oh Flora, what is a Garbanzo or Chick Pea called over there? My friend and I were on the phone and I was teasing him about taking him on an American Vegetable tour when he comes in September. Apparently some veggies are named differently over there. Chick Pea is Chick pea That's right, they have aubergines and courgettes.... egg plant and zuke I remember being in a supermarket in the UK with an American med student and ozzie Physical therapist, and a huge but good natured debate that went on for hours, well into pub time! alcohol help but basically our dispute was courgette in UK, Zuke in USA (can't even spell it) and baby marrow in OZ! American miss out on the greatest of UK fav veg Runner beans which I assumed moving here last year, was a Europian veg, looked it up and found it was native of New England where I am living! the scarlet runner is old fashioned, furry and get tough and stringy quickly, I like polestar smooth not stringy or tough until very old, prolific, and I shudder to tell you where you can get them, incase I can't buy any next year! also people in the know in the UK call broccoli calabrese, but broccoli that is so amazing it ranks with asparagus is purple sprouting broccoli ! I will share but trust me I will be upset if I can't get any, Thompson and Morgan, sold out at the mo on PSB.

OK, I've got just under 3 lbs of these big (some are a little bulgy) beans snapped, rinsed, drained and in the fridge. I have to pick up DD, but I picked these 24 hours ago and want to do something with them when I get home. I decided against the 3-bean salad since I don't have limas, don't like celery, and onions are probably going soft in the basement (I don't care for onions anyway). I don't want all dilly beans, can I snap these shorter like for 3 bean salad, use the dilly bean recipe but instead of dill do a mix of mustard and celery seed, maybe a little sugar to have beans to mix into a 3-bean salad in the future? How much mustard and celery seed to use per pint in place of the 1-2 dill heads (figuring 1-2 tsp dill seed is equivalent to 1 head, I think 1 tsp of each per pint might be good, would 2 tsp or 1 Tbsp each mustard and celery seed be too much)? I think I would end up with 4 pints. Ball uses 1 Tbsp mustard seed and only 1 tsp celery seed (but 2C celery) for 5-6 pints of bean salad. Not sure about the garlic for a 3-bean salad - there isn't any in the Ball recipe. So I think I'll skip it. Ball uses sugar b/c their brine is almost 3/4 vinegar - lots of low-acid veggies in there (onion, pepper, celery, limas). The Dilly Bean recipe is half vinegar so I'm thinking just use ACV and skip the sugar?

Larry, I have no idea about the jam. That's the sort of question that the folks over on the Harvest Forum can answer. You may need to post the recipe along with your question so that they can look at the recipe to see if they think it would be okay with immature winter squash substituted for the zucchini. I agree with George's answers on the squash healing and the butternut curing. Dawn

We love zucchini bread. Now I put a little less sugar andI cut the amount of oil in half but make up for the other half of oil with apple sauce. It makes the bread more moist and has the sweetness. Other times I throw caution to the wind and add a ripened banana with the same amount of zucchini! Great flavor with potassium as a plus. K