I concur here, my Lodge dutch oven purchased at Target chipped after four gentle uses only using wood utensils. I sent email to the company, got one response then silence after I sent a picture of the chip. Oh well, it's now my steam pan for when I bake bread.

The Water Works in Philly makes the best grilled octopus, totally love it! I found a video of the chef from there giving very detailed steps on how they do it, check it out:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/156390/the-...

A little late with this post but had to share. My absolute favorite octopus dish is from the Water Works in Philly. I just found the entire technique from the Water Works chef on how they make it.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/156390/the-...

Huge advocate of worm composting. Either burying a pipe in the garden or starting a worm bin is a great option. My bin cranks, I must get 10 pounds of worm castings a month at this point. A little messy but worth it, the best practical fertilizer you can use.

I'm late on this post but because I have similar soil challenges I would strongly recommend finding some topsoil and filling your beds up to the rim with good soil. The Square Foot Gardening guy is a huge proponent of soil amendment, I took my queue from him. I built raised beds and just put screened topsoil amended with some peat moss. Everything's going gangbusters this year, just have to remember to fertilize with either leaf mulch or some sort of organic fertlizer.

My original post for worst was going to be Mickey Finn's butterscotch and vanilla liqueur. Totally gross, my wife bought it to make apple-tinis for her church friends.

Best bottle of hooch was a bottle of Hendrick's Gin. I hate gin, it's normally so nasty but this premium stuff was a real eye opener. A Negroni made with Hendricks is my new favorite Summer drink.

The worst was Goldschlager. Blech.

I've been to the Olde Absinthe House in teh French Quarter, that place rocks. Very strong stuff.

I use a book called The Bountiful Container which is the absolute greatest resource for this subject. It has chapters on how to grow every sort of vegetable and fruits you can name.

Spacing is the same as it lists on the package. You can figure out how many to get in the pot using some simple math.

Depth is more important. I checked out the chapters for some of the vegetables you mentioned:

Beans - 6 inch depth, 4 per square foot, trellis is recommended even for bush varieties
Cucumbers - at least 10 inches depth, 2 per square foot, need a heavy trellis system
Eggplant - at least 10 inches depth, 1 per pot
Peppers - 8 inches deep, 1 per pot

I checked the book and they didn't have anything on turnips specifically. You can normally pack Turnips pretty close, square foot gardening spacing puts them at 9 per square foot.

Also, make sure you use quality composted potting soil. When I started I used dirt from the backyard and it was too compacted to allow roots to develop.

I'm a big fan of Seed Savers : www.seedsavers.org. I also like Reimer Seeds a lot : http://www.reimerseeds.com/

I love my herb garden. I moved two years ago and the biggest annoyance to me was leaving behind my nice established herbs for the morons who bought my house.

Last year I established my perrenials: the parsley, rosemary, thyme, sage, and oregano. They all made it through the winter swimingly. This year I planted french tarragon and lemon thyme, also going to add another variety of oregano.

As for annuals, planting basil, marjoram, chervil (if I can find the damn seeds anywhere), summer savory, dill and lavender. I plant lavender every year and every year it just sits in the garden taking up space, I don't know why I keep growing it.

I'm also trying out the Topsy Turvy this year, growing cherry tomatoes. My neighbor had one and it kicked ass, can't wait to try it.

A hundred agreements on this one. We were just there this past Saturday and was crazy good as usual. And it's BYOB, my favorite part. If you go, call and make a reservation at least a week ahead, it's small and gets very crowded.

Be warned with Kitchen Kettle Village, they're not open on Sundays. Found that out the hard way.

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Kitchen Kettle Village
RR 340, Intercourse, PA 17534

I went out hunting this past weekend with no luck. I just moved here two years ago and haven't explored the area fully yet. I did find a tremendous amount of wild blueberries though, gonna keep an eye on those and hopefully beat the deer to them.

I have definitely gone overboard with the seed starting and planting. I'm going to have enough produce to supply a road stand at this rate. I live just outside of Philadelphia in New Jersey, land of the clay soil. Need to add a fair amount of compost to everything except blueberries which seem to like this soil as is.

I scavenged a few deep covered aluminum roaster trays with covers, those make great greenhouses, and they're super cheap at Wal Mart. I made a boat load of newspaper pots to hold the dirt, also from scavenged source. I didn't use a heat mat, instead I rested the pans on top of my cable DVR unit because it kicks out some serious heat. That worked great, highly recommended.

After germination I moved the plants to a sunny window, now they're under a flourescent grow light for about 8 hours at a time.. Everything is cranking, can't wait to get them in the ground. I think another week and they can go out.

Here's what I've started so far from seed sown indoors:

six varieties of tomatoes - beefsteak, roma, tommy toe, campbell's 1327, cherry, Rutgers
five varieties of pepper - marconi, yolo wonder, cayenne, Nardello, habanero,
Eggplant, Zucchini, Gherkins Cucumbers, and Roma Artichokes. Everyone is amazed that you can grow artichokes here but they're good for my zone so it should be a fun experiment.

I planted a bunch of cold hardy stuff outside: Broccoli, Cauliflower, Red Cabbage, Peas, Swiss Chard, Beets, Carrots, Parsnips, French Radishes and Spinach. They're all doing exceptionally well, the Spinach can start being harvested in another week and a half I think. Next weekend the beans get planted, a nice thin gourmet variety from France.

I also planted a bunch of onions and garlic last Fall, that stuff has just been idling along though a pretty nasty Winter. Curious to see how those turn out, never tried growing them this way before.

I worked at Fox Chase Cancer Center for years, and I would always work a trip to the Austrian Village. That's one of two places I miss since moving on (the other is Nick's Roast Beef on Cottman) The place is amazingly authentic, I always wonder how they do it. It might be a little on the edge of the North East, but certainly easier than driving downtown.

http://www.austrianvillage.com/Locati...

second that one, one of my favorites

The Mt Laurel Wegmans is hands down the best one I've ever visited. We shop there every week.

I visit every month or so and I look forward to at least one meal at Easy Bistro every time. The freshest ingredients, the most careful and honest preperation. They have a great relationship with area farmers so they always have new stuff popping up as it's in season. Oysters flown in every day too, if you like the raw bar scene.

http://easybistro.com‎

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Easy Bistro
203 Broad St, Chattanooga, TN 37402

I've struggled with this also. I bought several pumpkins on sale since most people go straight for the canned these days, so I've gotten a good system down.

I've found the peeler is near useless. You have to go over the skin numerous times to get past the pithy part and to the pure orange flesh and you have the deep grooves to deal with.

First I open it like for a jack-o-lantern and dig out the majority of the seeds for roasting. Then I cut the pumpkin into wedges, like pie slices, following the natural vertical grooves. That gives you a good flat surface to work with, because they're so slippery. Then I cut the wedge in half width-wise. Then I cut them into strips again following the natural grooves. Then I lay the strip on a cutting board, take a sharp pairing knife and run it along the skin and clean up the seed side too. This leaves pure clean flesh and it goes faster than the description makes out. Once you get the hang of it you can fly, and this method is a lot cleaner since those peelers always make a mess.

Pictures would help but I've already done up several pumpkins. I'll keep an eye out for more sales after Halloween and maybe document it better.

Grilled octopus at Water Works
All of the ceviches at Alma de Cuba
Tomato Soup at the Pyramid Club

And of course Pat's and Genos. The best time was when me and my buddy from St Louis went to a Yankees game the night before. Next to last game before they tear the place down. We partied until about 2:30am, then caught the early train down to Philly. My buddy was a wreck, never seen someone so hung over. But he had to have a cheesesteak since it was his first time in town. What a miserable experience, all that grease at 9:30 in the morning was a challenge. Ate one steak from each, I still prefer Geno's.

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Alma De Cuba
1623 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

Water Works Restaurant
1 Boathouse Row, Philadelphia, PA 19130

My Buddy's
210 Pillow St, Butler, PA 16001

Seconds on Alma de Cuba, I've had many an outstanding meal there. Also have been to XIX a few times, also very very good. It's an amazing place at the top of the Hyatt.

The Water Works, this old neo-classical relic just below the Art Musem on the river. I think it's a must do, though some people have had hit or miss experiences there. I've been there 5 or 6 times and it's always been great.

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Alma De Cuba
1623 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

Water Works Restaurant
1 Boathouse Row, Philadelphia, PA 19130