Konrad: 1. The original plunger type cherry stoner is a German design, made by the Glass Company of Germany, of tough, orange-colored plastic. We have two of them, and have been using them for over 20 years. As they say in Germany, they are "Automatischer Kirschentkerner, fur frische Kirschen, konservierte und tiefgefrorene Kirschen". I don't have the two little dots for the "fur". The Italians make multiple-cherry machines that are quite expensive, but the Glass design is the best pitter for the money on the market today. 2. A little more than 15 years ago, knockoffs began to appear from Taiwan, and now they are more likely from mainland China like nearly everything else. The Taiwanese and the Chinese are very good at copying things, and I assume their pitters, which are dead ringers for the Glass design, (although they are usually white instead of orange plastic), are pretty good too, although when I can get a good German product at not too much of a premium price, I usually buy it. I feel the same way about Felco pruners, built like a Swiss watch. 3. I know you are a skilled craftsman, and have a lot of experience working with machinery, but I think you might give your plunger-type pitter another chance. We usually pit and freeze over 25 quarts of sour cherries every spring, and there are a few things we have learned about using these pitters. First, do not overload the little hopper with cherries and expect them to roll singly into the pitting chamber. They will not. Place a maximum of 8-10 cherries in the hopper, and guide them to the guillotine. This slows the operation a little, but not much. The cherries are always trying to hop over one another to get to the bowl without being pitted, and when you get a cherry jam in the pitting chamber this is what can happen. Adjust your pressure on the plunger so it is just enough to pit the cherry; not too much or too little. Keep the knob on the plunger screwed tight so you do not lose spring tension. Do not allow the pit bin to become overfilled, and rinse the entire pitter every so often when it becomes sticky. Be alert for black frass in the pitting area which indicates the presence of cherry fruit fly larvae, and stop operations when you see it for a complete rinse. Made sure the rubber insert that grabs the pit is always in the right place, kept there by the pit bin. 4. My mother-in-law used the little hand-held pitter, so I have seen those used, and they are many times slower than the plunger types, though effective. I have also seen the crank-type pitters in action, and, in addition to crushing the cherries, they pass many more pits than a plunger type carefully used. However, plunger-type pitters are designed for use on full-size cherries, such as Montmorency or Northstar, (or any of the sweet cherries), with a stone that is small relative to the size of the cherry. I saw your beautiful photos of Nanking cherries not long ago, but these thin-walled bush cherries with large stones will not work well in any pitter, except possibly the hand-held types, if that is what you are trying to pit. 5. If I have any problem with the pitter you purchased, it is the suction-cup base, which is not an improvement over the clamp base and would quickly loosen and have to be reset frequently. A clamp-type base will hold to the table much better, and I modify mine by placing a 3/4 piece of wood beneath to raise the discharge point and permit use of a more spacious receiving bowl. I checked out the Lehman's website provided by Woody, and see that they have a deluxe model, actually made in Germany, for $32.95. I am sure their cheaper model is Chinese. The German machine would be my choice, hands down. A little pricey, but a stainless steel plunger is worth a lot. I know it is not so simple for you to order merchandise from USA sources, given exchange difficulties etc., but if you have a lot of cherries to pit, the best is none too good. Finally, give your Chinese machine another chance (though not with bush type cherries), and you might begin to like it if you can figure out how to get rid of that suction cup and install a clamp. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Stepping out the door and seeing hills and valleys and nature all around me has never lost its magic. It's one of the great joys of my life. When the garden seems to be as close to perfection as it ever could be, and to look around in wonder and disbelief that I could have had a part in creating something so sublime, that is a heart stopper. It may not happen very often, but there is always the memory of it to lead me forward to greater efforts (and of course I have pictures to remind me of those special moments). Bending down to inhale the scent of a rose that smells as wonderful as La France or Wild Edric does something to my heart at that moment and also in retrospect whenever the memory of that fragrance comes back to me. Ingrid

Honestly, a Cornelian cherry pie is the best cherry pie in the world. With vanilla ice cream, it's out of this world. I think of this fruit as the rhubarb of the "cherry" world. The taste is quite distinct and definitely not cranberry. Once you add sugar, the fruit is transformed. To make pie filling, I add sugar, red wine, a bit of lemon juice, touch of salt, ground black pepper, and some ground cloves. I use a bit of flour for thickener. People are skeptical when I extol the virtues of this pie, but once they've tried it, they're believers. Cornus mas is a huge seller in the Caucasus and Turkey, where it's routinely turned into jam (pits left in the fruit) and used to sweeten tea, especially when you have a cold or flu. It's a pain to pit it; a cherry pitter really doesn't do the job. I was in Tbilisi when I discovered the cherries years ago and pitted them while I watched the Clinton impeachment proceedings on television. I used a paperclip (and still do) to preserve as much of the whole, soft, very ripe fruit as I could. A friend in the Caucasus gently rolls the cherries over a grater to get the fruit off (she don't make pies with it; mine was the first she tried). Occasionally, for pie, I have a "pitting party": invite seven friends over, and in one hour, you will have the amount of pitted cherries it would have taken you eight hours to pit by yourself. As a reward, all pitters get a piece of pie. I boil the leftover pits to remove the clinging bits of fruit, which results in a strong Cornelian cherry juice that I turn into sorbet, using the same ingredients (sans flour) I use for the pie filling. A friend from New York told me I could make a fortune selling the sorbet there. (Sure, if someone invents a pitter.) The fruit also makes a wonderful sauce--delicious on chicken or ice cream or on anything else you would flavor with cherry. This cherry would make an excellent liqueur, I think.

I can address a few of your points: -Last year there was a bit of discussion about a "green soapstone" which was not typical looking- and many said that it was really a serpentine. This might be what you've seen. -On busy soapstone: We were finding soapstones that were too busy or too dull. What worked for us was to find out when NEW shipments were expected, then make calls to track the progress. Our perfect stone arrived on my birthday last year. If you know when it's arriving, you can be the first to choose the best slabs. -On splatter marks: Our soapstone is a fairly dark one, and has really not required a lot of oil/wax treatments. It went dark pretty much right away. There are no issues with splatter marks next to my range. I never see spots of any kind. -On substitutes: We were all set to go with antiqued Virginia Mist granite as a backup plan. This is a very pretty dark grey granite. It has many soapstone-like characteristics. There is a gorgeous kitchen in the finished kitchens blog that shows it off- check out those photos. In our area it is so popular that we could have had it for the cost of how many sq feet were used, as opposed to the price of full slabs. It would have been much much less $$ than our soapstone. It is a gorgeous stone. Don't know why there is not more buzz about it. The Antique finish is a tiny bit rougher than "honed" and adds to the "soapstone look" and makes for better maintenance. Dark honed granite can be a nightmare for showing marks, crumbs etc. I have friends with polished black granite and they are very unhappy. Another pretty stone is Pietra Cardoza, which has variable reports on maintenance. I understand that the counters at Restoration Hardware are made of this stone (although often they report it to be soapstone). To me, the Pietra is very similar to the Virginia Mist. For sink: we used Silgranit in biscuit. The matte finish works very well with the understated look of the soapstone. It's a rectangular super-single sink, and is fully under-mounted. It works out perfectly. best wishes- hope you find what you want!