Bejay- "Best method" is subjective. It's more important to understand what characteristics each method brings to your bread and let you decide "best". As Shirley Corriher says in her excellent book "CookWise", "Give ten bakers the same flour, yeast, salt, and water and have them make bread with just these ingredients and they will make ten different loaves of bread." There are three basic methods of breadmaking: -Straight or direct-mix method (relatively fast method most often used today) -Sponge Method (all of the liquid, yeast, and part of the flour are beaten together and allowed to ferment - anywhere from 30-minutes to 12-24 hours) -Naturally-leavened (sourdough or starter) As a bonus not normally lumped into these standard bread methods, I'll add the No-Knead Bread Method - a modern version of the sponge method made by retarding the mixture in the refrigerator. Each of these methods impart their own "stamp" on breads. If I want to make light, high-rising loaves of 100% Whole Wheat Flour Bread, and avoid those whole wheat "bricks", I'll use a sponge method which is better suited for this type of bread than using the straight-dough method. Even as little as a 30-minute sponge will improve your bread. "Experts" say the optimum amount is 2-1/2 hours for a sponge. For whole wheat bread I prefer an overnight sponge, but 2-1/2-hours works well enough. When dough is chilled (retarding the dough), it influences the dough in three ways: -Enhances the flavor (the yeast goes into dormancy so it no longer consumes all the available sugar and the bacteria present can feed and produce flavorful acids. -Reduces ovenspring and loaf volume -Opens texture slightly There are those wonderful recipes for Cool Rise Bread that helped the busy homemaker in the 1950's. The recipe from Kitchen Aid for "Quick Mix Cool Rise Bread" was very popular. When it comes to the sourness of your starter, that can determined by the amount of hydration in your mixture. It gets more acidic the less water is in the mix. Once the yeast has consumed the sugar, the yeasts die off. The bacteria have a chance to develop that "sour" taste and will consume the dead yeast and produce lactic acid - the same souring acid found in yogurt and kefir. Adding yogurt is a modern adaptation, but when it comes to starter, they are about as varied as the people making them ;-). In my grandmother's day, they used starter all the time and never called the bread "sourdough". When the bread took on an acidic flavor we think of as "sourdough" bread, they did what was called "sweetening the pot". They took a tablespoon of the starter, and with consecutive feedings, developed that small into their usual amount of starter for the typical mild-flavored breads they made back then. Before the advent of fresh and dried yeast products, there were any number of methods for making naturally-leavened bread. "Old dough" (a lump of dough packed into flour and kept cool until the next baking day when it was used to make a starter), homemade yeast products made with hops and cornmeal, dry homemade yeast as well as liquid homemade yeast and starter.... I can make a naturally-leavened bread by using my homemade kefir + flour for the starter. There are lots of friendly bacteria in the kefir and lots of yeast in the whole wheat flour - more than enough to make bread rise. -Grainlady

Crock pots can cook meat to the point where it sort of falls apart. I doubt you're doing anything wrong. I find a decent knife helps. I own a decent chefs knife and a boning knife and steel, I paid about $30 each for it about thirty years ago in a knife store. The man who sold them to me took the time to show me how to use the steel properly. I've never regretted the investment. I'm also a fan of those thin stainless steel, serrated knives you can buy at the grocery store. They last about three years but only cost about four dollars.

"For pruning, sounds like it's best done in late spring, before the blooms start to form in July/August." It's never a good idea to suggest specific timing for pruning Hydrangea macrophylla - when they bloom is very much dependent on where one is located. In more northern locations, these are mid to late summer bloomers so pruning in late spring would only serve to remove the current season's flower buds. It is better to focus on a specific pruning method. Ideally, no pruning other than deadheading old flowerheads and removing deadwood is really required, provided the plant is sited where it can be allowed to achieve its natural size. If a reduction in size is required, one can either do a wholesale cutting back to a desired size in early spring as new growth becomes apparent and forfeit a bloom season or undertake rejuvenation pruning - cutting a third of the stems back to to the plant base in each of three years. This is actually the recommended method, as it encourages new, vigorous stem growth from the root crown as well maintaining most of the seasonal bloom potential.

East or west exposure will net blooms for most of them EVENTUALLY. Most of mine grow on the east side, close to the window, and most of the mature ones bloom. There are some exceptions. But I will say that pubicalyx 'Pink Silver' (which I think is what you have there) is one that has always taken many years to bring to bloom for me, AND once it blooms, it's very stingy. I think a summer outside might be helpful, but I, too, am careful what I put out. Two kinds of Hoyas go out - the ones that aren't doing too hot (in hopes of the fresh air and sunshine making a difference) and those that are duplicates (as I won't risk my mother plants.) But I do have two out on my covered front porch that I keep a close eye on - pubicalyx 'Red Buttons' is one, and I must say it blooms like crazy all summer long. The leaves look less than spectacular (fairly washed out), but it does bloom... Use a bloom booster fertilizer, like Ferti-Lome. The number on it are 9-58-8. THAT gives them a real boost! Denise in Omaha