punkinhead, Yes, I've noticed that. Around here, you can't give away summer squash in May or June because everyone has too much and is sick of it. In recent years I've gotten to where I can, dehydrate and freeze so much produce that we don't give much away, but this year I've been sending tomatoes and onions to 2 or 3 of Tim's coworkers, and to our son's coworkers at the fire station. One of the firefighters at his station is a real "foodie" and probably as close to being a gourmet chef as anyone we've ever known, so I try to send him something fresh from the garden every shift they work. He is thrilled beyond words to have truly fresh produce and our son's coworkers are rapidly learning there's a big difference between produce from the grocery store and produce from a garden. Yesterday morning, DS took in Red Norland and Red LaSoda potatoes that I dug a couple of weeks ago. Last night, DS sent me a text message after dinner about the superior flavor and 'tenderness' of the fresh potatoes. I should add that he's spoiled because we often have fresh produce obviously, but he's seeing it now through the eyes of folks for whom it is a pretty rare treat. Everyone else we know is on their own. My attitude is that if I can grow it, they can grow it! I will confess that when my local friends who garden call me and say "come get all the corn...or tomatoes....or purplehull peas....you want because we're tired of picking them", I usually don't go. After all, we garden in the same conditions, so if they're having a great year, I'm having a great year and I'm just as tired of harvesting and putting up the crops as they are. We also have some friends who don't seem to know what to do with fresh produce. They're so used to either eating out or cooking frozen stuff from boxes that they don't seem to want to cook fresh produce....or maybe they don't know how or just don't have time. Dawn

I defrag my pc and my virus protection to keep me safe

But it doesn't seem to change back to green when new responses have been added to a post since I last read it. I miss that. Also, on old newsgroups (back in the 1990s) responses within a "thread" would be one color, and new responses added since the last time I read them would be a different color. That made it very easy to tell where you left off....

Babka, come hang out on the Smaller Homes forum. That is my second home online. We try to keep it smaller. Why, Ken tracked me there a few times in the past. I agree the pictures are a puzzle. I don't take good pictures with my shaky hands. Haven't figured how to do the Flickr code here....I know, I've been told how, but it just doesn't work for me. My new pics are in the phone/camera, which lets me load direct to Flickr. If it ever stops raining, I'll check the garden for new pips. Don't anybody move! Stay right where you are. We need your presence.