I went yesterday (Friday). The main reason I went was I knew that Parkside restocks to the hill for this event and has the best selection of the year. I arrived 2 hours before the Festival was to open and spent that time stocking up with paphs. from Parkside. The variety and number of paphs. in bud was amazing. It was the best selection I ever seen. I spend so much there every year that I get a 20% discount. I'm almost ashamed to say how many paphs. I bought and for how much money. Let's just say it was more then I ever spent there before. At noon my wife and I took a quick walk around the Festival. It wasn't crowded on Friday but the field they have it in was already wet and sloppy. They laid down straw in an attempt to help. I then bought 2 more paphs. from Woodstream Orchids. I grow mostly paphs. with a few vandas. The selection was pretty good but truthfully I didn't spend much time with the other vendors. Parkside it self had so much and such good quality I didn't need to go else where. I don't know where they are going to park all the cars today. Usually they park them in this field. On Friday they didn't open the field to parking so everyone parkded on the road. John of Parkside had a very unique Paph Magic Lantern in bloom that he showed me. He had put it in his own section away from the public. As soon as I say it I asked him for the first division. It was tensellated with very clear makinings. It was like nothing that I have ever seen before. He agreed to sell me the first division and then stated that he was taking it to judging today. I respond, that means the price just went up. He assured me it would not and we both had a good laugh. His laugh was bigger then mine :-)

What a great event, the park was huge and well shaded under the ancient oaks. The vendors were all busy, the selection and variety was amazing. The company and the journey was as usual the best as alway. I had a wonderful time. GINNY it was great to see you and DH you look fabulous. TONY...I'm so sad we missed you...I was looking forward to seeing you again. Terrie The three crazies you met today were Butterflygardener, Coffeemom and myself MsMarion. It was wonderful to meet you. I hope to bump into you again. I do hope that sweet lady was OK. Do you think it was heat stroke? Cindee you have to mark this event on the calender for next year. We'll make a weekend of it. Marion

Ginny, I canned 13 jars! One broke though: ( Still that's a pretty good amount. I'm going to save some for next year for raffle prizes like I did this year. Sheryl won the big heirloom tomato poster. I for the life of me can't remember who won the cheese knife set. The rest of the goodies I just let people pick whatever they wanted. Kathy, I sure hope you can make it next year!(Penny too!) I've been trying to bribe you with beer and good food. I'm not sure what else I can do, lol. Umm... next year there will be male dancers? Tauna, I'm glad you could make it! Hilde already emailed me saying we need to plan a trip to visit you. Remy

I'm unconcerned about using galvanized nails in roasting meat - at least, doing in occasionally. Here is why: Zinc is an essential nutrient, in small quantities. Recommended daily intake is about 11 mg/day for adults. There are zinc supplement pills, if you don't get enough. Upper limit for sustained intake is about 40 milligrams/day. For one-time exposure to zinc, toxic effects start around 100 mg. Each galvanized nail has around 0.6 gram of zinc. So about 15% of the zinc on the nail would have to dissolve into one serving of meat, to get into the range of toxicity. But the zinc coating on a nail won't start melting until around 800 F. This temperature is never reached inside the meat. It never gets above 120 F in there. That is a temperature similar to hot tap water. So I conclude that roughly "no" zinc got into the meat. Nails can have oil and grease on them too, but hopefully I cleaned that off by scrubbing with detergent and hot water.