I think Shepherds Pie is a great choice! A bit of a change up from the chicken and pasta dishes and perfect for Fall. Here is my recipe Shepherds Pie 4 tbsp vegetable oil 1 1/2 pounds ground beef 3/4 cup diced onion, about 1/2 medium 1 cup diced celery 2 cups diced carrot, about 2 medium 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 heaping tbsp tomato paste 2 tbsp flour 1 cup red wine (can omit)_ 2 1/2 cups beef stock ( I use 1/2 stock one half my brown sauce) 1 sprig rosemary 1 sprig thyme Salt and pepper to taste 4 medium cooking potatoes, peeled and quartered 2 cloves garlic, smashed butter 1/4 milk 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese salt and pepper to taste 1. Add 2 tbsp vegetable oil to large pan over medium high heat. Add ground beef. 2. Cook until excess liquid is gone and meat is starting to brown. If required drain of any fat. 3. Remove meat from pan and deglaze with red wine or beef broth, let reduce slightly. 4. In another large pot, add remaining vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add onions, carrots and celery; cook until soft but not browned, about 5-7 minutes. 5. Add garlic and add tomato paste. Brown paste slightly then sprinkle in flour. Cook out for a minute or two 6. Add in red wine, scraping up brown bits from bottom of pan. 7. Add beef stock, rosemary, thyme. Return browned meat to pot. Simmer, covered for 20-25 minutes. 8. Remove lid and continue cooking for another 10 minutes; liquid will reduce and thicken. Remove rosemary, thyme . Season well with salt and pepper. Potatoes 1. Add quartered potatoes and smashed garlic to medium pot. 2. Boil until potatoes are tender but not overdone, about 15-20 minutes. 3. Strain potatoes; let dry out slightly in colander before returning to pot. Add milk, butter, pepper, Parmesan cheese and more salt if necessary. 4. Mash using a potato masher. Preheat oven to 400. Spoon filling into the bottom of a 10-inch round casserole dish. Top with potatoes. Grate parmesan cheese on top and dot surface evenly with butter. Season with salt and pepper. Bake on middle rack until top is golden and filling is warmed through, about 20-25 minutes. Let stand for a few minutes before serving. For a crowd I make the meat mixture a day or two ahead and refrigerate. I also make the potatoes a day ahead. On the day of, I bring the meat to a low simmer, just barely heated through, then top with the potatoes and throw in the oven a half hour or so before serving.

Question 1 - I was really blown away by how deep and big the taproot is growing on these trees. It's like most of the energy is going to create this big root. It's thicker than the trunks in every case, and the roots are easily twice to sometimes 3x as long as the seedling itself. So on on of them, I cut back the taproot a little bit... I took about a half an inch. I had read Al mentioning that slowly cutting back a taproot over time can help spur the tree to grow more roots higher up. I hope I didn't take it out of context. The first day the lowest leaf of that seedling, which has started to go brown on the rim, became pale and collapsed on one side of the leaf. Then yesterday it went dry. Today there has been no further progress of the leaf's collapse and no further signs of stress. The seedling seems strong... Was I wrong to try and trim it back just a little bit? Or did I do alright? Is this seedling out of the woods for now do you think? Young plants are nearly all dynamic mass, and as such, have a very strong "will to live". If your plant is currently doing well, there is no reason it will take a turn unless something cultural forces a change in course. Bonsai practitioners have learned that lifting seedlings as soon as the first set of true leaves emerge and removing the seed radicle immediately below the root to shoot transition zone and treating the top as a cutting eliminated taproot issues entirely in most plants. In stubborn plants with a hard tendency toward vertical roots, you'll need to regularly remove all first order roots (attached to main stem) growing downward from the root to shoot transition zone as well as all second order roots growing up or down off the first order roots. Question 2 - related to question 1, regarding the other seedling I root pruned a little. This one I took a little more off of because of root rot. I know I had to take it off, and I also took off a bit of taproot for this one too. The seedling itself seems fine. The uppermost leaf - which is fairly new and thin yet - went limp the first day, but has become stronger and greener these last two days. I know I had to take off the bad roots, but I was worried I went too far. I'm hoping I'm seeing indications that I didn't? Only way to tell is by putting a waiting period behind you during which the plant retains its turgidity throughout the daylight hours. Stomata close at night and slow water loss, so unhealthy plants have opportunity to recover from low internal water pressure and wilting. No wilt during the day is a good indication to bet on full recovery. Question 3 - When I was done, I investigated the 5 'dead' seedlings. Two of them looked like some of Al's bare-root pictures. The main part of the taproot was healthy, seemed alive, and had small alive roots still growing from it. but the end of the root was truncated in mush, much of which fell off into the soil. I washed them as clean as I could in a mist spray and cut off the mushy end to clean root. Then I potted those in 5:1:1 too. I'm hoping against hope that I might be able to save them. The top id dead back to the twiggy stump... Any thoughts if they might come back? Anything special I might do for them to give them the best shot - for instance a special fertilizer or watering strategy? Withhold fertilizer until the plant recovers. DAMP or MOIST are the operative words. If the fungal infection has gummed up the plumbing such that a vascular connection between roots and shoots isn't in the offing, it's a goner. If the infection isn't systemic, the possibility of retaining viability is still on the table. What kills cuttings is the inability to make that plumbing connection due to rot, or the cutting having an inadequate energy reserve. If the plant/cutting/seedling runs out of reserve energy while it still a net user of energy instead of a net producer of energy, it's over. 4: I have 5 I have not yet repotted. They seem to be okay... though 3 aren't doing much of anything, they're just existing and may have some first sign of browning on lowest leaves, but I might be looking too hard too... One is finishing it's fall flush of leaves, and one is start starting it's fall flush... I'm not sure if I should repot them so close to winter or if I should let them be until spring, since they seem okay right now. I especially am not sure I should mess with the one putting out new leaves. But on the other hand, what if I really am seeing some warning signs and some suddenly start taking a down turn in the next week or month? Wouldn't it be better to do it early, now, rather than later? The only reason I re-potted the ones I did was because I was sure they wouldn't make it through winter... I am not sure on these ones. If they were your plants, what would you do? A dearth of mobile nutrients, over-watering, root congestion, soil compaction, can all lead to loss of lower leaves. I'll ask you to spare me from having to do the research by telling me if these plants would normally enter a predictive dormancy during the fall to winter transition? If yes, then waiot until spring but guard against over-watering. If no, repot only if you suspect strongly that the plants will no longer be viable come late spring (June). 5: Fungus gnats. =( I manage to get rid of them for a while, but they always come back. Of course, I was always using compost mixes, particularly organic ones, and they're usually lousy with them no matter how much a brand claims they pasteurize/sterilize for pests. Do non-mineral soil media mixes have the same ability to attract and support these and other soil-borne pests? If yes, which ones to watch for? If you don't already have a good understanding of what constitutes the comparative degrees of container media (as in unusable, practically unusable, just plain poor, ok, better, and the variations of better from 'sort of better' to 'really a whole lot better'), making that a priority will almost certainly propel your advancement farther/faster than anything else you might apply yourself to in the near term. If you need the info that can tie soils up into a neat little conceptualization, I'll be really glad to help, but I think trying to do it in a thread that covers so many topics isn't the best format. Are you familiar with and understand the concept discussed here? Which brings my follow-up: If it can support pests that spent part or all of their life cycle in soil, then it should be able to support their predators too, right? I prefer to combat pests with their predators, like nematodes, predatory mites, aphid lions, etc. Would this be doable if needed? How about we work toward providing a home for roots that doesn't provide creature comforts? In the immediate, mosquito dunks and a restrained hand on the watering can are potential remedies. 6: For the future of these little babies of mine, what would a good strategy be for keeping them happy growing in a container? You'll find an outline here that will provide a plan for maintaining woody material in containers and in good health indefinitely. I know I need to keep them smaller than if they were in the landscape, and that means eventually removing the taproot. I also understand that taproot removal usually starts after a year. But these trees don't actually seem to have much besides taproot... smaller roots branch off of it, and a few have some smaller roots that come from the trunk matrix but not most from what I've seen. Would the best bet be to gradually prune the tap root back over a few years in an attempt to get the trees to put out more roots higher up? Or should I go for broke and just cut it way back and defoliate? Or is it possible that the poor media I have been growing in so far as not encouraged growth at the higher and mid root range and drove the roots downwards looking for air? I'm sorry I haven't taken any pictures to share to give you a better idea. If I end up re-potting any of the others, I will take some. I think I covered these questions above, but if not, ask again. Al

Yes, "healthy" is indeed ambiguous! it's like trying to find a "good" energy bar ... well do you care about protein, or carbs, or calories or fiber or banning sugar at all costs? Do you want organic or at least "natural"? etc etc We put our Cooking Club schedule together every August. January is always "lighter." Originally it was supposed to be "Whole 30" night but when we looked into that, it was too limiting. So we decided on "healthy" , which we defined to mean as low in calories as possible, without using artificial ingredients. Funnily enough, I am going to be at a cooking class at Bouley in NYC on Thursday during the day, then have the club dinner at night. So now I realize i need to make this in advance. I have decided on the item below. I can make it all in advance (I will also make the labneh), it is unusual and very pretty, and not only lower in calories but also offers the health-promoting benefits of pomegranate, yogurt, nuts and honey. On top of it all, I am picking up some honeycomb (rather than just honey) to put on top. Only negative is that it is cold, but, well, we aren't eating outside. : ) Lastly it will be a big turnout which means we will have a lot of food; I will want to nicely present small servings. I have a whole bunch of small glass votive holders and I will use those. Pomegranate Sorbet Parfait https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/pomegranate-sorbet-parfait All that said, I have at least 3 recipes I now want to try for some other time --- The Clementine cake, so intriguing, the roses, so pretty, and the really healthy apple crisp with a bit of heat. Thank you all! PS Heading to Savannah Bee tomorrrow, thx for the idea. My local grocer has it but it was submerged in honey. I want the crispy/chewy factor.

The neighbors in my Nextdoor forum advised to NEVER CLICK on a link sent by a stranger. If I want to do transfer money through Zelle, I go to my bank's website, rather than the link provided by the seller (a scammer). That's how someone got scammed by using the faked link to Zelle provided by the seller, stealing $300 from the buyer. Below are from my Nextdoor forum: "Never Ever sign up for something through a link sent from someone. You sign up for Zelle, not the other way around. I had a similar situation through Face Book Marketplace that they wanted me to pay them through Paypal but use the link they sent me. On FB someone is renting a 3 bedroom 2 bath home for $1K. They require a deposit and first month. Here is the scam. We rent this apt through AirBNB, and they will forward you a link to follow to send them the money. I knew was a scam so I played along. I reported to FB. It's unfortunate, but I have reported more than 20 accounts to Facebook, and they do nothing. Even some of those accounts that are selling newer cars for $1,500 with a Neme like "Mike Rogers" a white fellow, when you look at their friends and pictures, is in reality someone from India, Pakistan, Zimbawe... etc. Never ever click a link from an unknown email, text, or solicitation. Venmo is another method people use to steal your money. It's not like the bank or even PayPal where you can dispute a charge. Never EVER open a link someone has forwarded you. If you need to sign up for something, go directly to the biz page yourself and sign up. You can usually hover over the link itself to see the web address or if you do click on it, you can see the actual address it sent you to is not legit, even if the page looks to be." I just had someone try the scam on me. They said that they sent me $400 via Zelle but I needed to click on a link in the email to increase my Zelle limit to $700 then I would just send them back $300. I called him out on it and he stopped responding. This guy's name is Kayden Light. Beware folks! Scammers are out in full force now." The above are reports from my Nextdoor forum in my Chicago suburb.