I've grown them for quite a few years and got my start from the original source - W.T. Arthur. They can produce a very nice size white onion or they can be a disappointment. I've never figured them out! Last year was a rough year in Missouri and they were smaller than usual and tended to split right before harvest. They are mild flavored, fairly winter hardy (I fall plant) and average storage life. The small onions store really well. I have a quite a few topsets this year. Send me an email and I'll send you some. Mark

Hi Jeanie, Well, duh. I looked on my bookshelf and I already have a copy of it sitting there! Thanks for the reminder. :-) I also just got a new one (well, used but new to me, since I often buy used books from Amazon). This one is "Best Garden Plants for Oklahoma" by Steve Owens and Laura Peters. I haven't had a chance to really go through it yet, but have already bookmarked several pages. It's well illustrated and divided into separate color-coded categories for vines, ground covers, trees, etc. so it's very fast to use. It's a pretty nice format. I also own "Gardening in Difficult Soils", the "Southern Gardener's Book of Lists" and "Oklahoma Gardeners Guide", as well as the big Am Hort. Society "Southwest Gardening". As I said, I'm slowly building my garden library back up to suit my new location. Can you tell I'm a book freak as well as a gardener??? I must have donated at least 40 garden and horticulture books to the library when I moved. A lot of them were the big fancy coffee-table variety on landscaping. Things like Penelope Hobhouse and so on. Lovely things, but not anything I'd be likely to use now. Another one I just saw on my shelves is the Ortho Garden Problem Solver. While I don't necessarily want to spray anything and everything, it's pretty nice as an identification source for specific problems. I'm leaning more and more toward natural solutions whenever possible, but it's nice to know what you're dealing with. If anyone wants me to look something up for them, just let me know. Pat

Expect 1 in 4 plants to express the greenflesh trait. This means a few will be purple/black. The blacks show up more because the expression is easier but the purplish ones are more than just the green flesh trait. Other stuff I have done or I am working on stems from a BWxCP cross. Such as "Purple Haze". You'll of course get some potato leaf plants and regular leaf ones. As far as taste I saw a ratio of about 1:4:1 One "oh wow": 4 better than average: one average or just down right bland. I got a few weird shape ones. That's were the one I sent Sorellina came about. They are very much like a Brandywine paste. I was interested to see how it would do above the 40th parallel. Mine plants get larger and are moderately productive. I suspect polar bears are stealing hers. The squirrels/possums/racoons/ground hogs seem to favor these fruits and other than taste I am not sure why. It (and its sister lines) were selected for taste over production. The history of the weird shaped ones

gma_j, I see now you were referring to setting the probe temperature. I haven't used my Miele probe; I use the speed oven for smaller things, where a probe is less useful. But it really does snap in place with a loud click; so if yours didn't, that could be the problem. Larger things generally go into my E'lux oven; that probe works fine. The speed oven pre-heats quickly, so if something fits its faster to cook it there. Its useful for re-heating (use MasterChef, if you know the weight), as well as stuff like baked potatoes (in combination mode), and for roasting, braising, or convection baking small portions. I've rarely used defrost, or broil (except to finish browning something like ribs). The Miele's manuals leave much to be desired. While we wait for mojavean or someone smart to write a decent Miele speed oven cookbook, a variety of recipes on the Miele site can get you started on some dishes (see link). Here is a link that might be useful: Miele recipies