I like elderberry (American) flowers and berry juice for bronchitis, as well as horehound, which grows fairly well for me (it is quite bitter). I have been able to collect elderberry flowers from bushes I planted, but the birds usually eat the berries-- I purchase Sambucol syrup instead. The English elderberry tree is more poisonous, and there are several types of American ones as well which are more so, so elderberry needs to be used with caution after reading up on it a bit. I like to substitute Dandelion root for coffee, and occasionally drink Pau D'Arco tea when I start to feel paranoid about cancer. My theory is that it may not cure a full-blown cancer, but might be discouraging to a few cancerous cells floating around. I purchase both of those. During the summer I just make teas out of whatever I can find growing well in my garden. Japanese honeysuckle blossoms are supposed to have some antibacterial properties, and taste nice with various mints. Sometimes I make a tea with ground ivy (not really an ivy; a weedy little ivy-like thing with purple flowers that I think is cute) or violet leaves. Supposedly forsythia buds have some antibiotic value; the Chinese grow a special strain of forsythia that is supposed to be more effective. I haven't tried any yet to see what they taste like. I also like to mix pineapple mint and pineapple sage in a tea, as is suggested in one of my books on herbs. That has a very nice fragrance. I found an hebal salve in the local health food store with comfrey gel in it that seems to help my arthritis, so I also like that.

Garden Chicken - Thanks! Tips? Wow. I've done like 5 leaves, total. :) I'm a rank beginner! I'm still not sure of myself with the casting -- like how thick they should be, for one thing. Or whether they have to be done all in one coat or you can do multiple thinner layers, or what the best mix is. My best tip so far is using wet strips of newspaper for keeping things damp while they cure. The heuchera is one I planted last year. That's the biggest leaf it's produced so far, but it's got plenty that are 3 and 4 inches across. I don't know if all the varieties get to be the same size -- I saw some really cool color combinations of heuchera last weekend, though. I might have to start a collection for leaf casting and painting. :) The painting is fun -- I just kind of wing it and see what happens. I use cheap watercolor brushes, a stencil brush, and chunks of natural sponge -- kind of whatever I happen to grab first, usually. The maple leaf actually went through a number of transformations before I finally made a trip to Wal-Mart to add some brighter colors to my muted collection of acrylics, so it has so many shades on it I don't know if I could ever duplicate it. That's what makes them fun, though. If you use the paint diluted, like Dena says, the layers don't build up on your leaf so much and you can just keep trying things until it looks right. One thing I learned from an art teacher I had was to try to see all the colors in things. If you look at a leaf, it's really not solid green, it's all sorts of shades of green and other colors mixed in. The heuchera, for instance, looks purple, but there's actually a lot of green in it, and some red and blue and black... If you punch holes in a couple of index cards and lay them over a green leaf, you can suddenly see how different the green is in different areas. Pretty soon you start noticing colors you didn't know were there. She had us looking at everything in little pieces through our cards and using all sorts of interesting colors in our work -- for leaves, she would have us add tiny bits of red (complimentary color) here and there, and purple in the shadows, etc. You don't really see the colors, but they make the picture look much more alive than if you just used shades of green. Dena - Wow, you have no idea how many times I've gone back to gaze at the photos of your painted leaves; they are so gorgeous! A compliment from you is an honor, thanks! :)

"Shake and Bake" refers to the nickname given to the state of California, which it is not only named for, but it is the state flower for :) California is often referred to as "Shake and Bake, USA WELL DUH!...lol, FANNA WHO IS Hysterical laughing at herself for FORGETTING THIS FACT about Callie! See I am afraid to TRY any Poppy for breadseed because what if someone sends one they THINK is safe and it isn't? JASMINE, I ACCIDENTLY TYPED THE WRONG NUMBER! All is WELL it WAS Margos I was working on and since I believe I meanted the gift she gave me it was clear it was just a slip of the finger or brainwave or something along those lines..... Lisa I stayed up last night til 5:00 am or would that be stayed up this morning til? Oh well, which ever that is what I did. It is just a matter of me bring ODC and can't stop until I feel HAPPY with the results....lol!!! WOW you all are sending in some REALLY REALLY good stuff!!! Wendy, thanks for my GIFT...I will be on a CHOCOLATE high tonight, haha! That was so sweet of you to think of me, thanks again. I am actaully taking a breather at this minute to eat supper then I will get back to the seeds. :) Fran I will go ahead and post #11 thread!

Well, I guess it's fund raiser time again, because my manager's wife (she works there too, in a different department) just brought in a book of stuff her daughter was selling. I never buy from those things, but I wanted to "be a sport" since everyone else was doing it... I stayed far away from the candy/cookies (they had labels for snickerdoodles and sugar cookies transposed on the wrong pictures!)... I got something called a bash and chop. It was only 6.50, cheaper than the 14.50 Vanilla Ginger candle I also got :o) It's kind of a bench scraper/prep taxi with a sharp edge. I thought it would be useful for cleaning the countertop after baking something with dough (I have a plastic pan scraper version I've used before that worked well) and for transporting ingredients for soup to the stock pot. I don't know how much real cutting I will be able to do with it, but I like my knives anyway :o) It has one curled edge to form the handle and numbers on the business end for measuring... has anyone used one before? Jude, I tried some silicone tongs before and the silly things wouldn't hold on to anything I tired to grab with them. I hated my silicone bakeware and threw the tongs and bakeware out on the same day, banishing silicone from my kitchen "forever". Well, I guess not because dollar store pastry brushes still reside in the drawer and I've gotten a lot of use out of them. Maybe I should check out the Zyliss... I don't have any Zyliss products! I tend to stick with Oxo and Farberware. Cookie, do you have the green garlic thing with the teeth inside that was an "as seen on TV" thing. I got one a few months ago and I do prefer it to the garlic press.