I definitely need some calcium chloride for the next round of pickles. These are from 06 so it's not too surprising that they're mushy! I cut my 2008 bread and butter pickles into thicker slices and ended up with a texture more to my liking. So far I've pureed one jar of them and mixed with catsup and some additional spices to make sloppy joes. They were okay but a *little* on the "weird" side. My younger son said, "Hey, what's this whitish-greenish seed looking thing??" (I think it was a mustard seed!) and my elder son said, "I don't know, but I smell pickles!" LOL! Thanks for all the suggestions for ways to use these. The peas, pickles, and cheese salad sounds kind of, how shall I say....yucky! :-D I appreciate the idea, however, and just might find myself intrigued enough to try it some day! I don't really do macaroni salad, but potato salad is a thought, as are the deviled eggs. I have chopped up sweet pickles and put them into tuna salad in the past, so that could be another option. I've never eaten sweet pickles on a green salad--could be interesting! The tip about pickling the beets with the leftover brine sounds good, since I also have a couple pints of home canned beets lurking in the closet!

I'd assume it to be due to as simple an explanation as root development - boxed/containered maples just do not have the ability for similar root development and expansion as do those that are field grown and therefore would be expected to have dwarfed/slowed growth, both in size of plant as well as foliage. Once planted in the ground and established, the boxed maples should assume a more typical growth pattern. And yes, 'Osakazuki' can be expected to develop a very good fall color in part shade. And so one does not offend anyone's sensibilities, if you do not write out 'Japanese', please just use the initial 'J' as opposed to any other abbreviation for that term.

Greengrass, I answered you on the tree forum, but, I will tell you here why they are so special. They are a hybrid of Live oak Quercus Virginia and Quercus Lyrata known as Overcup oak. Your area has some Live oaks, which are at their northern limit. Any colder and the Live oaks can't take the winter temps, the Overcup oaks are hardier, and likely are key to make the Hybrid Compton's oak hardy to zone 5. You are likely zone 7 or 8 in Williamsburg, or close to it. I am getting my Compton's oak seedlings from Mossy Oak natives nursery this coming week. But I will pay for a few extra Acorns, anyways. I believe Hairmetal from the tree forum is interested also. They are similar to the Live oak, but have some traits of the Overcup oak. The thing that hooked me is the fact that they get huge like the Live oak. I may be dead before mine get that big though. But, One of my previously planted Compton's has a nice shape, with horizontal branches, like live oak. Greengrass, I am not sure I could post a link to a pic of the tree, but, just type in your search engine, Google or Yahoo etc. Williamsburg, Va Compton's oak. Well, it will just show a pic of the tree which you could just drive to and stand under it in all it's glory, unaware of how lucky you are to live near it....... Sorry, I got lost for a minute. But, seriously, it is special to those of us in zones colder than 7/8 Williamsburg, va, because we can't grow the Live oak here, and the Compton's oak is a hybrid of Live and Overcup oak, which frequently has many traits of the Live oak, and we can grow it in as cold as zone 5. But, I would'nt think it is worth a fortune, the Mossy oak natives nursery in Mississippi ( I THINK) or Alabama, maybe even Louisiana, somewhere down there, are selling seedlings for approx $9-$10 a seedling. But on ebay you may make some bucks on seedlings or seeds. Well, I will take about 6 acorns if you are still sharing them. But, Let me know your terms, as I mentioned on the tree forum. Hairmetal is in zone 7, I believe, but he has mentioned, (or someone else living in his area) maybe NJOASIS, had mentioned snow load is a problem, not cold temps. So the Compton oak being deciduous sometimes may be good for hairmetal, I am guessing at all this, hair will tell you if he is interested, etc.

I know that more than likely the trees have already dropped their acorns a week or 2 ago, But,m I am hoping someone has got a couple extra acorns from the Compton';s oak in Williamsburg, Va. My source (Mossy oak natives) is out of stock. I just may not be able to get any until my tree from Mossy oak natives bears it's own acorns, likely in a couple or few years. But, if anyone has gotten any acorns from the Compton's oak, I may be interested.