Many years ago in El Cajon Ca. we use to play golf at a course that had been an olive orchard. There were many trees left after putting in the course, but people complained about the olives. I wrote to the U.S. dept of Agriculture and got a whole booklet on how to cure olives. I don't know when I had such a good time and so many people wanting my olives. The golf course even provided me with a golf cart to collect the fruit. Amazed when I found out that the olives are picked green, well they turn a beautiful satin green color. It was all in the curing as to whether we wanted our olives green or black. At our poker parties/any party, olives were expected at our home. After 40 some years I still have that booklet and sometimes the urge to cure olives again.

There are so many that I hardly know where to start. For organic info, Dirtdoctor.com. For regional horticultural info, Neilsperry.com. For crape myrtle info on variety selection/growing: crapemyrtletrails.org. To track the purple martin migration in spring: purplemartin.org. For monarch butterfly info/migration tracking: monarchwatch.org. For wildflower seeds, wildseedfarms.org. For Oklahoma weather info, a wealth of info can be found at the Oklahoma Mesonet, mesonet.org. For Oklahoma climate info, there's the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, at http://climate.ok.gov. I use the Sam Roberts Noble foundation at noble.org for Oklahoma-specific agricultural and horticultural info. They have lots of stuff, but sometimes you really have to search for it. They're the best source for info on growing strawberries here using plasticulture, and have done a lot of research with "homemade" hoophouses. To track the hummingbird migration in spring: hummingbirds.net. For OSU fact sheets on all kinds of agricultural and horticultural topics: http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/View/Collection-297. This takes you to the beginning of the index pages. A quick link to several tomato problem solver websites is to go to Tomato Pest and Disease Forum here at Garden Web, and search for Tomato Problem Solver 2 and search the resources linked there. For Texas A&M University's extensive veggie question and answer website, go to: htp://plantanswers.tamu.edu/vegetables/veg.html. I order seeds from quite a few websites. Someone already mentioned rareseeds.com which is the website for Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and it is my favorite source for many heirloom vegetables. Sandhill Preservation Center is a great source not only for heirloom seeds, but also heirloom poultry, and they have the best prices on seeds that I've ever seen. Seed Savers Exchange is great and anyone interested can buy from their public catalog, but the best thing is to buy an annual membership which gives you access to the many thousands of seeds their members save and perpetuate. Other favorite seed sources include Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Harris Seed (for some tomatoes they developed that are only available through them), Victory Seed (the BEST info avail. on the heirloom seeds they carry and high-quality seeds and packaging), and--for heirloom flowers of all kinds--Select Seed. I like allrecipes.com but also use recipezaar.com too. For "freebies" there are the many Freecycle sites across the country. To find the one nearest you, go to freecycle.org us. Membership is free and members can post messages about stuff they want to give away to someone who'll use it (better than sending stuff to the landfill!) and also members can post messages about stuff they are looking for. NO SELLING allowed, only free stuff. I believe there is a related Cheapskate organization to. For used merchandise, DS uses Craigslist. Find the Craigslist nearest you at Craigslist.org. Just this year, DA has found great buys: a fishing boat, a boat motor, a 125 gallon aquarium and a refrigerator. The refrigerator, for example, was in great condition and was only $50. For books, especially used books, I use Amazon.com but also use Half.com, which is where Kristine just bought books for the upcoming fall semester for $140 instead of spending $500 at the college campus bookstore. Every major retailer in the USA has a website and I shop at a lot of them, but I usually restrict myself only to the "Outlet" section of the website because the prices there are so much better even than sale prices. I also look online for coupon codes to get further discounts and free shipping. I just google the retailer name and words coupon codes because there are tons of coupon code websites. And, because it is always cool to find a cheaper way to feed our gardening habit, I love the ideas you can find at Garden Web's Frugal Gardening forum. I use DG's Garden Watchdog as well. For organic supplies I use a lot of different sites, including Planet Natural, Arbico (beneficial insects) and Worm's Way among others. When DS was younger and I was doing a lot of room mother type stuff, carnival type stuff and Cub Scout den leader type stuff, I always shopped at Oriental Trading Company (Orientaltrading.com) for theme merchandise, novelties, art and craft supplies, holiday decorations, etc. AND, if you're planning a wedding, they even have oodles and oodles of wedding favors, supplies, decorations, etc. That's all I can think of at this moment, but I can always post more later. Dawn

Well, I misspoke---THIS is my favorite Cooking website, this forum right here. But Serious Eats is great fun. I'll check out the pictures, thank Lori!

I check myfamily.com daily. It's a place you can set up a website just for your family. Since I come from such a large "tribe", it's a wonderful way to keep in touch with all my siblings plus nieces, nephews and cousins. No one else can log on unless they were given a name and password. We share all our news, pictures, recipes, book and movie reviews. It isn't free but it's worth it to keep family close. Always check the 10-day forecast at weather.com Facebook, Yahoo mail, 1saleaday, and my home town (Indiana) newspaper. I also play 2 games that are so addicting--mah jongg and colored bricks, which someone on here posted a long time ago.