I like tomato byproducts such as spaghetti sauce, ketchup, and salsa. Both my husband and I dislike "raw" tomatoes. Scientists have done studies and discovered a certain percentage (about 10%) of the population dislikes the taste of raw tomatoes. Tomatoes are in the same family as nightshade, which is poisonous. Some scientists believe certain people developed an aversion to the taste of tomatoes as a way staying alive. People just avoided eating anything in the nightshade family whether it was poisonous or not. I am growing tomatoes this year to make my own salsa and maybe spaghetti sauce. I am sure my husband will use some of the tomatoes in chili. One way or another I will have to learn to can. My mother in law will be very happy to teach me. She's always trying to get me to spend more time in the kitchen. (In my house I grow the food, and my hubby cooks the food.)

Mark, I'm guessing gopher or vole. We have both here (and moles too), but the cats (and one cat in particular named Moose, who is no longer with us) keep them mostly under control, or at least out of the veggie garden. Every year the moles and gophers try to move into the sandier soil (not so much the clay) under the pecan tree, and the cats kill them relentlessly. Voles (aka meadow mice although they look more to me like a squared off hamster or rat) are harder to control because they can live in the woodlands and the pastures and 'visit' just long enough to do damage before they retreat back to the wilder areas. The only tomato plant I've lost this year was lost to a vole who nibbled all the way around the stem, not severing the stem but leaving it too damaged to survive. If you have gophers (or moles), the best way to protect plants is to line your beds with quarter-inch hardware cloth, which is an expensive solution. There are some gopher traps and poisons and such, but I don't know if any of them are effective. Since we have cats, I've never tried them. With voles, I suspect baited traps might be the best way to kill them if you don't have cats or small dogs that will hunt them and kill them. Sorry to hear about the loss of the tomato plant and good luck fighting the pests. It is nice to see you posting. You haven't posted in a long time! Dawn

DABT, as I have an interest in wild edible plants I have learned a few things. One important thing you can assume is ALL MUSHROOMS ARE POISONOUS. They are difficult to tell apart from the edible ones without a microscope. The other thing is, poisonous plants usually (but not always) taste bad, really bad, so if a kid starts to chew on one, he will soon spit it out. So, in the interest of keeping things simple so you can keep your kids safe, let me make some generalizations which will put you on the safe side of caution: - All white berries are poisonous. - Plants which are poisonous taste bitter. - Plants with white/milky sap are generally poisonous (except cow parsnip above, which has a clear sap) - All fungi and mushrooms are poisonous and some can kill with just one small taste. - Hemlock is poisonous (see Socrates) and looks just like wild carrot/Queen Anne's Lace. You can get a book on Edible Wild Plants. Mine shows me what similar but poisonous plants look like. So it shows me wild carrot, and shows me hemlock also, and tells me the differences, which are very subtle indeed. Many field guides to plants or wild flowers also tell you which ones are poisonous. Post the phone number to your poison control center on your fridge. Make sure it is in a handy place where kids can't pull it down and lose it. One thing I learned as a parent is kids eat all kinds of things, like coins, legos, small beads, gum, and apple seeds (which contain cyanide compounds), yet they have no ill effects for the most part. And they don't make "chink chink" sounds when they walk around from all the coins, they don't pass a whole spaceship in the toilet from all the lego pieces they ate, and an apple tree doesn't grow in their stomach. Be vigilent but don't make yourself crazy.

I had several real good years with the Casey's. The last two, the weather just blew them apart! I'd like to continue to have them and I'm not pleased about going with a "tougher" yellow variety if it comes down to that. Dr. Wyches would be fine and they seemed to be tuff enuf when I grew them ... just not early enuf. I'm wondering if I'm gonna continue to be happy with Gary O Sena or if the health of those plants are just a result of a continuing hybrid vigour from the cross, several years ago. I guess I'm more of a believer in vigor than acclamation ... Steve