The price is too much, especially when The National Clonal Germplasm Repository at Corvallis, Oregon, sends out plants for free. I put in an order on line there last year for two Rose de Cote d'Or raspberry plants, after David Karp raved about their taste in his article. Two tiny, rooted cuttings arrived a few weeks ago, after around a year's wait, and are leafing out nicely in their one gallon pot. There might not be enough chill here to fruit them, but it's fun trying. Several French websites report that it's one of the most aromatic raspberries in existence. Here is a link that might be useful: NCGR-Corvallis - Rubus Germplasm

I have been putting compost (home made so there are lots of live things in it) for several years on my strawberries in the fall. They are very sweet. Think it may be rough on them strawberries to be in plain clay or peat moss.

Oy, the best laid plans . . . First I couldn't find the phyllo cups at Wegman's where I did my grocery shopping yesterday. Maybe they had them but I looked and looked and since I hate shopping as it is, I gave up. All they had was regular sheet phyllo dough. Maybe those phyllo cups are falling out of favor commercially. They were never great IMHO, but a passable lowfat holder for yummy fillings. BUT also, local strawberries were $4.00 a quart, and this country girl just could not pay that. I am going picking next weekend, g-d willing! Rhubarb was $4.99 a lb. at Wegmans and I drove around to two other markets and couldn't find strawberries any cheaper or any rhubarb at all. I gave up because I had to cook the dinner and not spend my whole day running after rhubarb. I found out my guest had rhubarb all along growing in his garden and didn't bring any, so phooey on him I don't feel so bad about not serving strawberry rhubard anything. BUT I did make a tart. I used this "Eating Well" recipe I found online for an apple tart, and morphed it into an apricot cherry tart. I had apricots that had been macerating in brandy and lemon thyme, and I cooked them with 1/2 cup apple juice, lemon zest, 1/2 stick of cinnamon and 1 TBLSP of lemon juice and 3 TBLSP sugar. YUM! The custard in the recipe was VERY GOOD. The crust was just OK though. The apricots were very rich, which was not necessarily a bad thing, but I think this custard will be a good tart filling for rhubarb strawberry if I ever get around to making one. I'd like to take a photo but I lost my camera's flash drive memory gizmo for downloading. Here is a link that might be useful: Eating Well Apple custard tart recipe

Spellbinding. There's a saying, "The only honest people are children and drunks." What do I mean by that? I dunno. I haven't given it much thought. But, seeing that this recipe lets you decide how much alcohol to add, and given the fact that alcohol preserves everything (but our dignity), I can't wait to get this party started. Sol