there's a really specific reason that home-grown sweet corn can be so much better than any store-bought: once cut from the stalk, the sugar levels in the kernels HALVES in just ONE HOUR! The same thing happens with green peas. So if you can just cut some corn in your garden and almost immediately process/cook it, you'll have a much sweeter corn than you would find even at those roadside stores that grow their own corn. Indeed this is the reason for all the research into the various "sugar" genes that corn has. The improved types lose their sugar more slowly. However none of them compare to picked-5-minutes-ago. Just remember that corn needs a lot of nitrogen, and read up on those sugar-genes stuff - se+, and sh and whatever - and pick the type you want to grow. And wildlife is often a big problem. It seems all animals throught the U.S. have learned very well that corn is a very nice food source.

I haven't been online 2 c any responses 2 my blog entry for a while and i'm glad 2 c I've had some responses. I really appreciate any advice i can get. I'm currently growing my gardenia indoors in a window that gets great light in the morning and moderate thourhgout the rest of the day. I'm excited 2 say that i now have about 7 beautiful flowers in full bloom on my plant. Its funny how all the buds seemed to grow in at the same time and yet they appear to be growing and blooming in groups at different times. They are so worth all the work. I have some pictures that I'd love to post but I'm not sure at the moment how to do that yet. Its been so long since I've checked this blog but if anyone looks again I was wondering if the gardenia blooms grow bigger the older the plant gets or is the bloom size determined by the type of plant you have? Thank you soooo much

here are some more news why we should be gardening (organic as much as possible)and produce own vegetable at least! Recently, one of my colleague who has been diagnosed with colon cancer. He not have any bad habits, no smoking, no alcohol, very health cautious...but stuck by dread evil. By god grace he is out of danger now due to right time detection and diagnosis. While resting in hospital beds, he looked back his life style, food habits, family history, etc... he concluded that food was one of the main culprit. He wrote me five page long story about the his cancer and aftermaths...to cut the story short, I just copy/pasting some of his points on Why does one get cancer: Causes of cancer; -Environment we live in (e.g., breathing polluted air); -Genetically modified food (e.g., nearly 80% of all food sold in US super markets are genetically modified like your tomatoes, apples); -Food processing and storage (e.g., injecting chicken with antibiotics to "preserve" them; preservatives in all those tin\can food; manicured apples!!); -Polluted water (e.g., dissolved carcinogens in water from heavy industries that may never be filtered out) ...and one can go on... Another story is Parkinson's vs. Pesticides: I just come to know from Dorothy, Rotenone, a pesticide used in home gardens/farms seems to be causative factor for Parkinson's diseases... He is our own family story...My mother-in-law, but call her a mother, she is nice lady, is also suffering with Parkinson's disease.. she used to consume lot of raw vegetables/salads (of course from market) to keep in good health... but that tuned out be bad. I too guess her PD was due to lot of harsh chemical in the vegetables. The use of pesticides in food production becoming one of the biggest threat to health, mankind and nature. My mother has been diagnosed with PD in 2007, she has been treated with many Allopathy, Homeopathic, Ayurveda, and Acupressure systems. but none of these practice/medicines has freed her from PD. Now she is doing yoga, meditation, drinking wheat grass juice in the morning, and also started using stationary bike. I read some time ago in science magazine that cycling/biking will help in brain cell stimulation and blood circulation to brain which may help patients to recover faster... mother tells she feeling little better... We should encourage more and more people to start gardening, growing their own food also bring awareness about the chemical in food. Encourage (pressurize) commercial growers to producing organic food.

I live in a new construction tract home and upon walk through we noticed that the pendant lights were not centered over island. I was worried that the patching would show when they moved it and debated keeping them slightly off center. I decided that would irritate me more in the long run as having the lights in the incorrect position would be more obvious than a patch. I worried needlessly, they moved them and the patch work is inconspicuous. Even if I stare at the ceiling, I can't really see the patch work. And I'm really picky but had told myself I'd let it go. Plus, this is a tract home and I don't think the builder's subs are nearly as good as the subs that were used for our previous home remodel. I agree with the other comments, if it is determined to be the electrician's fault, then I'd ask him to re-do the work, but if you add a ceiling fan on, that's on your dime. Where was your GC during this discussion? Does the electrician work for him? Assuming the electrician works for the GC, then you probably should be having this discussion with the GC and not the electrician, at least that's how I've handled these types of situations in the past. Regardless, if both you and your electrician were looking at the plans and decided to change the position of the lights from the designer's plan, it seems to me that you both are equally responsible. Both of you should have noticed the depth of the cabinets before changing the lighting plan. The electrician's failure to notice is no different than your failure to notice, at least in my opinion. When you agreed to change the light position, then that responsibility becomes yours. That said, the cost of changing the recessed lighting, regardless of who pays for the change, is the tiniest fraction of the entire remodel cost. I've always assumed at least 10% overage because of changes and this certainly falls into that area. Actually, I assume more than 10% because I tend to upgrade selections and make more changes than the average person, but I know that about myself and can live with the consequences. I've been using the same contractor for years and we get along well, so I guess he can live with that as well. We also communicate frequently and neither of us is quick to "blame" the other person, we try to figure out an appropriate path forward when we need to change something already done. Good luck, remodeling is frustrating and this is the hardest time in the process. There is always a punch list after construction, that is expected and totally normal. This board is a great sounding board for those questions. The window sounds challenging. Once the countertop is in, would you be able to replace the window if necessary without removing the countertop?