Hmm, I was kind of attracted to Wretched Mess just for the adventure of seeing what it would produce. Not that I have room for another brug! Sorry to hear yours is behaving badly. With our unusual and violent weather I've had a time getting flowers, however, both Cherub and Heloise are budding now, and I expect Santa Rosa to produce another flush in the coming month. Peach Versicolor is doing absolutely nothing!! Of course it's anyone's guess as to how much longer they can stay outside. I could get a cold snap anytime now and have to drag them all in. Which is why, having seen some whitefly yesterday, I will give them all a dose of systemic insecticide to prevent bringing the nasties in with them. I am quite impressed with my deep pink mandevilla and lavender lady passionflower right now tho. They're going crazy blooming. Diane Oh yes, the tomatoes are finally hitting their stride too! Time to make another tomato tart.

There aren't any strains of Amish Paste. And most of the reputable seed sources carry the correct seed. And i think that's why it's good to always start your own plants from seed if you can, instead of buying plants at a nursery or big box store where errors can be and are made. (I've bought a membership to Seed Savers Exchange and will give Amish Paste one more try from this place.) Sunsi, I don't know if you mean you want to buy those seeds from the catalog, or online catalog, or request them from SSE members who list that variety. As a long time Life Time member of SSE and one who for many years proofed the tomato offerings in the catalog I can tell you that the seeds offered by SSE commercially have a pretty good reputation for seed purity, but they offer only about 40 varieties. Seed sources such as Sandhill Preservation offer over 400 varieties and a much lower cost with many more seeds/pack. TGS also has an excellent reputation for seed purity and offers several hunfred. And don't over look Victory Seed either. But NO seed source is perfect when it comes to OP seed. If you request seeds from members that's no assurance that you'll always get what you want b'c there's a huge range of folks who are listed members, and their expertise as to bagging blossoms or using geographic isloation for seed purity varys widely. While i strongly support SSE and their mission I've usually suggested to folks who are relatively new to heirloom tomato growing to get their seeds elsehwere and I've mentioned a few above. And when they've grown the most common ones, such as Amish Paste, then go to the SSE Yearbook for the rare and different ones not offered commercially. But I encourage anyone to join SSE, even if not intending to be a listed member, just so their membership monies can support the SSE efforts at seed preservation. Carolyn

Carol, your blender is really neat! I haven't seen a commercial with pushbutton speeds like that before. I think the ones I remember only had high and low. Tracey, I too have gotten some of my best recipes out of mixer cookbooks, especially before cooking forums and what not! Pete, I think that Pleasant Grain often has a sale just before Mother's Day, so I'll watch and see if they do this year. I put all my holiday bonus and tax refund in the bank, so maybe I'll spend part of my rebate on something fun, since I guess technically what you're supposed to do is spend it, LOL. By the way, on a similar but different topic, did you know that Miele is coming out later this year with a new line of upright vacuums that they are making themselves instead of rebadged Panasonics? I think Andy said they'll be out in the US in the 4th quarter, I think earlier in Europe, not sure about Canada.

I use chlorine bleach exclusively and never had a problem. If your claims of dingy towels after use are true, you got something else going on. Percarbonate while an oxidizer, will not outperform LCB as a stain remover. My suspicion is you used too much. 4 rinses is substantial to have lingering effects. All LCB is not the same just as detergent. My question is why are your towels dingy anyway if you have been a user of percarbonate? Dingy clothes are caused by redeposition of soils not remaining in suspension during the wash process, or too low of temperature. Everybody has a preference, but LCB always has a place in the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room. It is the gold standard for disinfection!