Of My "late drop" Live oaks. 3 had last winter as their 2nd winter in my yard zone 6 SW Pa. One came back from the roots One plain out died. And one is in purgatory. Just joking. It isn't dead but it isn't actively living/growing. It's a zombie tree, I guess. In the middle pic it has green under the bark, but you can barely see it. I believe it will make it, but it will be after a chunk of the season is past before leafout. If anyone doubts the green under the bark I will try to get a picture with a flashlight shining on it. The top pic is the one that came back from the roots. There are red/pink buds on the one with my hands on the twig showing the bark. I just don't know how long until it starts showing some life beyond some tiny buds and green bark. But if they come to life soon, I will be glad I tried and succeeded with them, thus far. Not knowing how late leaf out and growth will affect them long term. Before finding the patch of green underbark, I was ready to think maybe the pink things weren't buds and it was dead. I sat and looked at this tree for a while trying to decide if it was dead or alive. I had a magnifying glass, too. The top couple limbs sticking up had the most red/pink buds, 3 clustered at the end. But not as many lower down. Usually the tips die before the lower portions. Well, as long as the green trunk is green it is alive, and has lived through last winter, it is going to leaf out somewhere, from the top, bottom or middle. All I can do is wait.

What make a tomatoe to qualify for the adjective PASTE? Isn't that it has less juice and more meat ? If you are growing them for commercial purposes (to make paste and sell) then it make sense, like HEINZ company goes into a great extent and develops a tomato just for that purpose, regardless of taste, color... But as a home gardener, we want a tomato that is flavorful and requires less efforts and energy to reduce it. For that, there are ways. For example cut the tomato into halves and squees the juice(and seeds) out and then boil it. But I have found a better and more energy efficient way: After regular preparation, bring the batch to boil so that the tomato chunks soften and break apart. With a hand held blender, blend it real well and then strain it through a fine meshed steel straner and get the seeds and pupl out. Now here comes the trick: You have a bag made of a tightly woven strong cotten fabric. Pour the must into the bag, either hang it or rest it in a strainer. Depending on how thick you want your paste, let the juic/water sip out. This way you dont need to boil it for hours and waste energy.

"Those Romeos are beautiful, but how do they taste? Are they anywhere close to Opalka? " [Tom] The Romeo tomatoes taste good. Not great. They are definitely a paste tomato, and have very very little gel. So, they don't have the acid tang I like in a slicing tomato. But they do develop more flavor as the seaon progresses. They have a way better taste than your typical Roma tomato ... including Heidi and such, which I consider Roma types anyway. Heck no, they don't taste anywhere near as good as Opalka. No way possible! Opalka is special. Romeo tastes more along the lines of Polish Linguisa of which they remind me except that Romeo is a bit larger and has much denser flesh and less gel than Polish Linguisa. I haven't grown that many heart or oxheart shapes yet. Let's see ... Golden Oxheart, Orange Oxheart, Spudayellow Strawberry and Amish Paste is about the extent of my "heart shaped" tomato experience. No, I don't consider Amish Paste to be a paste tomato. No way. And with regard to heart shapes I've grown, yes they taste better than your average paste tomato, but they don't come close to being as dense fleshed and low gel as Romeo. BTW, I rather consider Opalka a "saladette" as that's the way I use it. It's too darned tasty and tender and wonderful to be tossing into a sauce kettle. But I intend to cross Opalka with Romeo next summer to improve Romeo's eating quality (I hope). Last year I had trouble crossing Opalka due to it's very slender and tender stamens. So, I'll be going the other way with Romeo as the seed parent in 2008. Bill

Thanks! We got his name from a good friend of my husband's, and he's currently building their cabinets (to be installed in a few weeks, and identical to what we would be getting so that will probably be the best test---but want to get moving before then if possible...) So that helps, since we have a good sense of how he's been to work with during the job for them. Seems super responsive so far---but then, he hasn't gotten our job yet. (He does at least get bonus points for calling me back immediately, setting up an appointment for two days later, showing up early, and sending the bid two days after that---wish I could say the same of all the contractors we're trying to work with...*grr*) I believe we will be going on our own to the other owners' homes (from what it sounds like?) so hoping to get some candid opinions from them. A few months ago I'd have said "but of course he'd only give us good references"...but after calling a few refs supplied by one general contractor we talked with and getting scathing reviews from them, ya never know! The cabinet longevity is a good point. I'll ask how long those two kitchens have been in, and if there's an older one I can see too. He's been building locally for ten years so hopefully he'll have some. Also a great tip on calling the lumber yard! And this is a little unrelated, but was one potential issue (though he disclosed it upfront)---he says his company is licensed to build cabinets but not to install them, but he would still prefer to install them himself if we are comfortable with that. His liability insurance covers him while he's in our home (which was my primary concern). I'm confused on how that would work (insurance for installation but no license?), but would ideally like him to install them if he's building them, since then if anything goes wrong there's no issue over when/with whom the problem occurred. Not really sure what to make of it---what are the implications in that case? The other bids we have don't include installation to begin with, so I don't have much to compare it to in terms of how that typically works. Any ideas on that?