Hi, I'm not the welcome wagon,I am seldom on here, but it's very nice to meet you. I love your spunk!And your enthusiasm (sp??)LOL My Grandmother had a green thumb, too. Anything would grow for her.inside or out! I also love wintersowing, it's so cool to see the tiny little plants,I have to admit between dogs, wind, kids,mine where all dumped before i could get them in the ground,but I refuse to give up.Right now my kitchen table and most of the cabinet is covered in nice clean jugs waiting for soil. Raising three grandsons for now, so I get a lot more jugs than I used to,also juice pouches work great if you have a pan or tray to set them in, I hope you have many long years of friendship here, you meet the nicest people in these forums!Let me know if there's any thing I can help you with!

When I get the Brandy Boy seeds I'll let you know the country of origin. Wal-Mart is well-known for pushing hard to get companies to pack products specifically for them that they can sell at the price they negotiate. During the last several years, the Burpee seed packs on the seed racks in Wal-Mart have had ever-decreasing seed counts. From comments posted on garden forums, it was clear that gardeners were noticing the lower seed counts and were not happy. Gone Fishin' and I both noticed the difference in Burpee tomato seed counts about 3 or 4 years ago. You could buy a packet of Burpee Porterhouse seed on-line for about $4.00 or $4.25 back then and get about 45 to 50 seeds--I don't remember the exact amount. You also could get Burpee Porterhouse on the seed rack at Wal-Mart for $1.37 a pack, but each pack only had 7 to 9 seeds. So, you actually would have spent more at Wal-Mart to get 40-50 seeds of Burpee Porterhouse. Of course, not many people want to plant 40-50 seeds of one variety in a home garden, so you could argue that the Wal-Mart Burpee seed packs were "sized-down" for the convenience of home gardeners. I noticed the same small seed counts with Burpee Highlight Zinnia on the racks at Wal-Mart either last year or the year before. I got 50 seeds in the Burpee mail-order packet for a higher price that was probably $4.00 or $4.50. Then, out of curiousity, I bought the same Burpee Highlight Zinnia (new that year) at Wal-Mart to test my theory about lower seed counts. I bought 4 packs for either $1.07 or 1.37 and each of them had 8 to 11 seeds. So, something is going on and I just wonder if Burpee got tired of selling smaller and smaller seed count packages because, if the consumer got mad about the smaller seed counts, you can bet they blamed Burpee and not Wal-Mart. It could have become a PR issue that Burpee just didn't need. There's also the possibility that F-M did commit to using U.S.-grown seed. I don't know. There's even the possibility that Burpee, which is after all a premier name in the seed industry, negotiated better deals for itself with Lowe's and Home Depot (and we don't have a K-Mart near us, but I know they've had Burpee seeds in recent years too) and that they dumped Wal-Mart. Sound far-fetched? Maybe, but it wouldn't surprise me. I ordered five packets of seeds from Stokes Seeds recently, and they just arrived the other day. Here's what I got and their nation of origin. Note that each variety had a different nation of origin: Tomato--Mountain Fresh Plus VFFN (India) Tomato--Mountain Glory VFFF/TSWV (Thailand) Watermelon--Yellow Doll (Peru) Rudbeckia--Bright Star (Germany) Liatris Spicata--Kobold (Holland) They all were stamped with the "country of origin" but then also were stamped "packed in Canada" (Stokes is a Canadian company, I think, although they have a U.S. sales branch). What does this mean? It tells me the seed companies are probably buying seeds from whichever grower in whichever country gives them the best wholesale price. Who can blame them? Would I prefer to buy only U.S.-grown seed. Of course, I would always prefer to keep jobs in the U.S. But, judging from the meager selection on the F-M racks at Wal-Mart, the number of varieties grown in the U.S for major seed companis is rather small.

Heirloom tomatoes taste wonderful, and each variety has it's own set of taste complexities. If you love tomatoes, there's nothing like heirloom. A few hybrid varieties that have not had great flavor bred out of them in favor of being pretty with a long shelf life can be found. Among them are Lemon Boy, Sunmaster and Sun Gold. But in general, for flavor, heirlooms rule. You don't find them in the supermarkets because they generally are not perfectly "pretty" and they do not have a long shelf life once picked. They also tend to bruise easily. Hardiness zones (e.g. 8b) generally are based on first and last frost dates. They don't tell the full story. What are your summers like? Here in Southern Arizona, they are very hot with many 100+ degree days and tomatoes don't like it. If summers in East Texas have most days 92+ degrees, with night temps constantly above 72, only heat-loving varieties stand a chance (e.g. Sunmaster hybrid, Super Sioux heirloom.) To have any kind of tomato season where I live, I have to start very early (late January, using plant protectors such as Wall O Waters) and plant short-season varieties that mature in fewer than 72 days. These are just some ideas for you if your summers are very, very hot. Tomato plants will not produce fruit in extremely high temps.

Kitchens are very personal to those that use them. One cooks dream kitchen will be another cooks nightmare. Fingers crossed in two years time I will be allowed to build MY dream kitchen in our current house. Any line cook/professional chef will feel at ease here, but most people on this forum would be shocked. I am in a very unique situation where my wife has a very well paying job that means I do not have to work to put food on the table. This is not to say I could not find work, as 13 years in the Australian Army (retiring as a Major) and four years as a Finance Professional (two finance degrees, the highest a Masters) have left me with marketable skills. After moving to Dallas TX via five years in New York City, from Sydney Australia, I was looking at short courses to improve my home cooking. Not finding any courses that were of value I enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu and completed a 15 month Culinary Associates Degree in 13 months then worked in a five star restaurant for nine months. This was all to improve my home cooking. Kitchens for me are a place of work. If you want to socialize there are other rooms in the house for that. If you need to do homework, there are other rooms in the house for that. If you are in my kitchen you are cooking and/or cleaning. By their nature kitchens are hot, noisy, dangerous places. Pets and very very young children do not belong in the kitchen as they pose a risk to themselves and others, both through injury and food contamination. My kitchen will have a commercial range hood. I'm not talking 27" deep 48" wide 1,000 cfm, but a 48" deep 9' wide 2,500 cfm hood covering the entire hot cooking area. The hot cooking area will have one gas wok burner and outlets/space for two 3,500w (240v) portable induction burners, two 1,800w (110v) portable induction burners, one 240v counter top deep fryer, two immersion circulators (110v) in their water baths, and a commercial combi oven. Portable burners and the like allow flexibility in the kitchen and increase prep counter space. Most of my kitchen will be stainless steel with open shelving. It might not grace the pages of Better Homes and Garden, but it will be a bullet proof kitchen that is easy to clean. As much as possible the kitchen will be a separate room, NOT open the the main living areas. For me kitchens are food preparation areas with other rooms for food eating and socializing. A separate kitchen allows the noise, heat and smells to be contained in one room, not spread throughout the house. This kitchen will match my cooking style and methods. I hunt and have a chest freezer full of venison, rabbit and squirrel I harvested myself. The freezer also contains sub-primal cuts of animals that I buy in bulk. I much as I can I butcher and process my own meat and make sausage from scratch. I make all stocks, broths and sauces from scratch. I need large prep tables that are easy to clean to do this. While I do not consider my cooking methods cutting edge, I do own and use equipment not often seen outside professional kitchens. I cook Sous Vide for almost every meal. I use immersion circulators to cook most of my proteins and I use a vacuum chamber sealer to seal product in plastic bags. For those that have seen the five volume cookbook Modernist Cuisine, I can prepare most of those recipes with the current kitchen tools I own. My dream kitchen will allow me to cook them all. I rarely cook one pot wonders. A normal mid week meal, for just my wife and I, will be one course with a protein, sauce, two different vege and a starch. I require five separate burners to heat the food for plating - one for each item. I will/have happily spend/spent 6-8 hours a day in the kitchen for 3-4 days preparing a themed 9 course tasting meal (paired with wine) because one friend from out of town is/was coming over. I enjoy preparing, cooking, plating and serving food at home that is 5 star restaurant quality. When people ask me what do I do, I say I am a Personal Chef to my Wife. I can count on both hands the number of times per YEAR that we order take out and/or eat at a restaurant for dinner when in Dallas. A kitchen is where cooking occurs. While many people forget it, cooking is a very serious business. When you make mistakes in a kitchen, at best people go yuk and a pizza is ordered; worse case people die. To reduce the possibility of food borne illnesses, the kitchen needs to be an area that is separate from the main area of the house. It should not be a thoroughfare for the family and pets traipsing from the carport/outside/garage/etc to get to another part of the house. The materials the kitchen is made of need to be easily cleaned and sanitized. If you are scared to use a pressure washer on them, it is not the right material. My dream kitchen is most peoples nightmare. It is industrial, noisy and tight. Any aisle wider than 36" wide is too wide, any wider I would have to take a step to reach something - that is inefficient. The lighting will be bright and daylight balanced. I spend my pretty-mood-lighting-funds on the lights outside and in the great room, not the kitchen. The only view in my kitchen, other than the four walls, is the TV in one corner. The best views in the house are when you are sitting on the back deck with a cold beer in both hands, not standing at the sink washing a stack of dirty pans. A "cook's kitchen" is one where any cooking occurs. I have friends with kitchens costing $200k+ that only get used to heat precooked purchased food on Thanksgiving - I do not call this a cook's kitchen although it could be. Another friend will prepare, from scratch a 3 course plated meal for 10 in their 800 sq ft NYC studio apartment. The "kitchen" is a bar sink, 2 feet of counter space, 1 hot plate, 1 toaster oven and a dorm fridge. What constitutes a "cook's kitchen" for me is one that I am willing and happy to spend many hours a day, day after day in. For me this is commercial kitchen in a residential home.