get it to a commercial seed stage. How many cultivars can they do that with? And they and their timing are going to be wrong how often? Monsanto is not a juggernaut, it is a riverboat gambler. The bigger it gets, the bigger it bets. For better or worse, some gardener in China has a seed that is better than what Mxxxxxxo has got, and it is only a matter of time before the rest of the world finds out about it. In Japan, a single pumpkin seed can sell for hundreds of dollars. Mxxxxxxo has not moved in on that action, and it never will. The market is fuelled by enthusiasts and connisseurs. If the market gets cornered, people will immediately lose interest. Viewed in terms of sheer greed, it is in Mxxxxxxo's interest to maintain wild type specimens in environments all over the world. Even if Mxxxxxxo could sell one type of tomato seed that would make all others extinct, it would not do it. Has anyone considered that? Well, I guess that is enough. I could give 20 more examples. Viewed from a wider perspective, food diversity has never been better. And I will not be buying Mxxxxxxo stock. I should watch more TV, it sounds very entertaining.

I'll bet the show was great for you. We moved from California 3 years ago. I think the Feb show is one of the things I miss most.

Food pairings are very much subjective, and I object to a whole slew of them. I hate coconut in curries and also abhor most sweet things that find their way into meat dishes - especially fruit. People put all kinds of sweet fruits on ham, and I won't touch it. The absolute worst pizza is ham and pineapple (which I love separately), but there are people who eat it. Certain cuisines have more acceptable (to me) food combinations, such as Italian, Greek, Cajun, Mexican, Sichuan, and Japanese (except for their curry), and others have combinations that I consistently avoid - especially Philippino, and some of its neighbors. Some cuisines have a few dishes that I love and a few that I hate, such as Thai, Indian, Persian, and Jamaican. I will go to those restaurants but be very careful what I order. There are no universal rules about what goes with what because there will be exceptions to every rule and nothing will please everyone. Here are some pairings I do NOT like: nutmeg in spinach cinnamon in curry Waldorf Salad (bad mix all around) and there are a few herbs/spices that I just don't care for, such as tarragon and star anise, although I can handle them in minute amounts. I love cilantro, however, and many people hate that. Once I was on the Fillmore bus in San Francisco, and I happened to start talking with the woman sitting next to me and told her that I had just made my grandmother a lavender silk blouse for her birthday. The woman said to me, "That's perfect! Lavender goes with everything!" and I tried to imagine what this woman's wardrobe looked like. Lars

This is my 3rd attempt at sauerkraut. First time was too scary, and I abandoned it. Second time around, I was more adventurous, and scraped the "spooge" off the edges and then tasted the 'kraut. It was SOUR, since I'd let it ferment for a long time (6 weeks or so), but good. Other people's sauerkraut tasted bland in comparison. I'm going to check this new batch at 5 days, and keep checking it every little bit after that til I find "just right". I know it takes me a while to get used to new favors, so hopefully the more you drink your lemonade, sample the cheese, etc., the more you'll like it. Have you tried store bought Kombucha? I'd love to get that kind of flavor and fizziness in our home brew. That's great you have space for a back pantry kitchen, Building for the CATS. I think this is an ideal setup, really. AK Tillery's kitchen comes to mind. Our pantry is only about 4x4ish, and has no room for a back counter. I'm thankful for what it holds, but its use is somewhat limited. The Amish around here often have a second kitchen in the basement. This is their canning area, and is nice for when they host large groups for church and fellowship. One friend used her second kitchen for juicing as part of Gerson therapy for her husband's Lyme disease (He's doing GREAT!) She was really thankful that all that prep and cleanup could happen separate from her everyday kitchen. Your rolling carts and extended counter sound super helpful, loonlakelaborcamp. I hear you on nowhere to clamp things down, we had issues with that in our old house when we'd go to use the squeezo or the apple peeler. I love the idea of the canning jars at the backsplash. I think Mamagoose has this too, right? I have my spices under my cooktop, which is pretty handy too. I just need to break down and order storage tins to contain them more neatly. It's a mess under there right now. I don't think I mind the "working kitchen look" so much as I mind A.The lack of counter space. B.When there is clutter on the counters, the kids don't clean up as well (and neither does mom, frankly ; )) It's like the stuff all blends together, and it gets more full and disorganized by the minute, like Scoby's left too long in their dark swampy tea. : )