Sugar Daddy is the one hosta I turfed soon after buying it. It suffers from drawstring and shows the effects almost immediately after planting. The colours are delicious, but it does make an ugly mess in the garden. Even its breeder, Mark Zilis, says in the Hostepedia that "it makes an unsightly mound appearance." May I suggest you save your money. I do have and love Sharp Dressed Man, though it is a slow grower so far. But I wished I never spent my money or wasted valuable hosta space on Sugar Daddy.

When you do long-term home food storage you learn both white and brown sugar actually have an indefinite storage time, when properly stored. I like to make my own brown sugar because you can decide how much molasses and what kind of molasses you'd like to use, as well as what kind of sugar you'd like to use. I prefer that deep rich Plantation Blackstrap Molasses. Freshly-made brown sugar is more aromatic in baked goods. You'll soon think commercial brown sugar has a stale taste, in comparison. You can mix the sugar and molasses together with a whisk or even using an electric hand-held mixer, as well as a food processor. I like the hand-held mixer for the task. You can "fix" hardened brown sugar by placing it in a 225-degree F oven for 10 minutes. -Grainlady

Monica- Thanks for posting these! I'm starting to collect sugar-free recipes due to a family member's health, and would appreciate any tasty recipes that anyone would like to give me. Can't wait to try these!

"people in power haven't tried to keep cures for diseases from getting out in the open you are truly naïve" Seriously? Are you a conspiracy person? Who are these people in power conspiring to keep people ill? -- "You don't think it's odd that all this money has been raised to find all these cures but none have been found?" That's how science works. If people knew where to look, knowledge would be much easier to obtain. You may not appreciate that the fact that nothing is found with a particular investigation doesn't mean nothing will be found, simply that where or how they were investigating wasn't fruitful. Work goes on. -- "Going to doctors but staying sick?" Doctors are in on the conspiracy with people in power too, they want to keep their patients ill intentionally? Yeah? -- "Medicine is all trial and error" Yes, this is true, it's true of much of scientific research in general too. Can you suggest a better approach? Smarter people than you and me and the world of science in general have settled on an approach to expand knowledge. Why do you accept unproven approaches that AREN'T tested or subject to trial and error? Do you think that's smarter or a more valid approach? -- "And all of those trials you speak of have no affect on me because I don't go to the dr." That's your choice. Do you think it's a thoughtful one? Do you have medical insurance and choose not to use it, or do you not have coverage? I've known some people over the years who've scoffed at conventional medicine as you do and turn to alternatives BECAUSE they couldn't afford health insurance. For several, it was a short sighted decision because they needed care and had to scramble to get coverage. I hope you don't have kids whose wellbeing you're risking because of your extreme views. -- "If I get sick I take my natural remedies and feel better in no time. " Sure you do. Just hope you never have anything seriously wrong with you, it will strain your faith beliefs. -- "Just because you don't agree with something it doesn't make it wrong" True. -- "And I'm pretty sure tests have also been run on these other remedies. You'll never hear about them if they actually accomplish something though." Don't be so sure, that's the greatest beef about so-called "alternative medicine". Lack of testing and lack of proof. If something is proven to be effective, the researchers rush to publish papers and everyone knows about it pronto. Ever hear of PubMed? It's an NIH-run online catalog of ALL biomedical research that's published. Should a piece be missed in a periodical, researchers doing catalog references will come upon any findings that are new or different concerning an area of interest they have. There are no secrets. In fact, researchers rush to find areas others haven't investigated because being first is a way to become better known. In the alternative medicine area, it's mostly crickets. Religions are a belief based environment, science is not. Wishing doesn't make it so. -- "Drug companies can't patent natural things. " Sure they can. -- In the absence of proof, a suggestion or a hypothesis is described as lacking proof or being unsupported by evidence. That means it's false/invalid/doesn't exist. It's not the negative, "it hasn't been disproven". That argument is illogical and isn't valid for science. Or medicine. You're very misinformed. Sorry.