I only plant the smaller ones (Banner). The plants are 10% smaller, but indistinguishable from Windsor otherwise. As soon as the ground unfreezes I will put in a few hundred of them.

Nobody in this area of the country will forget that "once-in-a-hundred-years" freeze we had last Easter! I plant by how the weather feels... with one eye on the calendar, but I believe more how soil and air feels and stuff like how far the oaks have leaved out. "Plant corn when the oak leaves are the size of a squirrel's ear", etc. Frost hardy salad greens were in regular harvest stage and they were all fine. However, I had Black Aztec sweet corn 4 inches tall, assorted summer squash at first true leaves, Red Pontiac potatoes coming up well, all varieties strawberries blooming, figs had leaved out already, Super Sugar Snap peas a foot high... then we're being told it will be 25 degrees tonite!! Ron and I were able to cover most of the strawberries with heavy plastic sheeting (for me to remove early next morning when temp rose above freezing), and I dropped 3 gallon plastic nursery pots over the squash and potatoes (some 8 inches high). Next morning I took mental notes, and I immediately ordered more corn seed. I watched and waited on somewhat damaged squash; they stood still; I replanted beside them, and the new seedlings outgrew those that had "survived" the frost. Biggest potatoes had to resprout and were late and I eventually pulled them to make way for next crop. Those just emerging were fine with the makeshift protection and produced a crop. Strawberries at outside of beds were frozen, but a lot in center were OK... I figgered I lost 35% of the crop. Figs leafed out again and fruited a month late; Peas froze to ground, but most plants sent up base shoots, and I got a crop after all. My soybeans did not come up, and I found them as rotted mush, frozen with their bent necks less than 1/2 inch from emerging! The rest of the seed was planned to follow the corn first of July, but with start-over making corn late, I never got to plant soybeans last year. When I went to plant replacement corn, I kept find roots obviously still alive. I tossed out the first few, but then I got curious and left them in the ground. A fair percentage (35 - 40%??) sent up new shoots and cropped, altho later than the replants beside them. Mostly a nuisance to a gardener, but shows that variety would survive as a species even with a late frost some years. Worse news on trees. No acorns; no persimmons; no tree fruits of any kind around here (except my figs!). Trees did recover but a major amount of wildlife winter food was lost forever. Black walnuts sleep late in the spring, and they were fine. My antique roses (mostly Rugosas, Gallicas, Albas, Noisettes, Hybrid Musk)simply regrouped, leafed out again. The one-time bloomers (Albas and Gallicas) lost most of their flowering capacity for the year; the other groups are remontant; they just regrouped and flowered as usual, but a month later. Most hardy perenniel flowers and bulbs were not significantly affected. Your woodchuck recipe - still laughing! Back in the last century, I was joking about writing a cookbook for sale at local tourist traps: HOW TO COOK YOUR GARDEN PESTS. Most garden raiders can be found in game cookbooks, even a few with more than 4 legs. I did the research, but I ain't crazy about dressing out warm-blooded animals. Dressing woodchucks: The smell, the general ugliness, and that very tough skin that almost repelled my knife. I pretty soon figgered out something else I wanted to do worse that morning... My first almost-dinner woodchuck very shortly turned into deer repellant tossed under the tree where the herd gathers to lay up during the day and plot their night raids on my ripening corn. Assassinated feral cats (my neighbor feeds a population of them!)are also used for deer repellent. Anybody caught playing "lion at the waterhole" with birds at my birdbath will be offered a trail of canned mackeral leading into the Hav-a-Hart and will quietly disappear forever. Possums I drive 10 miles and turn loose; rabbits I just turn out locally. But woodchucks just eat too much too fast, plus they dig under my cages and barriers. One way trip for them, too. Fortunately woodchucks have 3 Achillies heels: too stupid to change their paths once discovered; day feeders so I can find them eating and see where they run so I know where to set the trap; one litter a year, so I can often get Mama and all the kits in 36 hours or so, and they're history until another one moves in. I check DAILY for signs of feeding everywhere I have a crop planted.... sometimes I'm still too late! I would expect them to taste a lot like wild bunnies and squirrels? Confirm, please. My brother in Wyoming supplies us with top-quality venison every year as a Christmas gift, and often include a few other sundry species. But as long as Arkansas whole fryers keep going on sale for 49 cents a pound, the pest cook book will probably stay on the back burner. Gee, not a word about fava beans in this one... note they are still fine today... in 54 degree sun and wind, with rain and cold on the way again... Jan

Well, I somehow doubt that fava beans are big in Laos, so perhaps they are just not familiar with the proper way to grow or harvest them. Or maybe it's a soil/water thing. I will try them again some day from another source. I've noticed that while their strawberries are truly exceptional, and they have offered a number of different greens that have been terrific, their new onions are on the tough side. Sugar snap peas were wonderful, snow peas not all that great. I did notice they put in a lot more tomatoes this year than last. They were great, and apparently sold out quickly. I bought out their beefsteaks several times because I can't grow those, and I love them.

Back the years when I was picking 40 pounds of Kentucky Wonders a day, my family loved Green Bean Salad: French-cut fresh green beans - 4 to 6 cups homegrown lettuce (or the best you can get from the supermarket) 2 slices bread 1 tbsp. butter 1 tbsp. olive oil 2 clove garlic, flattened with the side of a knife Oil and Vinegar Dressing (below) Boil or steam the beans until just tender, then shake over heat to dry. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Pour the Oil and Vinegar Dressing over the hot beans. Cook, uncovered, 2 to 4 minutes, then chill, covered, in a glass salad bowl. Heat the butter and oil in a skillet. Brown the garlic in it, then remove garlic. Fry the bread in the skillet until golden on both sides. Just before serving, break the lettuce into bits and toss it into the green beans. Crumble the bread and add, tossing again. Oil and Vinegar Dressing: 4 tbsp. olive oil 1 tbsp. vinegar 1/8 tsp. dry mustard salt and pepper to taste Blend all ingredients. Makes 1/4 cup. I haven't had this salad in years, but I'm growing three kinds of green beans this year and I'm looking forward to tasting it again!