I had incredible yields of Khing Yai - there's still some in the ground so I haven't counted it all yet, but looks like at least 10:1. Yellow Hawaiian was only 3:1, Bubba Blue was 4:1. Big Kahuna was a flop, 1:1. It rotted in the trays and didn't sprout. I can't sell frozen ginger without having an approved kitchen. I've candied a lot of ginger and started making ginger chews and hard candy. Both of these freeze well, make nice gifts and are good for cold and flu season. I get about a cup of juice from a pound of ginger. I puree it in a food processor and strain with a sieve. I use 1.5 cups white sugar, 3/4 cup corn syrup and 1 cup of ginger juice. I use a candy thermometer and heat it to 250 degrees for the chews, 300 degrees for hard candy. Makes a very spicy candy. I managed to find a grocery store to sell some of my ginger to. I got $10/lb, and they sold it at $15/lb in the store. The could only sell around 10 lbs a week tho. I can easily sell that much at even a moderately busy farmers' market, and was surprised they couldn't move it more quickly. The "baby" part of it doesn't seem to be as important as local and organic. I cut back on the amount of ginger I'm growing next year, but am growing more turmeric. I've talked to a few produce buyers who are very interested in turmeric, even if they don't want ginger. I think I'm going to lower my prices next year, maybe $8/lb wholesale for ginger and $10-$12/lb at the farmers' market. Maybe higher for turmeric, depending on my yields. I made a mistake in not covering my ginger inside my high tunnel when it got into the 20's. The stems and leaves froze, but it took a few weeks for them to completely die off. It's been about a month now and the ginger that's still in the ground looks great. Some of my ginger had developed a skin, but I think those plants had dried out; it doesn't seem to be from freezing.

Becky I ordered from them when I first started swapping, you have to be careful of the amount of seeds you get in the packages. I found that almost all the packs were opened a bit on the side at the very bottom and seeds were falling out. Other than that their seeds are of good quality and nicely priced. :) I went to Target yesterday, they have a great clearance rack full of gardening stuff. Unfortunately I didn't see anything that I could/would use or needed. :( I found their seeds too! They had Burpee Fordhook line, and the Sean Conway seeds. I noticed that the selection of Burpee seeds were completely different than the Burpee seeds I have found at Walmart and Lowes. :D YAY! I had the twins with me and they were not letting me look too much, so I only got a few packs, gonna check out a few more places this weekend and see what I can find.

Aloha all, my surgery went very well, so TY very much if you prayed for me. :) The surgical staff were only expecting one problem and they found 2. They did a great job, everything considered. I am still healing up and sore in spots, but despite this I already feel tons better than I did before I had the operation. :) I'm very grateful my health is turning around. About water chestnuts- I don't have a water garden (or water chestnuts) right now but I used to grow them when I lived in Calif. Some large cities such as San Francisco, CA and Houston, TX have a Chinatown. In Chinatown there are Asian veggie markets that sell fresh, unpeeled water chestnuts when they are in season. If you put an unpeeled fresh water chestnut in a water garden it can grow and multiply. Also, water chestnut is sold by a website that specializes in water plants. If you want the specific info please email me, so I can avoid spamming everyone with a merchant URL.

OMG I had a post all typed out and this thing ATE IT!!!! Man, I wish I hadn't missed the Mini Roses Cindy! I didn't have the Cleopatra, I have Orange, 1 Bengal Tiger Baby, small mini red Cannas. Please do list a wish/wants list Cindy so if there is anything we have we can offer you then we will ;). New Request from Cindy: Zebra Grass I am looking for ANY grasses I plan on putting in a grass bed at the top of our driveway so we don't have to mow up there anymore :) I put in some rocks with the house number all ready and our neighbor gave us and ornamental solar light decoration to go up there!!! Tammy you asked me how the spiderwort looked lining the drive, there wasn't as much left over after the swap as I thought there would be. I DO have some I got from my mom and a friend though, not sure if it will cover the lenght of the drive or not. And I haven't really decided if I want that or that red mini grass I forgot what it is called at the moment... OK posting thread #3 now too. :) Fran