In case anyone missed the PBS special The Botany of Desire which premiered Wednesday, October 28, 2009, you can still watch the entire program online. It's incredible. Book turned documentary. BOTANY OF DESIRE is a documentary which tells the utterly original story of everyday plants and the way they have domesticated humankind. An interpretation of the relationship between plants and people. This two-hour documentary explores plant evolution and takes viewers from the potato fields of Peru and Idaho, the apple forests of Kazakhstan, and the tulip markets of Amsterdam. View online in it's entirety: here This is another related program by the same presenter on LINK TV (a cable access channel) which is timely: Deep Agriculture Traditional methods of agriculture in most developed nations have long ignored environmental concerns. Factors such as soil erosion, water shortage and the impact of chemicals on bio-systems have been overlooked in favour of massive crop yields and cheaper food. But what impact does this have on our health and our environment? View online in it's entirety: here __________________________ Sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and witness the evolution of an Organic Kitchen Garden.

Bonnie, I bought a big box of pickle cucumbers from the farmer's market and the pickling mix at Walmart for dill pickles. It has no yucky additives listed. I did add fresh dill though and to one batch I added a chopped jalapeno for some spice and it was good. Maybe try a batch of freezer jam first before canning? My grapes are ripe for pickin, so are the tomatoes, pumpkins, herbs, lots of strawberries. Now I need to get busy and start canning. I'm going to try the tomato sauce recipe someone posted from the harvest forum and also the recipe out of the book that has cinnamon and nutmeg which sounds different and yummy. So far I've only read canning recipes that call for tomato sauce or puree to begin with. How do I make the raw tomatoes into sauce or puree? Slip the skins like Cnetter mentioned? How? Maybe I should invest in a hand crank mill like David--are they expensive? All of my grapes have seeds and maybe I could use it for that too? Any advice is appreciated :) I liked the homemade ketchup idea. Most of the ketchup sold is full of sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Heinz makes organic now that is just sugar instead of HFCS. How else would we get kids to eat most anything?! Peppers...we've eaten most of the sweet ones and have some orange ones just about ready and are they good! *Italian Roasters--I bought as transplants and the tag only says 'Italian Roasters" describing them as mild & pungent and they are not mild! I had a small get together where everyone brought their own meat to barbecue and we provided all the side dishes from the garden. I sliced and grilled only one of the roasters with a bunch of other veggies from the garden and all of our guests were on fire including my husband who loves anything as hot as possible. The jalapenos are milder. Maybe they were misnamed? I don't know what to do with them and about 20 of them. *Red cherry bomb peppers- best for salsa? *Lotsa jalapenos-I'd like to make jelly Cnetter I have crabapples too. Next year I'll try some jelly with 'em! Plum Jelly--gotta a good recipe David? A friend called and says they have hundreds ripe and falling of their tree and to come pick em. I need to turn down any request for a social life during the month of September!

Lydia, do you think One Thousand White Women is another novel that suffers from 'Dances With Wolves Syndrome'? I am collecting examples of DWWS now that I have a name to go with the manifestation. If you didn't enjoy the first two-thirds, you probably wouldn't like the last third any better. I finished it, but didn't like the ending. I did enjoy the 'what if' aspect of OTWW, but I concur that the writer was sloppy with his 'stereotypes, anachronisms, and sensibilities' and the violence and cruelty were off-putting (the scene of the prostitute having her insides washed out with hot water has stuck with me, unfortunately). As for it being 'a joke', if I remember correctly, it did seem to be somewhat satirical in tone, something that kept me from taking it very seriously. Ha! I've run across readers, too, who think it's history. Woodnymph, my sister-in-law from South Carolina praised Pat Conroy's writing until his last couple of books (written before SIL's death), but she disliked Anne Rivers Siddons. I don't remember exactly why, but it ran along the lines of what she thought of 'the trap' that southern writers often fall into, which she described as "[the writers] giving the readers what they expect." I think she considered it 'lazy writing', so that may correspond with your opinion that Conroy "has lost his touch." Do you think so?

Here is the 2019 list for the Library Book Club. I'm not a member (yet). Jan. The Heart of a Woman - Maya Angelou Feb. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruis Zafon March Peace Like a River - Leif Enger April The History of Love - Nicole Krauss May Wonder - RJ Palacio June The Endurance: Shakelton's Legendary Antarctic Exploration - Caroline Alexander July Maisie Dobbs - Jacqueline Winspear August The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegar September Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier October Sweet Days and Beyond - Burr Morse November The Jump Off Creek - Molly Gloss December Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Sijie Of these, I've only read Peace Like a River (which I enjoyed very much). The Burr Morse book is about maple sugaring. He's a local um, character. If any of you have visited the Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks in Montpelier, Vermont you likely have met hm. It's a very popular attraction to tourists and natives alike. And yes, the accent is real. The book that caught my interest is The Endurance. Not my usual genre but this sounds just fascinating. The background reading I did mentions that one of the crew (a photographer) took some of the shots that are featured in the book using glass negatives he was able to save. DH has a number of glass negatives he collects and works with but this is the first time I've come across mention of them elsewhere. Our Library has a copy and I'm going to swoop in and get it on my next visit. The book club that I do belong to doesn't provide a list. The librarian/facilitator chooses the books and we find out and receive copies of the next one at the meetings. I like it that way. I don't have to anticipate something that may not appeal and while sometimes I don't love the choices, I read them and try to get something out of them. That's why I joined, after all. I may find something that I just love that otherwise I might have turned my nose up at. Our next read is Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. I have no idea what to expect. I love reading everyone else's lists.