Oh my so many messages in the past few days that I have not checked back! Thanks for all the kind words and I'll try to respond to the questions in order (since I can be quite the tangential typer)... BUT First I'd like to clear up the misunderstanding that this is a roof top garden... This "block" of homes in NYC happens to have a public driveway where kids play, inhabitants do a weird sort of k-turnish parking to put their cards into their private 1 car garages... and the sanitation department picks up our garbage! Below is a photo stitched image taken from the 2nd floor bedroom in the "back" of the house: From the bottom of the pic to the top is: 1. home which you can not see that I am taking the pic from 2. MY backyard or "courtyard" 3. 1 car garage ------4. mirrored on the other side of the alleyway 3. neighbors 1 car garage 2. neighbors backyard or "courtyard" 1. Neighbors home which you CAN see b/c I am facing it :) Ohh and the trees that are in the front of their homes so I don't confuse anyone and make them think the trees are growing off of the top of their homes! I took a few pics to demonstrate the length of the "block" shared with about 60 homes total but the stitching became a little crazy looking due to all the extreme angles I had to take to show it all... I really wanted to show you all just to demonstrate how terrible and sterile cities can be... Even though the part of NYC that I live in is not full of sky scrapers (although I can see them from the park and my roof) it is indeed a concrete jungle with rooftops covered with asphalt and all sorts of tarred up with everyone's yard completely covered with concrete... My neighbor refers to my backyard as a little oasis on a good day, and a jungle when she is in a joking mood! Now to the questions: Caroleena: If your bag is made of a synthetic material, it will most likely last for more than 1 season... The reason it is recycled is probably b/c it would sit in a landfill for much longer than our lifespan... Unless it is made of paper and the company you had purchased it from is trying to prevent another tree from being cut down to make a paper bag. If it is indeed made of paper, it might not hold up for a few days ;) There are synthetic materials that are coated for added UV protection since the sun's rays pack quite a wallop of energy even for some synthetic materials! I was actually looking for some larger sacks to use on the roof top of the garage... Something larger than just a little rice sack and I came across this sort of product.. You can buy various sized and types of bags from $10+ and they can be quite huge! I had the idea of planting some Highbush blueberries on the roof each getting it's own sack.. I think the large size would mean I wouldn't have to worry too much about watering them... Of course I am not sure since I'd need to take into consideration a good deal of variables such as the max weight of the full size bush + the max weight of all the soil in the bag when it is fully saturated during a heavy rainstorm. I'd also need to know the max loading of the huge beams under the roof... The porosity of the bag and if I'd have to make holes for drainage and how would that affect the stability of the bag are also some considerations... I could always just go small and try and make a small basic green roof but that isn't too much fun for me ;) http://www.bagcorp.com/p_combobags.php Anyways it's just an idea... dulcimerduo: The bottom of the pond is poured concrete with a slight slope towards the middle... If I could rebuild the pond I would change a bunch of stuff but for what it's worth, it is fine. The sides of the pond are cobble stone like blocks. They were picked up from (either Home Depot or some local place for contractors) I believe they are made of granite. I am not sure of how porous the rocks are but just to be safe, the entire inside of the pond is lined with a thin layer of Hydraulic Cement. I was a little bothered by having to cover the natural look of the stones inside the pond but in 1 year it winds up being covered entirely by a sort of string algae and having to scrub/remove the algea every year for the sake of seeing the stones imho defeats the calming environment that the pond provides! The glass block is naturally waterproof so only the cement used in between the blocks and around them are coated with Hydraulic Cement. If you plan on doing a very large concrete raised pond you might enjoy the instructable that someone had made detailing their pond that they built out of concrete using rebar and wood as a form for the curving walls... http://www.instructables.com/id/The_Ultimate_Koi_Pond/ You will need to make a username/password for the free website since they recently made some changes which require you to login in order to see the plethora of detailed pics that people include in each step of their process. concretenprimroses: Heh... goldfish... they really are such dirty fish but in return they are somewhat easier to take care of! I had on numerous occasions read that they lack a normal digestive system like many other fish so they eat more frequently and will overeat if you overfeed them and in return provide you with lots of fast fish waste. I've also read that b/c of this lack of a stomach you have to feed them a winter diet to avoid food from sitting in their digestive system and rotting since they are cold blooded and their digestive system slows with the lower water temperatures. Here is an article on the digestive system of carp (goldfish were domesticated from a type of carp). http://www.pond-doctor.co.uk/longdigestion.html Also, goldfish are carnivorous and even after over feeding my goldfish they will start plucking at the bottom looking for any food... This stirs up any solids that would otherwise settle to the bottom and clouds the water. FYI: I had planned on using my goldfish as a means of creating an organic fertilizer for my outdoor annuals and perennials so I overfeed my fish and in return I use the water from the pond to water the plants. I then fill up the water in the pond with clean tap water which has usually been standing outside in a container for at least a full day so that the chlorine can evaporate out of it since it is treated Tap water. I try not to let the water sit outside for too long so that mosquitoes start laying eggs in it! Once your goldfish (females) reach around 3 years of age they become sexually mature and start to spawn... The males will chase the females around all day long and bump into them... Since a large number of my fish are now over 3 years of age I find a few of them racing around the small pond which kicks up a lot of debris so the water is constantly cloudy! Since my pond is so small it does require a bit of work to take care of with so many fish in it! I am trying to keep it as both an aquaponic setup and a means for making an organic fish poo tea fertilizer for the plants in the soil. The bio filter that I grew over the waterfall to convert ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate and the waterfall that helps evaporate the nitrogen into the atmosphere just doesn't cut it. I only have pumps in my pond since I don't have any room to put anything more than a pump so I have to make due with what I have for trying to keep the water clean. At first when the weather warms up, string algae and sheets of it will grow everywhere... even over the moss and leaves of any plants that the water happens to flow over... The string algae is a nitrate processing machine even though it is a bit gross to look at since it looks all slimy and dark! Even though it is gross it keeps the water clear unless the fish disturb the waste on the bottom when they forage looking for food. The string algae was recently scrubbed off to increase the aesthetic looks of the pond b/c I had guests coming over and in return the water is now a slight hue of green due to the increase of suspended algae that are consuming the nitrates that the string algae on the rocks once took care of. Feel free to ask more specific questions about what I did If I just confused you with this wall of text! luna_llena_feliz: The shelf connected to the garage is made of a bunch of 1. 1" diameter pvc pipes connected with "L" shaped connecters to form a base that adds support... It's like a giant rectangle that a slightly larger rectangular piece of lattice sits on top of! 2. Lattice overlaid onto the pvc base and secured with UV coated tie wraps 3. The pvc base + lattice are on top of multiple heavy duty hanging pot hangers that are anchored into the garage using concrete anchors. The garage walls are cinderblocks covered with stone and brick and painted over using a waterproof cement made by Drylock. Again thanks for all the praise and kind words! Mike p.s. I think I now have to figure out how to support a large glass bowl or jar so I can do what calamity_J did!!! here is a link to her pic http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL167/1640891/18561881/318338361.jpg Oh... ONE LAST PIC!!! (for this response! mwahaha) Here is what my yard looks like at night... I have rope LED lights all around the garden... The pic was taken with the shutter open for 2 seconds so some of the lights look intense but in actuality all the lights set a really somber and romantic mood with just enough light to be able to see eachother's faces and "drinks" on the table! At the moment the pond lights are currently hanging out of the pond. One of the lights had gotten condensation in it the plan is to eventually replace the halogen bulbs with LED bulbs... I just need to either find light fixtures prebuilt so that the LEDs use the same transformer or buy a new one :(

Annie - that looks very similar to the recipe Byerly's has printed on the bags of wild rice they have sold for the past 30 years. It is delicious. They also have it in the deli and in the frozen section because it is so popular. I usually add sherry in place of the white wine when I make it. The tiny package of rice I sent is actually Byerly's cultivated wild rice. I sent it for you to compare the colors between cultivated and the marsh grown wild stuff. I will have to try Alexa's method of microwaving the rice. I do mine on the top of the stove OR baked in a covered casserole in the oven. I'll give the MW a try. Hope you come home to a tasty batch of soup on Sunday! And let me know how you cook the rice ahead of time in the crock pot. I got that large crock pot earlier this year. That would be yet another way to cook up large batches to freeze. I have to make a huge batch of the soup for the deer hunting trip. Getting the rice done ahead of time in the crock pot would be great. Teresa

Rice pudding was one of my favorite foods as a child. I would ask for it for my birthday instead of cake, and would eat it for breakfast if it was available. I'm another person who would eat rice with cinnamon/sugar and milk like cereal. I'll add leftover cooked rice to homemade vanilla pudding. Due to arsenic and rice, I'm a little more picky these days. I cut my exposure to it by reducing the number of times I eat it each week, and making sure I thoroughly rinse rice (I have a lovely rice strainer that is the neatest tool for the job - link below), and I also sprout brown rice before using it. Rinsing and draining rice before cooking it will remove about 30% of the arsenic on it according to a Consumer Reports findings out in the January 2015 issue. If I don't have time to sprout it, I make sure I do a long soak in water with a splash of vinegar, followed by a thorough rinse and drain, which is also supposed to reduce the amount of arsenic. It's also suggested to cook rice in a 1:6 ratio (like pasta) instead of the usual 1:2 ratio of rice to water due to arsenic. BTW, rice grown organically was found to have the same arsenic levels as "conventionally" grown rice in the Consumer Reports up-coming issue. Due to being gluten-free, there is rice flour in so many commercial gluten-free products, so I tend to make my own brown rice flour after rinsing, soaking, sprouting and drying it in a dehydrator, and I make white rice flour by soaking, rinsing and dehydrating the grain before milling it. Otherwise, I try to limit or avoid commercial rice and rice flour products. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Japanese Rice Washing Bowl

Wow, you folks are awesome, thanks so much for taking the time to post ideas and recipes, I really appreciate it. I'm going to ask tonight if eggs/egg whites are on the OK list because those macaroons are a great idea (and are a favorite of DH as well). Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. It's also found in spelt, I've just learned. So all of those products are out, along with a laundry list of other foods that seem to cause her stomach to cramp up. I love to bake - bread a couple of times/week, cakes, cookies, pies, etc. I feel badly for my neighbor as she's basically given up on all baked goods, which is why I thought I'd see if there were any possibilities for her that she might have overlooked. publickman I've brought quinoa salad a couple of times and am not a huge fan, but it's a good fallback. bons thanks so much for the recipes. The brownies and macaroons look great (assuming eggs are ok, I'd have to leave out the nuts) but the 3rd recipe won't work as was pointed out (milk). mom4j47 yes, this is pretty drastic and not by choice but for health reasons. My neighbor gets very very sick when she eats something not on her OK list. All veggies and some fruits are always welcome so I often bring those. Annie I'll check out the cornbread recipes (and ask her if cornmeal is ok). The meringue cookies look good although no nuts. dcarch thanks for the hint about Asian groceries, I've got one nearby. I have no idea how to use these flours though - anything you can share about them? Wild rice is a grass and as such it's on her OK list. I haven't seen wild rice flour (if it even exists) but I've got a really good recipe for a wild rice salad (includes dried cranberries and almonds) that I could bring sometime, with the almonds on the side. cloud_swift the cholo tiki recipe looks delicious - I know DH would love to try that. Teresa yes, rice just an additional food she is sensitive to, which makes things difficult since it's often an ingredient in gluten-free flours and foods. tami_ohio thanks for pointing out www.diningdownloads. I have a Kindle and will check it out. chi83 I'll have to check with her on coconut milk. I'm assuming almond milk is not going to work. I didn't know that coconut cream whips. compumom thanks, I'll see if meringues will work for her. Becky thanks for the recipe! Jessica thanks as well, I'll ask about corn meal because your recipe looks great. cynic I'm going to see her tonight and so will ask about all the ingredients I'm not sure of. I didn't realize flour residue hangs around. She loves the gewurztraminer that DH brings on occasion, so arriving with baked goods is not really all that critical. Her basic approach is to make a soup that she knows she can eat and assume that any other contributions from guests are not going to be something she'll be able to have. If the contributions fit her diet, it's a bonus. This has been a real education for me, both in getting to know this neighbor and in all the posts here. Thanks again to all who commented.