I'd particularly love the Melothria, but the Baby boo pumpins, any of the beans, and the China Rose radish would all be of interest if you want to do a larger trade. Check my list to see if there's anything you like :)

Colleen, I agree, for what that's worth. I live in a small college town, but my chances of being a victim of violent gun related crime are 1 in 346, according to state statistics. It would be 1 in 47 if I lived in Detroit. My chances of getting sick from eating home canned jam are far lower than that, as bacteria and mold can live in the acidic environment of home canned jams, but only a few are pathogens. The government writes their "guidelines" based on the premise that the dumbest person in the dirtiest kitchenstill won't die if they follow the instructions. They build in room to mess up and still be OK. They fail to differentiate between quality issues and safety issues, as KatieC also mentioned. So, would I eat LindaC's jam sealed with paraffin? Without hesitation, and I have, her crabapple jelly was lovely and delicious, she sent me some. I just cannot get the "hang" of paraffin and never have been particularly successful, so I use rings and lids on the jam and use the old jelly jars that had metal covers without threads for things like a salt container by the stove. Ashley uses them as containers for her homemade candles and sugar scrubs, along with any "cool shaped" jars, so they aren't discarded, but I don't use them for canning. Additionally, if you are providing those items to the public, many are very suspicious about home made products. Remember all those threads here about whether something is safe to eat? I know people who throw out milk because it's reached the expiration date, without even stopping to see if it's sour or can still be used. Those people are not going to buy/want/consume a product that's out of their comfort zone, and people will sue you at the drop of a hat if they even think there's an inkling that you have an "unsafe" product. Aa for reusing jars, first the guidelines said not to use them, they were not approved. Then the guidelines said go ahead and use them, but expect more breakage and seal failures. Now they are "not suggested" or something similar. Whatever. I use those old wide mouth Miracle Whip jars to can tomatoes, I reuse spaghetti sauce jars if lids fit, some of the old marshmallow cream jars have a really nice "squatty" shape and wide mouth lids fit perfectly, I use those for salsa. So, if a lid fits, I use it, and I don't get any more breakage than I do with commercial mason jars. I do not put them in the pressure canner because then I do seem to get some additional breakage, but boiling water doesn't hurt them and some of those Miracle Whip jars that I put tomatoes in are 25 years old or more. (shrug) They still work. Annie

Thank you everyone for your very flattering comments. Sleevendog, you gave a very reasonable and fair criticism for my BLT. Thank you. Let me give you a little background on how I ended up with a somewhat challenging looking BLT. First, it is always my preference that a sandwich should not be too thin. Thin is for making cookies and pancakes. Also, a sandwich should not be too thick. You should not risk dislocating your jaw trying to bite into one. In trying to make a typical normal BLT with lots of flavor, there is a need to pack lots of tomatoes and bacon. So you end up with a drippy soggy mess that falls all over the place Here I tried to re-engineer a BLT that is very flavorful but just thick enough to be a reasonable not too thick BLT, with lots of flavor and not soggy drippy, one that does not require you to wear a bib to enjoy. Tomatoes – very thickly sliced juice fresh tomatoes, only sweet juicy center-cut slices, still warm from the hot summer garden, were put into the dehydrator for about 4 hours under low heat. The thickness of the slices were reduced to about ½. The slices were cut into halves so they would fit better on a square sandwich. They also happened to fit on my square platter. Bacon – Normal fried or baked bacon rashes tend to be fatty or too overcooked. They also come in all kinds of shapes which can take up a lot of room if you want a lot of bacon on your BLT. I came up with a way to bake bacon so that the end result is a slab of high density bacon that is very uniformly done, very flat, very crispy without overcooking or fatty. I am not a fat eater. Again, because the bread was square, so the slab of bacon was square in shape, which also fitted nicely on the square platter. Lettuce – from my garden, freshly picked, washed by rain. The bread – bread needs to be very fresh, I used 100% whole wheat bread, slightly toasted. Folks, I ended up with a very unusually tasty BLT with intense tomato and bacon flavor. I am spoiled. I highly recommend the above method. dcarch

We go to the TnT by my DMIL’s in Toronto, mainly for the experience! The fresh, as in still alive, seafood is better than a civic aquarium for getting up close and personal. But also we go for the mango cake, it is so delicious. And we have gotten some useful housewares there. Nearby there was a very nice Loblaw’s, which sadly became a NoFrills. Good prices but not the brands DMIL liked anymore, and no coffee area for DFIL to wait with a mug and a donut and friends while DMIL shopped, and little in the way of customer service.