shambo- I think you are well on your way to adding legumes back into your diet by sprouting them first, and Sprout People web site is THE place for information. The videos are great. Sprouting does help reduce the digestive issues. Do you have problems digesting nuts? If so, sprouting and dehydrating them may help you out. I soak and dehydrate all our pecans, walnuts and almonds before consuming them. We call them "Crispy Nuts" and got the information from the book,"Nourishing Traditions". I just did 8-cups of walnuts yesterday and have them safely stashed in the freezer. "Crispy Nuts" last longer in storage than untreated nuts. You need to store walnuts, even when they've been sprouted and dehydrated, in the refrigerator or freezer due to the type of oil in them. I've been sprouting for decades and have purchased all kinds of sprouters over the years, but my favorite is the Easy Sprout, and I have 3 of them (so far). I sill use 1/2-gallon canning jars with sprouting lids occasionally when sprouting large amounts. Easy Sprout sprouters are constantly in use, especially in the cooler months when I sprout wheat and other grains to grow into grass for juicing as well as sprouts, and sprouts for growing micro-greens. These are our winter source for "fresh" food. Since you will be holding your sprouts in the refrigerator instead of dehydrating them, I'd also suggest ordering a box of "Peak Fresh" reusable storage bags from Amazon.com for storing them. Sprouts really do keep longer in these bags. After you wash the bags in hot soapy water, be sure to rinse well and air dry. I like to sanitize the bags with a bleach water solution (1 t. unscented bleach to 1-quart of water - in a spritz bottle) and air dry. FYI - Lentils keep growing after they are refrigerated, so you may want to stop sprouting lentils when the tail is very short, knowing it continues to grow. Sprouted lentils and garbanzo beans will also cook faster since they are fully hydrated, so keep that in mind. I use a salad spinner (be gentle) to remove the extra water from the final rinse. Too much water remaining and the sprouts will spoil faster. I do love sprouted and dehydrated lentils, and I dehydrate what I can't use fresh within a few days of sprouting. I can quickly rehydrate them just soaking in hot water if I want to add them to a salad or stir-fry, or use them to make lentil tacos, or add to ground meat mixtures as a meat extender if I don't have any fresh sprouts on hand. I use a cooked mixture of sprouted rice and sprouted lentils as a substitute for ground beef occasionally. I sprout a bean/seed mixture (adzuki beans, lentils, mung beans, radish seeds, fenugreek and clover) and make it into fried patties to use as a meatless "burgers". (I used a mixture from SproutPeople - "Beanie's Awesome Mix" along with some NOW Zesty Sprouting Mix.) You're right, I am very cautious about the potential for bacteria growth in sprouts. I use acidified water for soaking and rinsing. I use food-grade citric acid (I buy it in bulk amounts on-line when I find a bargain). Fruit Fresh (which is a mixture of citric and ascorbic acid) will also work if you happen to have some on hand. I mix 1 t. of citric acid powder per 1-quart of water. I generally make up a gallon of water at a time in a glass gallon jug. The acidified water will also help reduce spoilage of sprouts during storage in the refrigerator. I fill my Easy Sprouter with acidified water to cover the sprouts and swish them around in the water for soaking as well as rinsing. After rinsing I hand-spin the water out like the guy does in his videos at Sprout People. Hope that helps you out. Happy sprouting and happy tummy! -Grainlady

I've purchased items from a number of the flash sales sites and here are a few comments to add to those already posted. Shipping costs vary wildly with the best being RueLaLa at $9.95 for your first purchase in a 30-day period and free thereafter during that 30 days. OKL is the worst with shipping charges that rival standard catalog sites like Pottery Barn. Customer service has been great at all of the sites. While items are generally final sale, a damaged or incorrect item is usually refunded or replaced quickly. Shipping does take a long time, though. Figure on at least 10 business days and probably longer. I've had terrible luck with breakable items from OKL. Fragile glass items will be thrown in a box with a few air pillows. You couldn't hand carry those boxes without breakage much less ship them cross-country. OKL has premium members that have access to the site before the general members. I have no idea how one becomes a premium member; maybe you have to be an associate of the owners or buy a certain amount. On all the sites, you must do your research. If an item is new, check Amazon or a Google search before you buy. The item may be available at a cheaper price or with free shipping elsewhere. If an item is vintage, know what similar items sell for in the marketplace in your area and check eBay. I've seen vintage items priced at 10X what the same item is selling for on eBay. As far as giving them your Email address, I have a special Yahoo! address just for these types of sites. They will bombard you with daily Emails, but you can opt out of those easily. I've yet to receive any spam Emails that would suggest that one of the sites has sold my Email address. I also haven't received any snail mail generated from having my address sold from one of the sites. I don't store my credit card information on the sites, though, because I'm not sure how secure their servers are. At a minimum, browsing the sites might spark an idea with their products. At the best, you will find terrific bargains.

Hi Autumn. I'm glad others chimed in with their experiences before I saw this. I never owned anything except electric coil until my new gas rangetop. I had only cooked on gas a few times and that was enough to sell me. I did briefly consider induction during my reno planning. The potential hum of a pan on the burner; the fact that a couple of my pans wouldn't work with the technology; and the inability to cook on it during a power outage turned me away from induction. We lose power, albeit briefly, a couple of times a year, and I feel helpless when I can't make a warm meal when it's cold and dark. Since I have a rangetop, I can't comment on using gas to power my oven. From reading over on the Appliance Forum, I know gas is better for certain foods as mentioned earlier. I'm happy to have my electric wall ovens, although I'm sure I would have adapted to a gas oven if necessary. My rangetop is a 36" 6 burner Capital Culinarian. All burners are of equal power at 23,000 btus and are open, as opposed to sealed. It runs counter-intuitive, at least it did to me, that an open burner would be easier to clean. Gas and coil still don't compare in cleanability to induction. Did I find it difficult to change to gas? Yes and no. As far as one type of fuel to another, not hard at all! A joy, in fact! The ability to adjust the heat so quickly makes cooking easier for me. My difficulties with gas were more with my rangetop's extremely powerful burners, which weren't adjusted properly out of the box. I had a horrible time simmering anything on any burner, as have many CC owners. After some parts swapping and a couple of tech visits, I seem to be able to simmer most anything I've tried so far well enough to get by. Did I miss anything? Did I get everything answered? Hope so!

I agree, thanks are in order. I emailed Tamara last week with my concerns about losing archived GW content, and I was so pleased with her fast and friendly reply. Last night I went to bed worried again, after discovering the truncated post issue. But this morning I found that Tamara had already posted a reply to my question...saying that the truncated posts can be restored, in time. It's only been two days. The responsiveness to our requests really impresses me, because they seem to be listening and reacting so quickly. I really appreciate it, and it makes me feel a lot less pessimistic about the future of our community. Thanks folks, for helping us wade through our worries.