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It depends on your body type and your personal genetics. And there is no way, repeat, NO WAY to tell if you have won the genetic lotto or lost it. However, given the huge array of possible causes, it seems highly unlikely that any one food type or one environmental cause is the source. But...

We had our first robin on 18th January. Followed by a whole bunch more. So it's not just one dumb one that tried to overwinter, it was about 10 in a little flock. Making maple syrup now, and getting cool-weather mushrooms, I guess that would be our first signs.

Oh, yeah, 14 of them...I thought you were talking about, you know, a smaller number. If it's only a single-digit number, then it's not so bad, adding about $10/bed isn't horrible. But yeah, for that many, you might as well go ahead and get the cedar. Plus, for fourteen, you should count on...

Yes, oak works fine. We have oak sills on our house, which rest directly on dry-laid rock about 12-18" off the ground. Lasts about 100 - 150 years, unless you somehow get termites. Ask me how I know... Green oak is just uncured, so it will be heavy. You don't need to use kiln-dried lumber if...

Hey, I liked Roger Swain. He was like a walking, talking garden gnome. Always got the impression that he would be happy to come over and help you weed the onions, spread manure, do the real chores. I agree, the new guy is more like, how to tell a landscaping crew what you think might be...

Translation: Community gardens are for the ghetto. Eeeeeeeuuuuuuwwwww. Note to Congresscritter: When choosing a wife for your political career, next time choose one whose momma raised her right.

Huh. I did "cream sausage" tomatoes last year, which are supposed to be sorta yellowy, but The Blight of Doom got them--trying again this year. Are they supposed to taste similar, or is it just the shape?

Venison mushroom lasagne: 1 lb. venison (or ground beef, but that's not as good ;) ) 1 large storage onion, chopped 5 cloves garlic, smashed 4 tbsp. oil or butter 1 pint ricotta (from 3 recipes' worth of hard cheese whey, if you've got homemade) 2 eggs 1 pasta recipe's worth of lasagne noodles...

Purchased, but they were cheap--I think about $5, and they are stainless steel, last forever.

We have two sugar maples, several smaller red maples, and two silver maples. Last year I tapped three big ones (five taps), which was too many to keep up with, so this year I only tapped two (one tap each). Just for family and friends. I don't have enough time to do it as a business. Maybe...

Maple ID Many look very similar. It's really the silver maples that look distinct, they have a beech-like bark. The only difficult bit is calculating how much you can realistically handle, which is determined by how you are boiling. If you have, for example, a way more efficient way to boil...

1. Identify your trees. This is most easily done in the fall. You don't have to use only sugar maples, silver maples and black maples work fine too--the syrup will be a bit darker, but it will taste fine. 2. Measure the trees. Trees are old enough to tap when they are one foot in diameter. To...

It takes a while for them to actually go out of business. Depending on how profitable other departments might be, how well diversified they are, how much capital they have, their credit lines and holdings, whether they are publicly traded or privately owned, they can often continue to stock...

You know where business executive folk learn that hostility? It's from the following "rule": The market is efficient. What that is supposed to mean is that if someone wants to buy an item, any item, for some price, someone will be there to sell it to them as long as raw materials are available...

I agree we waste a lot of energy in a lot of ways. However, for economic reasons, people are already getting rid of the second car, landscaping service, snowblowers, 4 wheelers etc. And I still think you are missing my point--I didn't say that giving up oil was going to be a *voluntary*...

Yeah, 3-5 years is about right. Some varieties earlier, some later. My Calville Blanc and Northern Spy fruited in 2 years, the others in 4-5 years. Or 7 years if you have a very persnickety, annoying Spitzenburg that only fruits according to how many death threats and cusswords you scream at it.

seedcorn, here is what I worry about, the sort of thing that keeps me and DH up at night: You know a LOT of modern ag is dependent on cheap oil. Oil to run the tractors, oil to make the fertilizers, oil to make the pesticide. Lotsa oil. Cheap oil tends to come from insane despots where...

Too early for that here. I won't be purging the larder until, hmm, next month. I did an inventory and found an absurd amount of maple syrup, so I think I will tap only one or two trees this year. We finally ate enough veggies that I can cut up our Boston Marrow squash. That thing is huge, I am...

Hush yer mouth you whippersnapper! :old You can have my TV. Nothin' on it but foolishness, violence and bad news anyhow.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that--I routinely pick off about 1/2 - 2/3 of the fruit when it's little green ping-pong size to let the remaining fruits get bigger. So I don't have that problem. Stonefruit don't really have this problem because they will automatically drop a bunch of green fruits in...