Thanks for the review posted above. Looking at the picture I can tell you why that fruit is not sweet. It's over watered and probably over fertilized. My nectarines have looked that way a few times when over watered. My biggest and best looking fruit I've ever grown. Just like the reviewer, I didn't eat them. Ever since I've been on the quest for the perfectly watered nectarine. Instead of 12-16 brix I've sometimes hit 22-24 and even once 35 brix. The best fruit I've ever eaten were the 20 something nectarines.

Thank you all for your compliments. You are very kind. No question that I like to fool around with food combinations and cooking methods. It's part of the fun of cooking. Typical T&T recipes for me are just stepping stones to adventure and amusement. This particular combination I have concocted is actually not very unique. The use of fruits in cooking is, as you know, very common. orange with duck, melon with prosciutto, Pork with sweet & sour plum sauce, fish with lemon, turkey with cranberry, beef with pineapple, ---etc. Food pairing/combination is more than subjective taste, there is a whole science of molecular biology behind it, which is fascinating to look into. Before putting this dish together, I looked at the food pairing chart below, and decided it is worth a try. The turkey crackling was made in bacon fat, the rendered turkey fat with the bacon fat was used to give the sous vided scallops a golden crust and additional complexity in flavor. Together, the turkey fat, bacon fat and Au scallop Jus, was drizzled over the wild rice which was cooked in robust turkey stock. Pomegranate is very similar to cranberries in both color and taste, but a little more fruity and sweet, which in small amount, (2 teaspoons) in the wild rice, you can see, that the inconspicuous fruitiness can serve to balance out the primary flavors of the dish. Pomegranate juice, as jab65 pointed out, is well known for its potent health benefits, which is why I decided to incorporate it into many aspects of my cooking. The problem of course, is how you can get juice out from a pomegranate. That will be another video which I will have to make to share, whenever I get around getting it done. Unless one of you already has a way, in which case please share. dcarch, (writing from inside the looney bin) :-)

I don't know what your gritty mix is made up of, but I think African Violets prefer a mix of AV mix and perlite. They like the soil damp and light which is difficult to do with what I know of gritty mix from growing succulents. Once it's in the proper damp mix, it should go in the bag for a couple of weeks. By then you should start to see new leaf growth. You can then open the bag each day and finally take it out. The blooms on your original plant are lovely!

Well, the only thing I ordered was the Smooth Touch roses. They obviously were pre-packed from the supplier. They were individually bagged up bareroot plants (about 1½ -2 grade) with header cards showing a picture of the named variety and the Smooth Touch series logo, stapled to the top of the baggie, and with a hole to possibly be hung on peg hooks in a retail nursery shop. As I recall there was no moist packing with the plant inside the bag. The plants were healthy and had swollen budeyes, so they had no problem leafing out once I planted them.