OK wow, some off kilter information here. First holy basil WILL NOT cross with Italian basil. They are different species. Cultivars of holy basil will cross with each other however. Second "Krishna" is only a single cultivar of holy basil. It is not the name by which all holy basil is known. The varieties with which I am familiar are Krishna (tastes of pepper), Rama (tastes of clove), Vana (tastes of anise and technically a different species but still commonly considered a holy basil), and Amrita which is an intermediate variety between Krishna and Rama that is grown in the area for which it is named. I don't know what it tastes like nor how it originated. It does seem to breed true at least in that area. A fifth cultivar appears to be African basil and is commonly called "temperate tulsi". I think there is a variety that was also called temperate tulsi that was originated by Abundant Life Seeds? I think? I have also seen this called Kapoor, but other references state the two are different. That's all I know about that - well one other thing. O africanum smells like Bazooka Bubblegum and tastes of tutti-frutti. Yech! YMMV. Third - holy basil is commonly used in cooking. I don't know where Julie Sahni is coming from with that comment but one Indian is not all of India. In India it is most commonly to be used as a garnish and to flavor drinks such as lassi, and, of course, in numerous tisanes widely considered to be very very healthful indeed. In Thailand, which is now mostly Buddhist but has strong roots in Hinduism even to this day, it is very VERY commonly used in cooking. The reason we don't see it much here is that holy basil is a tropical perennial plant with a long growing season that few places in the US can accommodate, and the fresh leaves have an uncommonly short shelf life. https://www.archanaskitchen.com/tulasi-and-beetal-leaves-rasam-recipe https://food.ndtv.com/recipe-tulsi-ajwain-ka-mahi-tikka-952870 https://cookpad.com/in/recipes/11173427-tulsi-modak https://cookpad.com/in/recipes/11079473-fried-kholar-beans-with-napa-kidney-beans-with-naga-basil https://cookpad.com/in/recipes/10526973-basil-stick-with-cottage-cheese Where the specific varietal is not mentioned in a recipe, they probably mean Krishna. You could always grow both Krishna and Rama and decide which you prefer, or use some mix of both. I doubt they mean Vana as that is commonly known as wild holy basil and why wouldn't they just call it that. Please know that dried holy basil is very different from fresh, as is true of Italian basil. Note that the rajma dal (kidney bean) recipe calls for Napa or Naga basil, which I have seen elsewhere identified as Wild Lemon Basil. I'm guessing that may be Vana (O gratissimum) or a related cultivar but I'm not sure. I have seen it identified by one source as O citriodorum which is simply lemon basil and is a cross between O americanum and O basilicum. It is used in Thai cuisine, common in Indonesian cuisine and ubiquitous in Laotian cuisine and I find it odd that it would be part of a distinctive regional cuisine that far northwest of its other distributions on or near the Indian subcontinent, but it could have been introduced along with chili peppers (prior to the arrival of hot peppers in India, black pepper was the king of spices). Given that the source in question didn't seem to know what holy basil is AT ALL I wonder. At any rate I have no idea what Naga basil is in actuality. That dish is identified as part of the cuisine of the Naga people of northern India. Maybe lemon basil doesn't grow well in India so Indians who are cooking Naga food substitute what they know, eg holy basil, for it. No clue. I'm going to guess that there is a north/south divide where Tulsi is more commonly used in dishes other than drinks in the south of India than in the northern parts. Julie Sahni is a north Indian and I have found all of her cookbooks to be very strongly oriented to the northern cuisines and often the moghul cooking that is absolutely NOT the norm anywhere in India amongst regular folks. Julie Sahni is not an authority to go to for information on all Indian cuisine, just her part of the country. Her later cookbooks were less chauvinistic than the early cookbooks but I'd look elsewhere for more balanced ideas of what Indian cooking is all about. I freely admit to a strong bias myself towards south Indian cuisine. You have to start tropical varieties of holy basil about 12 weeks (you can probably get away with as little as 6 in warmer areas of the US) in advance of putting them out and you can't put them out until temps are over 70F. You should start hardening them off when temps reach 60F. It has a growing season in excess of 120 days, does not tolerate frost at all, and established plants do poorly when temps dip below 50F. It grows well in zones 10 to 12 - outside of parts of southern Tejas, southern Florida, and Hawaii it will not grow well in the US except as a tender perennial that is started indoors well before you plan to put it out. It requires some light to germinate. I have seen it recommended to "hold the seed up to the light before planting" which is of course utter nonsense, but at any rate - light sensitive germination. Cover thinly. Provide plenty of supplemental light during germination. Use a heat mat set to 75F and a dome. Water carefully to prevent damp off but don't let it dry out. It is often recommended to plant under a cloche or tunnel because it needs warmer soil temps than we usually achieve in many parts of the US until rather late in our growing seasons. It is often recommended to grow it as a potted plant for this and other reasons. There are several potential sources for the named cultivars by now, possibly these sources were not available 10 years ago or whenever this thread originated. Seeds of India now has all 3 of the common Indian Holy basil, eg Krishna, Rama (identified as Ram), and Vana. They state that Vana is clove flavored whereas all other sources I have seen identify that as anise flavored. I was planning to try it anyway but now I am more likely to do so as soon as possible. They also have a Thai basil and lemon basil. Strictly Medicinal Seeds has all 5 varieties listed above (except possibly kapoor if it is different from O africanum and obviously excluding Naga basil since I have no idea what that actually is). Strictly Medicinal identifies their temperate tulsi as O africanum based on a genetic analysis. Adaptive Seeds claims to have a variety they call kapoor that is supposedly directly descended from the Abundant Life offering, which they identify as 0 tenuiflorum. Either it is not temperate tulsi or it is not O tenuiflorum. The differences/similarities between kapoor, O africanum, and what is commonly known as temperate tulsi is murky at best. Adaptive seeds identifies theirs based on provenance alone. Might be interesting to grow the two and see how they differ and/or are similar. Mountain Rose Herbs offers Tulsi seed which is not identified other than as "temperate" and which they link back to Krishna and Rama varietals, neither of which have anything to do with kapoor or temperate tulsi. There's no telling what that stuff is. Botanical Interests offers a single variety that is described as smelling of bubblegum which they identify as Kapoor/temperate Tulsi. There are several sellers of tulsi varietals on Amazon. I prefer to buy my seed directly from seed companies myself. YMMV. They do have several offerings for a seed packet of Kaprow holy basil directly imported from Thailand. I think the holy basil usually used for cooking in Thailand is either Krishna or closely related to Krishna but I can't be sure about that. Seems that buying seed directly imported from Thailand would solve the issue of wondering if you got the same stuff they use to cook with in Thailand. And yes, Thai holy basil is completely different from Thai basil. O tenuiflorum and O sanctum are the exact same plants. Vana is O gratissimum and is reputed to be toxic to Leishmania. Drinking Vana tulsi tisane probably doesn't help with that. O. gratissimum and O. viride are reportedly partially cross-fertile - eg hybrids are sometimes, but not always, fertile. I have not found information pertaining to cross fertilization (or not) with O tenuiflorum. Note that temperate tulsi grows better in the US than the tropical variety but I have so little interest in the plant that I haven't bothered to remember the cultivation details. It is apparently a bee magnet and is reputed to attract native as well as honey bees. I wonder if it might also be attractive to butterflies but have no information pertaining to that.

Karen, thanks, but you are able to do things on the computer that amaze me. I told one of the people at my work that I can work with power tools, but computers just frustrate me! I had actually been looking for a rickety old chair and then I thought of making the bench out of a pallet. Probably because I am such a cheapskate, LOL. Jeanne, I found the labels on the computer under a free site, and when I found the one that said coffin nails, I realized that the ones I had pulled out of the pallet would be perfect! They were too hard to pull out to pound them in again, LOL. Minnie, I am saving pictures in my computer, but not much into scrapbooking. I will however, be saving the bench for using in many more Halloweens to come. I used screws to assemble it so it is actually quite sturdy. Punk, part of my love of thrift stores is I find items that are not in every store on the block, then I figure out how I am going to use them. I have been having lots of fun creating them this year. Jeanne, I don't mind at all. Would you like me to email it to you or can you use this site? If I had used a better pallet, and actually measured it, it could be a lot nicer, but I was going for the rickety look. Marlene, thank you. The Spell book is actually a political book that I bought for its black cover. The hinges I used were so old, the price on the package was 39C!! Since I attached the hinges with upholstery tacks, the book won't actually open and if it did, it would be just a book about politics, which some might say is a bunch of hocus pocus, LOL. Thanks again everybody!! How do you fix a broken Jack O'Lantern? You use a pumpkin patch! Keep calm and scary on, Candy

The serving pieces are really lovely. Lucky you to have such a talented sister. (Mine's a golf pro and I HATE golf!) Opening the dish soap was a hoot. Does that count as a dreaded 4th item? I'll have to look for that wine book. A great title! A great package.

I also think that maybe there is just a slump in craft postings lately. the Garden Web Junk and trash to treasure seems to be doing ok. Maybe we could ask the other boards to come over here and post; the clay, computer crafts, doll making etc. If we started a thread like BEADS; wire work, or CLAY, do you fire? or something like that it would save reading through a lot of threads just to know what the subject is. A Sample thread title like that would be "Does anyone know?" that way maybe we could save the inactive boards from possible removal from lack of postings.