Hayward here (though now we're retired we spend a lot of time in Baja - no veggies there - just cactus!) First year garden at this location. I was late getting started because I had to till, bring in soil amendments, till, bring in sand and till some more - still not totally happy with the soil, but ran out of patience. First seedlings didn't get planted out until May 10th - but I ate my first squash yesterday (had to borrow a male flower from my neighbor to pollinate it)and will have bush beans and beet tops within a week. Tomatoes (17 varieties, 22 plants)are full of blossoms and seem to be setting fruit, as are the various cukes, peppers and eggplants. Snap peas are flowering, as are the potatoes (will pinch them off tomorrow), green onions are over a foot tall and Elephant garlic is similar. Have various lettuces growing in a Flowerhouse Seedhouse, along with some Chinese Cabbage. Multiple melons, mostly musk type, went in the ground today. Gonna try to train the little devils to climb - the cukes caught on quite quickly. Winter squash (Dumpling, Delicata, Spaghetti & Butternut) goes in tomorrow. So far the only 'dud' was the English Peas, they went in right before the 3 day heatwave last month and got crisped - got about 3 peas off each vine and they never got above 6 inches tall. Of course, since then we have had no heat at all and cold winds every day (which is why the melons only just graduated from the Seedhouse). From here on, it's just a daily battle between me and the multitude of bugs that want to beat me to the harvest and I am determined they will not win!

Apologize for the length, but what the heck: Bumblebeez, I have to say it's one of those individual decisions, speaking as someone who lives a little over an hour away from Napa and visits just for the restaurants. I've never made it to FL, but a foodie friend I trust made it in on a last-minute cancellation (yes, sometimes those impromptu calls really do work) and he loved it, said it was the best dinner he'd ever had. OTOH, as someone once commented to NYTimes critic Pete Wells (she is in the industry, eats at these very top-level restaurants without having to pay for it), you are paying for two things: the very freshest ingredients and exquisite precision of execution; e.g., the cutting and placement of food. She pointed out it does not actually taste any better; it is simply beautiful and consistent with no flaws, plate after plate. You need never worry that somebody else's caviar with oyster foam is a little bigger or less salty than yours; the food will be the same no matter who is receiving it that night. Now...that kind of experience may well be worth it, just as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Nothing wrong with that - every gourmet/foodie has their own memories that they hold dear! I can only say I've given up trying for FL. It just isn't worth it to us. We've eaten great food in Northern CA for 45 yrs, and would rather spread my $$$ around elsewhere at restaurants we can get into, that also have truly remarkable food. We're retired and can spend as much time and $$$$ as we want up there. That said, your friend might try for Meadowood. Chris Kostow is not the household name that Thomas Keller is, but unlike Keller, Kostow remains the ExecChef, hands-on, at Meadowood, which holds the same # of Michelin stars that FL does. Talk amongst local foodies is that FL is still very good but Meadowood is better and more exciting. If it was my $2K, this is what I'd spend it on (but I could do it because we don't drink, which saves a lot of money!). Opinions are STRICTLY MINE, ymmv: - Auberge du Soleil - Upscale resort with glorious food and an even more glorious view IF, and only if, you can snag one of the four tables on the outdoor patio. Sitting there overlooking the Napa Valley, eating a lobster and veal sandwich on brioche and finishing with an after-meal French brandy, is one of our favorite memories. It's the only restaurant in the Napa Valley with a high-hill valley view. Worth every extra penny it’ll cost. - Ca'Momi @Oxbow Market - Brilliant authentic Italian cuisine in a noisy, uncomfortable market hall. Try to get a patio table because the tables inside are small and smashed together. Bring a cooler and ice for those luscious pastries! - Etoile @Domaine Chandon - Stunning. Wonderful. Worthy of LVMH's Dom Perignon (they own all three brands, and more). If I had to pick only one dinner in the Napa Valley, Etoile is where I'm going. Perry Hoffman is a genius, with the masterfully understated touch that only terrific talent and classic training (French, of course) can produce. Try the Chandon brandy, 24 yrs old and only available for sale at the winery - phenomenal stuff. - Solbar @Solange Resort: A Relais & Chateaux property, and worthy of its siblings. Too many people miss this phenomenal restaurant in Calistoga. The service is excellent and the food is exquisite. The heartier side of the spa menu is surprisingly carnivorous as well as generous. But don't miss the spa dishes; they aren't your usual rabbit food. A chicken pasta soup from the spa side was downright stunning; a rich dark brown from roasted bones, full of juicy shredded chicken breast and mini-farfalle. I drag my DH all over to eat and he said this was hands-down the most amazing soup he'd ever had, simple yet utterly perfect. After that splurge you need something cheaper. Cheese and pate and good bread for a picnic: - Bouchon Bakery- Croissants a little saltier than Parker-Lusseau in Monterey, but crisp and lovely. Chocolate budino dessert cakes are a winner. Baguettes are extremely neutral in flavor, excellent for a cheese tasting. Note they get very crowded at lunchtime and sell out by 2p. - Dean & Deluca Delicatessen/Specialty Grocery - The goose mousse pate is worth selling your soul, or more probably all your arteries, for. Come with ice packs and your cooler, and stock up! - La Foret Chocolatier - Opened by the former pastry chef at the French Laundry, she makes fairly salty chocolates (and still supplies FL for their chocolates). But we did like the white chocolate macadamia ginger bar, which surprised us since we don't like white chocolate or ginger. Hidden in a very obscure, tiny residential strip mall outside downtown Napa. Look for Browns Valley Market which fronts the mall, and BVM also carries Bouchon baguettes (but skip BVM's deli offerings, Dean & Deluca are better). And yeah, I'd make time to visit the Castello di Amoroso, Sattui's own personal folly. I'm a sucker for brick buildings, and a series of wine cellars with double-vaulted brick arched ceilings? There are only 7 brickmasons in the world who know how to do that kind of artisan work any longer, and Sattui had three of them working on it. Their wines aren't top tier, but they offer a cabernet and chocolate tasting that is a lot of fun. Loved the tour and recommended it to my role-playing Renaissance Fair friends! It's hard to get bad food in the Valley but it's possible. I'm not a lover of over-the-top, "throw in the kitchen sink" cooking that many young chefs do. And we avoid Napa in summer, when service is more amateur (the summer temps are hired in May) and everybody is crushed under busloads of visitors. Good for more casual meals: - Angele, Napa - Bistro Jeanty, Yountville - Lucy @Bardessono Resort, Yountville - Market Restaurant , Yountville - Redd, Yountville Avoid: - Bottega, Yountville (gone downhill) - Bouchon Restaurant, Yountville (go to sibling Ad Hoc instead, casual American food) - Brix, Napa (new chef just started) - Don Giovanni, Napa (tired oldie) - The Grill @Meadowood - Note this is NOT the upscale FL competitor, Meadowood Restaurant, which is sited upstairs above the Grill. Too expensive for a casual place. - La Toque, Napa. Erratic. - Mustards, Napa. Sloppy oversized plates - Oenotri, Napa. Same as Mustards but Italian - Siena, Napa. Corporate blandness Anyway, no matter what your friend does, I'm sure she'll have a great time. Just don't schedule too much in one day -- common first-timer error. Distances are long, traffic is messy in summer, heat is tiring. And remember, bring a jacket for cool evenings! 64 degrees may sound great but when at 3p it was 103, it'll feel surprisingly cold. Here is a link that might be useful: Sattui's Castello in Napa Valley This post was edited by jkom51 on Tue, Jun 10, 14 at 11:29

Francesco,Not as long as we don't fall below 32f or 0C. We did about 3 years ago,and I put a plastic sheet over it and a spotlight under it for night warming. This year we were at 32f for a morning low,and I never covered it at all. Some top leaves were singed. No damage to growing tips. After the first two winters,Mangoes hardiness goes way up. Even with record rains this winter it did fine. Pwr. The Fremont Mango is on Bruce Street. If people use Google streets then they can see that tree was only a 3' stick- not a single side branch in 2011. By 2016,it had market sized fruit and was walkunderable! Its getting all day sun,and not a single other plant is near it to offer root competition. Still,that's very fast growth. Maybe they used lawn fertilizers? I'm watering and always fertilizing mine at about the same age. It has a long ways to go to be a small tree.

I'm encouraged by all of your responses and agree that the photo doesn't look like Carrara but more like quartzite and specifically Super White, which we do not like at all. I don't know if I feel better or worse after reading these comments, except that if Joseph is telling me to "buy now" then by God, I better listen. :) I took this photo with my iPhone which automatically darkened it and the overhead lighting was covered; it was also directly across from a giant slab of black granite so I believe all these things contributed to making it appear much darker. Here's the photo of it that the distributer had taken for me. More like Carrara? They look completely different in these two photos, so different that I had the guy at the warehouse show me the slab twice. In person it appeared much more like marble, albeit a grayer piece. Has anyone else experienced grayer and darker Carrara lately? We've been told that the whiter slabs of Carrara are in such high demand that the Italians are demanding almost unreasonable prices, and in the seemingly super "practical" Midwest, maybe there's less of a market for it. Granite is still big here, though I think granite is starting to look a big dated. When we lived in Nashville we were told by our designer that they are hardly doing granite anymore except occasionally as builder grade in less expensive new construction. More quartz, less granite. Marble still is considered very high maintenance. We did use a honed Raven (also referred to as American Black) granite on our perimeter to mimic soapstone, just for purposes of practicality. It's beautiful with soft white "veining" and we love it. We would have gone for Danby for the center island and tried, but it's hard to come by here in the Midwest, and is often pretty beat up by the time it arrives. Not exactly sure why. The stuff is gorgeous but it seems like no one takes care of it in transit to us. It's very hard to get marble here and then you have to insist that you're educated on it and know what you're getting into. I understand completely but there's also a frustrating lack of understanding on the other end that some people value aesthetics and a certain look just as much as they want practicality. And are willing to deal with the upkeep to have it.