Sorry about the double delay post. Except for sparrows and squirrels, I don't actually have a lot of pest birds. There are a total of 4 black birds and 2 blue jays. They are hardly an annoyance compare to the 50 house sparrows and 10 squirrels. The sparrows and squirrels will eat everything (though squirrels won't eat thistle seeds). I actually like to see the blue jay more and I set the blue jay type food away from the main feeder and the blue jay has not bother the other birds ever since. They end up fighting the squirrels for the nuts. By the way, is it bad to feed birds raw peanuts? I recall someone saying that raw peanut may be toxic. Paul

Maria, somehow I missed this thread! I'm so happy for you & I think Mr. Pickey Eater is pretty lucky too! I hope you have a fantastic Valentine's Day! Nothing wrong with being a pickey eater...instead, refer to him as a discrimminating eater. LOL /tricia

I am a picky eater. DH is not. My kids -- well, two out of three of them -- eat a wide range of foods. But because I am picky and I am Head Chef, my family only gets adventurous foods (my term) when they eat elsewhere! It's become a joke with people who know us. "Can we go to this restaurant? Can you find anything on the menu that you'll eat?" I'm not THAT bad but I am a baby and won't try ethnic foods like Indian, Moroccan, etc... I do eat Chinese food and Thai and Mexican. I can't stand dishes that mix meat and fruit. It just makes me want to gag. I won't eat hummus. I don't get it. Blecch. But it's always in the fridge because my family likes it. I balk at eating casseroles when I can't identify the ingredients. I don't like certain foods to "run together" on the plate -- I got that one from my father. Certain things are okay, but OMG, if I have a cold salad on a plate and it's running into something hot on the plate? IWWWW. Raw oysters or clams? Grosss. But I love lobster and shrimp. I am fully aware that I am a baby and perhaps a little bit crazy in this regard!

I have a gluten free bakery and jammery and sell at a farmers market. I don't use corn syrup, weird chemicals or artificial anything. Most of my customers have other allergies or intolerance's and I try to accommodate them for things like no sugar, dairy, eggs, nuts, soy, corn, and the like that are easily done and most times have enough of a variety of baked goods to offer each week that they can have something right now. If not they can special order things at no extra cost per item but with a minimum $ amount to cover my extra time and effort, but still a sure sale that will make them happy. And, I do tell my customers, if asked, which products are from organic sources (or naturally grown without the piles of paperwork for gov't approved label of Organic). But, some people are off the wall with their, IMO and perhaps perceived, allergies to things like nutmeg or baking soda and some ask if there are any fish or seafood in my jams, pickles, and baked goods that would never be there normally anyway! All the ingredients for each item are listed on the labels but people do not want to read, just converse. It's like they have to share their aversion to justify them to themselves so I give them "grandma" answers politely and know that sometimes they just want to share, be recognized, to connect. Lonely maybe? Seeking to be unique in a world too full of people? Small price to pay if they go on their way happily and have a positive experience even if I have just an "I'm sorry" answer and offer alternatives. To be rude to those people means I have not respected them and therefore have not been respected, something sorely lacking in this world today, and that affects how they pass that on. On another note - about celiac disease: a new cookbook called "Nosh on This" gluten free Jewish-American baking said that one teaspoon of gluten flour in a bathtub of gluten free flour was enough to cause distress to a celiac (paraphrased). It is a real disease that has probably been around 50 or maybe 1,000 years ago but identification of it for all its widely varied symptoms has occurred only in the last 20 years or so and then only by serologic testing &/or biopsy. It is not as serious or as life-threatening as diabetes, for example, but still as valid as high blood pressure or arthritis and can be controlled by going gluten free. It is real, ask Annie_1992 about her Amanda. I don't think people with the disease are demanding special treatment at a restaurant, they just want something that won't make them sick. They are not asking for ice cream at a burrito truck but they do know that gluten cross contamination, even inadvertently, can make them miserable and have to avoid eating out. I sympathize with them. I can't eat spicy food (I'm old and my digestive system is too) and my friends all want to go to Thai or Mexican restaurants. So, I scan their menus and always find something to eat, even if it means pushing around a salad. It is the company of friends that is enjoyable and memorable, not necessarily what is consumed and forgotten a week later. I also suspect that the person posting the original sign did so from frustration. As one of the other poster's said, in effect, don't go to a steak house and expect the chef to prepare your vegan dinner as if you were the only one that he should personally cater to - there are others who are hungry and want what is on the printed menu that he has used his expertise to create. Respect that! Bottom line is: if you have a problem with certain foods on a menu, go somewhere else - as he said, or hire your own personal chef, or, learn how to cook for yourself, but don't be rude because they feed 99.9% of the other people who come in for that chef's food and you are only .1% and do not spread your rudeness and self importance to make everyone else unhappy. Nancy