Have you tried boniato? Round, reddish brown root-food near the yucca and malanga. To me it has the flavor and texture of roasted chestnuts. Drier and more starchy than a potato, but so nice. Be sure to buy them only when they're fresh though. Yesterday I found a new one in WD. Breadfruit "nuts", in a can. Never saw these before. Very interesting snack food. They do have a thin shell on them that was a little bitter. Once I removed the shells I found them quite good. A little different for the American palette, but unique. I just rinsed them and ate them like boiled peanuts. I imagine they'd be good added to some cooked dishes too. Veronika, the galanga has put up a couple new shoots. I repotted it into a larger pot. It's doing great! I will definitely try malanga soon too.

Thank you all so much. I already see some of my issues. bumblebeez, you answered my question on volume. I see the cost savings when you get equal amounts of yogurt from the milk used. My problem was I used a quart of milk and got only about a cup and half of yogurt. And not very good yogurt at that! I used about 2 tablespoons of dry milk to the quart of fat free milk. The taste may have been because of "incorrect" incubating. Or something else I did wrong. Grainlady, thank you for the tips. I have not checked the temperature in the oven with the light so that could have been the problem. I use the oven for rising yeast bread and it works wonderfully, so....I thought.... will check the temp with a thermometer. Made several other mistakes, I stirred my yogurt as soon as I thought it was done. Did not refrigerate first, just stirred and drained. And lost most of it. Will retain the whey next time. I thought it was good stuff but not sure so I let it go down the drain. Never again! Thanks for the info on using the whey. Annie, I read the "yogurt tread" and that is what got me going in the first place. I did use a fresh organic storebought yogurt for the starter, Stoneyfield, so my starter was good. I also used organic fat free milk. I am going to try using canning jars next time instead of a bowl. Armed with this new info, I will try again. In the meantime, I did discover Greek yogurt and just love it. Seems it is everywhere in the grocery stores now. Publix is even carrying the Fage brand, which I have not seen in this area before. Or just missed it somehow. If I don't have any success, maybe Grainlady will post and tell us how to make kefir?? You said it was easier than yogurt. :) or I maybe I can talk bumblebeez into making for me, I think we are sort of neighbors....upstate SC LOL Will post my results. Again thank you for the responses. Murphy

I suspect the no receipt scam operates something like this -- they ask if you would like a receipt when you hand them the card. You say yes, they run it as they should and hand you the receipt for your purchase. If you say no thanks, they run the card or get the info, probably using their phone or a device set next to the card reading terminal. When they take a break or get a slow spot, they use that scanned card to pay for their purchase on their phone. The card was never used for the proper purchase, so I wonder if they cover by paying for the meals or if the restaurant gets stiffed on those. Pretty gutsy, but in a drive through, you usually can't see the card reader so you wouldn't know until you see the charge. Have a nice day..... Geez. We got a fraud alert on my husband's card. Someone ordered $10k of custom blinds to be shipped overseas. We told them it was not us and the bank declined it -- but the shop in Louisiana making the blinds had not been notified by the bank. DH said he just had a feeling and called them -- they were about to fill the order and would have been out $10k if he had not. A short time later, something similar happened with my card but it was $200 in T-shirts ordered from someplace in North Carolina. A long time ago, there was a small one from a smoke shop somewhere. Anyone who knows me would know that would not have been me. They always seem to follow those news stories about some big company getting hacked.

Nice to see some interest in olive trees. I originated in the Mediterranean basin *Sicily) and olive trees were everywhere there as well. I have a few olive trees planted around my house and can offer some suggestions. They need full sun or as much as you can provide, they do not want any other plant close by them, they need space. Mature olive olive trees can be very drought resistant, this does not mean you can neglect them,,, especially if it is a small tree. They should also be protected (while small) from frosts by whatever means you have available. Well drained is a big plus and regular feeding is also important to push new growth. see pictures of one of my 15 trees around the house with a close up of the buds exploding all around the tree, both pictures are of same tree. This is an arbequina, but I also grow the other varieties available locally Koroneiki and arbosana and have many other varieties from california (Italian and french) in 3 gallon pots staging for future planting. All my trees are for table olive use,,, for now.