Thanks everyone :) I'll have to let my creative juices flow a bit more and see what i can come up with. I think Pixie_lou's idea of doing something 'horizontally' with the apple might work best. I personally think it's too large to be a totem topper - the photo I posted didn't give any 'perspective' so it's hard for you to gauge the size. I won't discount this idea though....it just needs the 'right' things to go with it. Off to the shed to see what I can find!

I wish I had some Burdock root to try this. I don't even know if it grows wild here in CA... at least I've never seen it.

I probably shouldn't tell you this...but I got so dang tired of cleaning the many bushels of lambs-quarters that I came up with a short-cut that you'll laugh at. The way I grew up doing it was get up before sunrise the morning or two after the first spring rain (in high desert Texas) and go look in ditches for the young tender lambs-quarter. Lambs-quarter later in the year is just too tough in Texas..but in Wa. State you can harvest them till hot weather if you like the lanky ones that grow up here. Take home and then pinch out each and every blasted growing tip (that's where bugs like to hide) then soak and wash...then take each and every plant and slap slap slap against your hand to dislodge the sand sticking to the underside of the leaves (lambs-quarter has a sticky tendency worse than spinach). Then soak and wash 2 more times. That is the way my Grandma and Mother taught me and I had the blistered hand every year to show for it. OR...clean your clothes washer out good...and put 2 bushels of lambs-quarter in and wash those suckers and spin them and pretend you don't know a thing about those few bugs that might have stuck to the growing points. (LOL) Protein is a good thing. The greens come out a little bruised but clean as a whistle and no sore fingers and blistered palms. My Grandmother thought I was touched in the head when she came over to can at my house for the first time. I usually helped her can whatever we happened to be picking that day...then went home and did mine the way I wanted to. LOL! Then I proceed with a hot pack for collards or mustard greens. Generally...I put whole plants (minus and roots you might have accidentally acquired) into large canner for precooking...then use a knife to "cut" tenderized greens into fairly large chunks. This takes care of the young stems. You don't want to chop them up like the stores do with frozen greens. I only pass a knife thru 5-6 times and call it good. Best part of lambs-quarter is the fact is you get more Qts per bushel as compared to other greens...or at least that is my experience. This was very helpful feeding our family because all the kids would eat lambs-quarter but not the other greens. Growing up..lambs-quarter was a necessity back when you just couldn't get much green produce in the winter due to transportation of produce back then. On good years...we would can 2 or 3 years worth...just in case the next year was a bad year for lambs-quarter. We kept it in our tornado shelter/root cellar so it was fine for years. My great grandmothers were Comanche and Cherokee so it was an event each year for 3-4 generations to gather lambs-quarter for our families. BTW...did you know that you can somewhat domesticate lambs-quarter to grow in your garden? My aunt did this and each year the greens got more and more purple tinged and they loved the extra love and produced well for us...plus they handle hail storms better than other greens.

Ok this will kill the health food freaks, but oh well :oP You're warned... Hangover MacDonalds chocolate milkshake will cure it faster than anything. I used to work for a DR and he was a nut about health, but on occasion, I'd see him drive up in the AM with a MicD's drink glass. He didn't drink soda...I was thinking he was getting huge orange juices. One day while cleaning the office a bit (his desk was frightening LOL) I saw that the soda cup was actually milkshake. His medical explaination... Milk will aggrevate the acids in your system from the booze, likely curdling and coming back up. MacDonalds fake shakes actually aren't made from milk so much as chemicals, so they'll go down and sort of "Sit" on the acids and absorb them as well. The chocolate gives you the sugar boost you need until your body can bring itself back to normal (it's just temporary) and the cafeen will help with a perk up. I use it myself ever since :) I don't drink til I pass out daily LOL but on occasion, when entertaining wine collectors especially, I'll end with one taste too many (port always gets me LOL I can't say no). I also used to drink for a living (ok I was community relations, but in AK that means you spend quite a bit of time at a private club here that specializes in wine) and every once in a while, it would be hard to get up in the morning heh heh My staff knew if they saw me with a milkshake before 10, they should leave me be for an hour LOL