We are landowners who "lease" land to a neighbor farmer who needs more land for hay and field corn. This is very common in our area of New England. We have a hand shake agreement. The farmer gets all the produce from the land and is responsible for all fertilizing etc. In return, our land is in good use. The corn field is popular with deer and wild turkeys providing us with a nice view. I believe the former farmer leased the land for $100 a year from the former owner. This was a token amount. The corn field on a slope was having serious erosion problems. A second field required travel over a culvert which was breaking down. When my husband told the former farmer it would be necessary for him to replace the culver, the farmer balked and said it was too expensive, etc. Since his equipment was the only equipment traveling over this culvert with the exception of an occasional passenger vehicle, it was his fault the culvert needed to be replaced. My husband decided it was time to end the relationship and gave the farmer notice that it was his last year. After 2 or 3 years, my husband was approached by another farmer to use this land with the agreement that the farmer would be fully responsible for restoring the fields to proper condition and to restore another field that had been fallow for decades. The farmer is also a professional logger and had the crew and equipment to remove trees and bushes that had encroached on the fields. This was an enormous amount of work but also generated some good pine lumber and chips. It was agreed that the farmer deserved to keep and re-sell the lumber and chips since he and his crew had done all the work. Keep in mind that if the farmer isn't taking care of the acreage, the landowner has to. (i.e. brush hogging, field mowing) If handshake agreements weren't customary in our area, I would fully advise a written agreement that defined the responsibility for soil fertility and general maintenance of the property. It should also specify what kind of pesticides are allowed and, yes, who gets the fruits and vegetables. Attention should be given to who is allowed to pick. My sweet young granddaughter does damage to sugar snap pea vines when she picks pea pods to snack on. If the landowner has pets, this should also be considered. A friend's dog tore down his sweet corn, not raccoons. A family pet might be a serious nuisance.

I haven't and can't offer too much in the way of advice for making a quality extract (maybe someone else can), but I do know of one product, a syrup, that can be had that is made from violet extract and does indeed smell and taste just like sweet violets. It's made by Monin, and I've purchased it online from them before (they ship out of Florida); it contains artificial coloring in addition to sugar and violet extract, but I think this is difficult to avoid in a product that isn't priced accordingly higher :) I recall running across old recipes for syrup of violets in the past, but not having tried them myself, I can't vouch for how well they extract the flavor and color. I hope someone who has experimented will chime in for you. In one of the violet societies' magazines (International Violet Society, I think), they used to publish recipes, but I'm not sure if any of that is still online to be read.

I have made some things and I also have a friend who made wonderful figures using paper mache. There are several ways to do this. I'll start with the easiest since that's the one I did. The first thing I made a was duck decoy but the proccess is the same. You can use a wire armature but what I did was take aluminum foil and some pipe cleaners. (do they still call them that? I just looked at a package I bought and they called them chenille stems.) You can make a basic shape with the pipe cleaners and then squash some of the foil to make it more three dimensional. The foil acts as filler. I used the kind of papermache that comes dry in a bag from a craft store. You just add water and squish with your hands. There is no need to add glue because it already has it in it. Don't add too much water, you want it tacky. You start by pressing small amounts of mushy stuff onto the form until it's completely covered. You don't want it too thick or won't dry and or too thin or you'll see the foil through it. Before it dries you can mold it like clay. Let it dry completely once you have the shape you want. Then you can sand it after it is completely dry but make sure you use fine grain sandpaper. That will give it smooth tecture rather than the lumpy texture of the papermache. Then paint it with gesso (that's the white primer that artists use to prepare a convase in case you aren't familiar with it. I wasn't). After the gesso dries you may need another coat of it if doesn't look white enough. Then paint with acrylic paint. The duck decoy came out very cute. My friend made wonderful figures that were about 3 1/2 to 4 inches high. One was a bag lady, one was a street musician and there were others I can't remember. I think she was more careful with her armature but still used something as a base. Maybe crunched newspapers. But when she creating the figure, she used the traditional form of paper mache with strips of paper. She cut out sentences from the newspaper that related to figure she was creating. They were positioned all over the figure. She used a bit of the dry paper mache for details. Her figures didn't have faces but they sure had personality. I hope that was helpful. I haven't done this in years but now I want to try again. Just remember the trick with paper mache is to go slowly and don't make any layer too thick to dry or it will rot before it dries. Or it might mildew too depending on what your climate is like. Have fun. What type of doll are you thinking of making?

Virginia7074 I have made marshmallows for the last few years. To me it is really fun--it is not a lot of work, but it is messy. It certainly impresses people that you did something so foreign as make marshmallows. They are soooo much better than the store-bought-in-a-plastic-bag-puffed air. Really, really good. They are definitely worth the effort. My recipe and instructions are my compilation of several months of reading and research as well as my experience. I preferred a recipe that did not have any egg whites. This recipe has never gone wrong for me. Marshmallows 3 cups of sugar 1 1/4 cups of light corn syrup 1/4 teaspoon of salt 3/4 cup of water 4 packets of unflavored gelatin 3/4 cup of water 2 teaspoons of vanilla In a 2 quart saucepan place 3 cups of sugar, 1 1/4 cups of light corn syrup, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and 3/4 cup of water. Stir well and bring to a boil over high heat. Be careful; the mixture will foam up, and it's very hot. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and cook until the mixture reaches 240 F. Before the sugar mixture reaches 240 degrees, place 3/4 cup of water and 4 packets of unflavored gelatin in the bowl of an electric stand mixer with whisk attachment. Using a spoon, stir to combine, but don't worry if the gelatin doesn't dissolve completely. When the sugar mixture is ready, turn on the mixer at lowest speed and carefully pour the hot syrup into the gelatin mixture in a stream--don't dump it all at once. When the syrup is incorporated, increase the mixer speed to high. (Note: KitchenAids can overbeat; you may want to use speed 8 instead of 10.) Leave the mixer running for 20 to 30 minutes; the mixture will increase in volume and eventually reach the stiff peak stage. It will start to look jagged around the edges of the mixer bowl. While the mixer is running, brush a 9x13-inch pan with vegetable oil. (I have better luck with solid shortening.) For smaller marshmallows, I use a 15x11 jelly roll pan, and for large ones, use a 9" or 10" square pan so they will be taller. When the mixture reaches stiff peaks, add 2 teaspoons of vanilla and mix well. Pour (push, shove) the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth with an offset spatula. Let pan sit out overnight, uncovered (and away from cats and kids). When you're ready to cut the marshmallows, dust the top with confectioners' sugar. (I mix 2 parts confectioner's sugar and 1 part cornstarch to reduce stickiness.) To cut, you may use a sharp knife coated in oil, a good pair of kitchen shears (the kind that come apart for thorough cleaning), or a pizza cutter. (I don't have good luck with the knife. The scissors worked, but I can cut the prettiest squares using a washable ruler and a large pizza cutter--it is still messy. You can also use small cookie cutters.) Cut the marshmallows into manageable squares. How big is manageable? They're easier to eat (less mess from the powdered sugar) if you can pop the whole thing in your mouth, so run a test and see what works for you.