Not to make a stink about it, but it’s not just any old stink bug. It’s a southern green stink bug (the color is a good tip here), and it’s found worldwide - but maybe not as far north as Vancouver Island.

Hi Bill,
I’ve got a buckeye nut in the box where I keep my other small « trophies » that I’ve collected over the years. I went to high school in Madison, Ohio and there was a buckeye tree on my parent’s property. If I can remember my botany after 55 years, buckeyes are in the genus Aesculapus as are the Eurasian variety that makes conkers. Different species, but closely related.
There are a few wild American chestnuts left in Wisconsin, or there were until very recently. Their exact location is kept secret by the DNR to avoid pillage by the plethora of village idiots that seem to be attracted to endangered species.
Cheers

As you are likely aware, here in Ohio (the buckeye state), horse chestnuts are known as buckeyes... A doctor friend of mine, years ago told me a buckeye is a useless nut... and he graduated from Ohio State U, "the Buckeyes." I know people who like to toss them into a campfire a few at a time and they explode. Real edible American chestnuts are rare since the blight of 100 years ago or so.

I buy ginger root regularly at Kroger. Used in cooking, smoothies for anti inflammatory properties and ginger powder for breakfast drinks.

It constantly amazes us how knowledgeable you are on such a wide variety of subjects.

That is Dodie's take on it also.

First time we have seen it for sale at all.

It is a seriously weird thing with no apparent logic to it. See Keith Klein's explanation just above this message. Truly incomprehensible.

Hi Bill,
Eiswein requires the grapes to be frozen to concentrate the sugars. These are botrytized to the same effect. The bordelais rarely gets frost, so eiswein cannot be produced there like it can be in Alsace or Germany. Both processes give delicious dessert or aperitif wines.
Cheers,
Keith

Hi,
The variety could be sémillon, Sauvignon or mus a-t-elle, and they look good. Nice botrytis spots, should be ready to pick in a few days.

Hi,
They are raised to become sweet wine with high sugar, which is favored by late harvest and the infection of the grapes by Botrytis, the noble rot. Monbazilliac is one such wine. Sauternes is another.

It does look abandoned. Maybe ready for a replant?

Hi,
Beans, sausage, and grease is how Sue defines cassoulet. I like it à la Toulousaine, or with duck.
Cheers,
Keith

Hi,
I don’t get it either. We have trees called marronniers, which are horse chestnuts, the nut of which is also called a marron, but it’s not edible, and trees called châtaigniers, which are true chestnuts and have delicious nuts. One of my favorite spreads on crêpes or a bit of bread is crème de marrons, which is made from chestnuts. One nut or two? I don’t know. True chestnuts have very thorny husks, and horse chestnuts have husks with few thorns, and those are not hard or sharp. Gathering châtaignes in the forest requires gloves, and husking them is sometimes done with a board pierced through with many nails which you strap to your feet and stomp around on the unhusked nuts. Horse chestnuts are used by small boys in England and in my home town of Buffalo, New York, to make conkers. Chestnuts are roasted on open fires or barbecue grills on the street in the late fall and early winter.
But I can’t get a good explanation of why some chestnuts are called marrons for the market, other than the one nut/two nuts per husk mentioned.
Cheers,
Keith

I noticed the French write Roxanne with one "n", but even here autocorrect will just not allow it!