I have also ordered from Wellspring Gardens and was very happy. I ordered two Red Abyssinian Bananas (Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelli'). They arrived quickly, well-packed, healthy and in very good condition. I ordered them through Wellspring's eBay store. Carol in Jacksonville Here is a link that might be useful: Wellspring Gardens eBay Store

I grow veggies - that's how I got started as a gardener, and I can't imagine summer without a veggie garden. Most years I do some freezing of tomatoes and pesto for the winter. I also put onions and potatoes into the root cellar and grow more garlic than we can eat in a year, even though we use garlic in relatively large quantities. I also grow leeks and have begun experimenting with heavy mulching in the garden in the late fall and then digging them in milder winter weather and early spring. Last winter they wintered well, though the snow was so deep I couldn't dig them until much of the snow melted. This winter I don't know how it will go, since they weren't as heavily mulched and we had some relatively cold weather, 0 degrees, with no snow. Prior to last winter I tried storing them in the cold cellar or the fridge, but it never worked too well. I'll eat most veggies, but my husband is like Dee in that he doesn't like many veggies, and except for onion family vegetables, unfortunately most of what he does like are warm weather veggies like peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes, so they aren't good storage or winter crops. I'd still like to try wintering over root veggies and some greens in a hoop house/cold frame at some point. I have a few blueberry bushes and cranberries, but haven't been successful with strawberries (the chipmunks get them just before they ripen!), so I get them as well as tree fruits from local farmers. Around here it's quite difficult to successfully raise tree fruits like apples or peaches without a heavy duty deer fence and the orchards use IMP to reduce their pesticide use to a minimum while still getting quality fruit, so I'm OK with that. Good resources for those who want to grow winter crops in cold frames or unheated greenhouses are Eliot Coleman's books, such as 'Four Season Harvest' or 'Winter Harvest Manual' which are great as far as when to plant crops for winter harvest, what can be grown successfully, etc. At some point in the future I would like to try this.

Hi shermthewerm, (great name!) If you have peppers on the Banana Pepper plant already you will almost certainly get them to turn red. They are really pretty and a bit sweeter so worth the wait. I usually get at least a few red ones, although last year was a real dud of a summer. The Anaheims can probably be picked any time they seem full-grown. When the peppers stop getting bigger you can pick them although leaving them on longer will most likely cause the flavor to get richer and hotter. One thing I've noticed with my hot peppers is the variability in heat even from one plant. Many of the early ones are very, very mild (esp. the Jalapenos) but occasionally one scorches. A little maturity and stress, such as witholding some (not all) water helps. Part of the excitement I guess ;-)

The trick to most Indian cooking is to have the masalas (spices) on hand. They can last a long time if kept in airtight containers, and only need a minute or 2 dry-fried in a pan before using. After that, it really is a quite simple cuisine to prepare. And you can mix and match various masalas, rather than follow exact recipes. Experiment! Lentils and beans, too, are generally interchangeable. No 2 Indian cooks prepare the same dish in the same way... And it is a surpisingly quick way to prepare delicious meals once you've tried it once or twice! Just took a pic of my masala shelf... This post was edited by shaxhome on Wed, Apr 3, 13 at 8:38