When it comes to fermenting fruit, I am mostly a cider guy, but I have successfully made wine from grapes, and have also used Montmorency cherries. All turn out great. I have always had the best success with Danstar Cote des Blancs yeast. It will finish very dry, but produces the most pleasant tasting cider or wine of any yeast I have tried. You can backsweeten with lactose, maltodextrin, or even fresh juice or concentrate if you want carbonation and fresh flavors. You can also play with sulfite and sorbate to kill the yeast for backsweetening, although my own personal results have been very mixed on this -- seems it sometimes works, but sometimes doesn't work very well at all and can produce gusher bottles. Be very careful with any backsweetening. I have also tried Splenda and I hated it -- tastes way too fake and chemically to my palate. Stick to non-fermentable lactose or maltodextrin and you should be in good shape. All sorts of fruits can be juiced and fermented. Try it and see what you think. You are limited only by your own creativity and availability of fruit. It can be a VERY addicting hobby. Almost as addicting as homebrewed beer, which is my primary passion. I am a Recognized BJCP beer judge. Never got the cider or mead cert, at least not yet. Someday. If you're into any of this kind of stuff, I might suggest checking out the Northern Brewer forums at http://forum.northernbrewer.com. That is my primary hangout for all things fermentation related. There are several others out there as well. Google them up.

Diane, since I use the same stuff for potted plants where kids and pets are as well as for my seedlings and cutting grown plants, I use the water soluble All Purpose you mix at one table spoon per gallon of water for most uses. If I'm fertilizing a well established potted planting, I'll mix it at the tablespoon per gallon. If it's for seedlings or immature cutting grown plants, I'll mix it half that strength. I had the liquid for the hose end liquid feeder and I have used that on the cuttings I've already upsized into gallons and the seedlings which are now pushing six months old with no problems. I've always liked the water soluble as I can tailor the strength to what I needed, but the liquid is faster and easier, but MUCH more expensive. I don't know how well it will work in the long run in comparison, but they aren't the main fertilization methods anyway. More for spot treatments and where I don't want anything which is going to stain hardscape or attract dogs and small kids. I frequently buy Vigoro because it's almost identical to the MG water soluble and costs several dollars less depending upon size, probably due to less advertising costs. I honestly can't see any visible differences in the results. As Ralph Moore said for nearly a century, "Roses (and other plants) can't read!" Kim

An Update: I bought the 12" deBuyer Carbone Plus crepe pan & it arrived yesterday. The Carbone seems to be almost identical to the Mineral line without the 'green' hype & it was $15 cheaper on Amazon (with shipping taken into consideration); it's not blue steel but rather a light charcoal color. It's 2.5mm thick & heavy - & the finishing is superb & it's absolutely flat! I'm not sure what I was expecting for carbon steel but the milling is as good as my DeMeyere SS skillet. So far, I've only used it to fry bacon to aid in the seasoning process but the depth & shape seem to be ideal for searing. There's slightly more depth than a griddle but the sides are angled enough for easy food removal. And the most important functional part is that it not unwieldy if I want to finish in the oven.

Jay, I do grow Black Cherry and really like it. It has a very unique flavor that I've never found in any other cherry tomato. It was released by Vince Sapp of Tomato Grower's Supply Company, and it seems like it hit the market just a few years before he passed away. The flavor is indescribably good. I don't know a lot about Burrell's Special and I'm not sure if they've ever released breeding info on it. I believe that it is a lot like Sioux because it is a good heat setter but may set fruit slightly larger than Sioux if there is good moisture. Daniel, Did you have the whiteflies this year? Last year? I've only had whiteflies twice in my life, with about 20 years in between, so I'm hoping my luck holds. All my tomato plants are outside to stay and the first two dozen plants are in the ground. With all this early heat, I hope to get more in the ground tomorrow. I'd be out there putting them in the ground now, but I just looked at the thermometer and it says 89.6 degrees, so it still is too hot for me to go back out to the garden and put anything in the ground. I am going to put the hot peppers in the ground sometime after 5 pm. I keep waiting for the temperature to start falling, and it hasn't started yet. This abnormal heat is making me crazy. Samantha, That's a great list. I used to plant a lot more than I do now, so I really really have scaled it back. In my best/worst year I had about 600 plants in the ground, representing about 150 varieties. I wanted to trial them all together so I could compare their performance in the same year. I believe that was either 2005 or 2006. Because the deer hadn't yet found our garden, many of those plants were not within the fenced garden. And then the deer found us. That was the end of growing anything that deer will eat outside the fenced garden, so I started cutting back and cutting back and now will have maybe 100 plants in the garden. Maybe less. I'm still workin on that whole 'cutting back to a manageable level' thing. Some years I'm more successful than others. In the years when we had 600 plants, and then about 400 the year after that, about all I did was harvest tomatoes all day every day and give them away. I don't regret it though because I found a lot of varieties that we loved and still like and grow and eat, and I ruled out bunches of others that just weren't for us for one reason or another. Needless to say, our friends all had all the tomatoes that they could eat and that they could give away too back in those days. Now we eat all we are able to eat fresh, and preserve the rest so we can eat tomatoes in many forms year-round. Bon, This early heat is going to drive us all bonkers. I'll be mad if the heat is here to stay because we need to stay cooler for a while to get good fruit set. Kim, Are you planting yet? Dawn