I missed the original post but don't want to hurt Ward's sensitive ears with my silence :) In our fridge is a barely-eaten-from 25# box of halawa dates. (Dates were a staple in our early raw days in Milw, but now we don't seem to eat many, and I probably made a mistake buying the case in early Aug--last year's date at 1.76/lb.) There are salad veggies (celery, iceburg, romaine, two red peppers). There are a couple lbs red grapes ('red crunchies' we call them). There is some dried buffalo jerky (some of which I have promised to send Ward--it's coming!), some dried Coleman beef (both from Denver when we were visiting my sister). There are a (two or three less than a) dozen each of three diferent 'brands' of organic chicken eggs. There is most of a rotting 355mg bottle of Dale Alexander's cod liver oil which I should probably toss out. There are two 2-liter Evian bottles of reverse osmosis water from our tap (we can always pretend!). And there is some soda/beer for guests. In the freezer is some ice trays and a half dozen frozen bananas which we run thru the Champion for guests. In a hanging basket are some grapes on their way to raisonhood, a half lb of mushrooms starting to crinkle dry (we never refridgerate mushrooms in plastic which makes them, and fish and meat, rot). In a hanging air dryer there are a few dozen mission figs from a yard tree, and several dried mackeral roe sacks. There is a basket of valencia oranges, four Reed avocados, and a slowly ripening case of Hayicha persimmons scattered around the kitchen. There is a small bottle of EV olive oil, a half bottle of Chorella, a kilo or so of karenga (a New Zealand seaweed which is even better than dulse) and the dulse left from a five lb order from Maine Coast Sea Veggies. Oh there are less than a pound each of pine nuts, "raw" pistachios, and walnuts in the cupboard. And hanging from hooks on the garage in citrus bags are several pounds of cassia and most of a twenty-five lb bulk of raw peanuts we bought a couple weeks ago. And on a shelf in the garage is about 60 lbs of self-extracted jarred Wisconsin honey which we did about 7 years ago, and lost our general appetite for honey about six years ago. Cest la vie, or however you spell that... And, finally, on sprawling vines in our garden are cherry tomatoes and beefsteak tomatoes which where tended by our renters before we moved in in August. A single cherimoya on one of four trees planted in 1992, and more white figs than we can eat (they don't dry well) on a goofy looking fig tree. A half dozen Gwen avocados on one of a half dozen avocado trees planted in 92 as well. And finally finally, we have our Can o Worms vermicompost, which I have only recently considered a possible food source. Not to worry all, I have not yet tasted the little fellas, but do admit that compared to tracking down edible meat or trying to pay for seafood these days, the idea of self tending worms eating our fruit/vegie scraps and then us eating them in place of meat/seafood is gaining attraction in the backburner of my mind. We'll see... Probably 50-80% of our produce is organic or at least unsprayed. We eat seafood weekly-ish though there is none here now. Of course the whole lot almost got cooked from the brush fires which came within a few blocks of our house Monday night. By the way, as we were packing what we could into our Geo Prism at 3:00am I'll admit that Melisa packed about 20 persimmons were in there along with our computer and files and that other stuff that doesn't matter as much as totally beautiful ripening persimmons! T%o which I replied, "What about the rest of em?" She shrugged her shoulders. I conceded. Well it was all for nothing (we didn't burn up) and several persimmons were squashed in the process. So, I guess that little story is proof that we are addicted to fruit, Ward. Not only do we look forward to those persimmons, but we save them from a (potentially) burning house! Cheers, Kirt