Onionology is complicated. Will try to clarify a little: First a little background: "onion" is a huge catch-all imprecise category encompassing a highly diverse clan, allium cepa and other allium species as well. What we are talking about here are bi-annual bulbing onions, grown from seed. All varieties of bulbing onions ultimately derive from the so-called "spanish" onion. They fall into two rough categories, long-day and short-day, based on how much daylight there is around the solstices where the plant is growing. So bulbing onions are highly sensitive to photo period. The first most important thing to know is whether your latitude is "short" day or "long" day. As it happens, Kentucky is kind of in the middle, either might work though long day is probably more likely to do well. There are also a few hybrid varieties called "intermediate" day that might do best of all for you. Short-day varieties are sown in fall and come to full size in late spring. They require more than just low latitude, they also require a mild winter climate, about z7b or warmer, so some regions of KY might work and others not. Long-day are sown soon after the winter solstice and planted out in early spring and are full size in mid to late summer, depending. An exception is the walla-walla which is adapted to the PNW and I think there may be one or two others long-days that can be fall-sown in mild northern climes. So the infamous "sets" are small bulbs grown from seed and then planted to grow for the plant's second season. The plant really wants to bolt and grow seed rather than a bulb. Sets are a scam perpetrated by seed companies. They are mostly a waste of time and space. Buy plants grown from seed in texas next year, they come at just the right time for planting out and the results will be far better.

Best thing I know is the same for what I use in gravy - white rice flour. It is readily available in the Ethnic section of the grocery store (Mexican cuisine), very inexpensive, dissolves quickly in a little cold water, and just a tablespoon thickens any stew, casserole, or gravy. It has no real taste so the flavor of what you are making is not masked, nor highlighted, just thickened. Cornstarch needs to be cooked to thicken and is hard to dissolve, flour should be combined with fat and cooked to take away the paste flavor but is easily burned, and file powder has its own flavor that is not what you want in a delicate Marsala chicken dish. Something else that I use for thickening fruit pies is Instant Clear-Jel, and for jams and jelly - non-instant Clear-Jel but never the instant for those canned fruits. You may want to try using that no-flavor thickener, though I have not used it in anything other than fruit based cooking, it might work fine. Bottom line - try a little white rice flour - is my suggestion. Tried and true! Nancy

I buy Alaskan King Crab legs frozen, generally at the Japanese market because they have the best price. I have also bought frozen Ahi tuna for sashimi, and I will consider frozen shrimp, although fresh shrimp are always available, and so that isn't necessary. I won't buy tuna steaks that have been frozen, however, and I won't buy frozen swordfish or salmon. The one fish I can remember having been frozen that I liked was Rainbow Trout, and that was 30 years ago when I lived in San Francisco. The fish monger would come to our neighborhood, and we bought it on the street. Lars

Back in the day, when I could afford to waste long hours creating R.I. Lace, I would order British icing sugar (confectioner's sugar), because it claimed to be very fine, pure sugar. Later, I learned that it contained tricalcium phosphate, which turned out to be an anti-caking agent. I haven't tried King Arthur's glazing sugar. All I know about it is that it contains Maltrodextrin, which is derived from cornstarch. It may, or may not play a pivotal role in the clumping dept. Maybe our Dcarch, the science man, will enlighten us. However, I believe that airtight packaging may be the reason why their product stays lump-free. Sol