I would strongly recommend against buying anything from DiMeo Farms in Hammonton. I just drove 1.5 hours (each way) to buy some bushes, and was really looking forward to buying local(ish) and supporting new Jersey Agriculture. However, I found Anthony DiMeo III to be the single most rude and obnoxious merchant I have ever dealt with, and I've lived in New York and New Jersey all my life. I opened my car door, and he yelled at me to come over to him, demanding I give him my variety choice immediately. I said, "well - I'd like an early variety, a..." he stopped me and barked "I'm a millionarire, and a 4th generation farmer, and I don't need small sales like you." I said I was considering the following 5 varieties (x.y.z...) and he spit out "you can only have 3 varieties". I was speechless. He then told me to drive my car over to some location, and I did. I stated my 3 varieties. He WOULD NOT let me choose the bushes, directing his worker to choose for me, who chose spindly single or double branched bushes. The worker started roughly shoving them into my car. I protested, and said I would load them myself: "just let me pay, and I will load them myself". He said "I am a millionaire, a 4th generation farmer, and i don't have time for this" .At one point in his psychotic tirade i asked him "have I said or done something to insult you?" I then asked him to point out which of the bushes were which variety, as he had just thrown them together into one group, and with complete exasperation he said "are you kidding?" In between all of this I told him that I had just driven 1.5 hours to support NJ agriculture. I've only covered the highlights of the abusive 10 minutes I spent at this place; there's much, much more. Finally, I had enough and told him "I can't believe I just drove so far to do business with such a #$@#$%", and we terminated the transaction mutually. If this guy had bushes that produced 24K berries, I wouldn't buy from him. A rude, arrogant, dismissive, insulting, psych job. If you hate your job, hate your customers and have millions of dollars - get out!

Hi Ano, I have some very small (American) persimmon seedlings. You are welcome to some; bear in mind that most persimmons require both a male and a female closeby for pollination and fruit production. So about 50% chance of that with 3 seedlings, sex unknown. However: the cultivar 'Meader' is unusual in that it is parthenocarpic -- it sets large fruit, with a few sterile seeds generally, *without* a pollinator. So that might be worth the additional time and expense to procure? Also note that many opinions exist as to the best-tasting American persimmon; I considered putting in a 'Prok' also but decided to use the space for Chinese mulberries instead. Another cheap possible source: state university nurseries generally raise and sell a variety of trees, once-a year, bareroot, in the late autumn. These sales are usually not well publicized. -- Stan in Hamilton, NJ 609.731.3882

I am in a 5a. I have a portable green house. Its at least a zone shift. Anyone in a 3-5 who is a serious gardener needs a hoop or green house. The 5 gal container, green house started tomatoes are six foot flowering and fruiting.Pole beans were started here until a foot tall and are now past 10ft. The ones in the raised bed all along is not even 3 feet. By mid May I lose a lot of afternoon sun so I move them. I can only imagine how well they would do never leaving the green house in full sun and I image they would have ripe fruit by now. Last year I moved a black cherry back in during October. I caught Indian summer in November and had the last tomatoes on Christmas day. That is not bad for Chicago.

I shop at multiple stores. Pay day is every other Friday so I that is when I go to Wal-Mart or Smith's (Kroger owned). Every 2 weeks we also get coffee beans at the little mom and pop shop. We go to Sprouts every 2 weeks as their ads overlap on Wednesdays. This is actually getting less frequent as they have not put the bulk things on sale that I want the most as frequently (steel cut oats and short grain brown rice). The bread outlet is a once a month trip. Other stores such as Keller's (for meat), Trader Joe's, the international markets, Vitamin Cottage (for other bulk items), I alternate months. Some things I get through Amazon's subscribe and save and that can vary in frequency. Eggs are mostly from my hens and many of our vegetables come from our garden. Some of the variety in shopping is about the money savings but it is more along the lines of trying to match the quality to a certain price point and meeting my needs of acquiring a diversity of ingredients. Arborio rice at TJ's, quality meat at Keller's, red lentils in bulk at Vitamin Cottage, etc. Part of it is me trying to maintain a well stocked pantry because my moods are fickle and if the pantry has a variety of things, I can cook according to my mood. Pre-planned menus never, ever work for me.