Hi Al, thanks for responding. I am laughing out loud because we are falling over 'words'. I tried to make my post as short as possible so I will start again. Maybe we should start with a few definitions. In my opinion: - a pot is something with drain holes into which one puts growing medium and a plant; - a planter is a more decorative container, without drain holes, into which one puts a potted plant. I am trying to decide which category this item falls into because of this apparent 'resevoir'. I bought this item fairly quickly and now it seems the resevoir is inadequate for the amount of growing medium I need. I also feel the perforations in the plate would allow growing medium to pass through thereby preventing drainage and killing my plant. I felt perhaps someone had come up with a crafty/novel way of using said item as a pot. BTW this item is glazed resin, bronze hued, which fits the decor of my home very well. It was fairly expensive and I don't want to bore any holes in it. I would prefer to search for something else. I am not very versed in the words of container gardening, but perhaps you should differentiate between re-potting and potting up. Perhaps I am potting up: I am putting the plant in a bigger pot because it is root bound in its present pot, and is not reaching its "potential for growth/vitality". Usually by this time of year there are buds, but instead it is dropping a few leaves. This plant is about 20 years old and this is usually my cue for a new, bigger pot. I hope this makes it easier for you to understand what I am asking. Al, do you care to to re-consider your response with this additional information? I am asking you to. Thank you.

I'm thinking of specializing in berries, since our market is only during the summer. Planted some strawberries this year so have a June crop but most years they aren't ripe June 1. Also planted 3 different types of raspberries and 1 thornless blackberry (our wild blackberries are the extra-thorny type), plus 3 different types (2 plants each) cultivated blueberries to complement our wild blueberries (which haven't produced much in the past 3 years but now look like a bumper crop this year!). So, you have to think about your market season, and make sure you have something *every week*. I might be able to pad out the end of the season with jams and jellies, but beginning of the season the jars are almost a year old - unless I freeze fruit and make jam in May. I am growing the typical high-season veggies to try to fill in while my berries get established, and b/c I never know how the wild berries are going to do each year. Plus I can a lot so if they don't sell, I can always use tomatoes, peppers and cukes. Going to go easy on the squash - everybody has it. I'm also trying to do a few different varieties of hot peppers (though last year no one wanted to buy anything hotter than a serrano so next year might just plant enough for us) and the heirloom tomatoes just to try to make my stuff stand out a bit more (plus we like them). Also planted some snow peas and edamame. Trying potatoes and onions too this year - even if I don't get a harvest before market ends, I figure I can sell green onions and new potatoes, and let people know they can always come directly to me in October for the mature crop (plus I had ripe peppers still being harvested last Oct), that might also draw them in for the apples (trying to renovate the old orchard) and pumpkins, winter squash if I have room to plant any this year. That sounds like a lot (and it is), but once I have enough berry plants ripening in different months to assure a continuous summer harvest for market, I may just plant enough high-season stuff for our own use (which is still a lot if I want to preserve it), and maybe some asparagus for early market (the chard, kale and peas are still puny - I planted late b/c of weather, but we'll see how they sell this year). I'd like to get all my cash crops in perennials if possible. I don't think you can specialize in just *one* thing b/c the seasons are just too short.

I love the line "This is the most exceptional cow painting I've ever sold." :) linda, do you mean the set below? What is a ballpark for how much that should go for? I'm seeing high quality (the artist is a major name in the history of studio pottery, exc. example of her/his work) studio pottery going for about maybe 1/2 - 2/3 of what it was going for in 2007. Is it the same in high quality silver pieces? The second tier is going for more like 1/2. Much lesser work that would at least have found buyers out of interest in the design is going completely unbought. Flight to quality, I guess. Here is a link that might be useful: repousse tea set

For all the specialty tools I have and love, I really do use a knife most of the time. About 80% with my 8" chef's knife, 10% with a paring knife, and 10% with a specialty knife or tool. This is the Kyocera paddle mandoline. It should be great for slicing table vegetables. I generally just use my knife if there are only a few of us, though I have to concentrate to get even slices. Usually, a V-slicer is better for tomatoes than a straight edge, but the angle of the Kycera's blade helps with that. And it's sharp enough to think nothing of turnips. I can definitely recommend it. Plus, it fits right in the knife drawer, can go in the DW, and is easy to clean by hand. There's a rod at the back that turns to select thickness (.5 mm 1.3mm, 2mm, and 3mm). The hand guard doesn't mash the veg, and moves back and forth easily. I've never cut myself on this one (my usual complaint with mandolines), even though the ceramic blade is supersharp and won't get dull as fast as steel. If you don't need a julienne, the Kyocera is top quality and excellent performance for $25 or less. The $10 kind (I've used one several times) has julienne blades but the deck is narrow and it's harder to slide back and forth on it, the handguard isn't as good, and many of my veg are too big for it. I was using it in a crowded kitchen and looked away, hit a bump and got a chunk out of my thumb (not serious, but still). The OXO looks like a very nicely designed V-slicer if you want the julienne blades. A lot of traditional, steel mandlines on the market have beds that are too narrow and mechanisms that are hard to clean. The DeBuyere V-slicer was a gift--very expensive and really not necessary if one isn't catering. I haven't cut myself on that either but the pusher--far more of a mechanism than a mere hand guard--is the size of a small spaceship. It's not horrible to clean, like some are, but it's awkward and heavy. I really love it, but it's overkill for most purposes. Be careful in choosing a mandoline. A lot of them aren't well designed for either safety or cleaning, or both. I agree with you about the apple culls. Salvaging them takes so much personal attention that you might as well peel and slice while you've got each in your hand. And it's nice to be able to hear the birds. In my laundry list above, I totally forgot choppers! I have an old fashioned multiblade chopper and chopping bowl (though my mezzaluna seems to have wandered off...) and a spring mechanism flat chopper. I don't think I've used the former since I got the Cuisinart (which is why I haven't gotten a new mazzaluna). I might for a small amount of apple sauce, though (or something similar), since I prefer the hand cut texture. I always make my hummus by hand (with a metal grid potato masher). The spring chopper is great for being lazy. Throw in a few cloves of garlic or nuts and go bash bash bash and one doesn't actually have to work at cutting them. It's delayed work, actually, because then one has to take apart the chopper and clean it, but that can be put off a few hours. I also have a food mill that was given to me as I was packing up the old kitchen. Soup season is upon us so I'll be seeing if I like using it soon! Most of the time I'm happy with slightly rustic and the immersion blender is perfectly fine, but supposedly the mill is the way to perfect purees. We'll see...