Dave Smith wrote:
> On 14/10/2010 12:42 PM, Nancy Young wrote:
>> Dave Smith wrote:
>
>>> A few years ago my wife bought some Swiss Chard. I had never had it
>>> before, checked out how it was best cooked tried it.... did not like
>>> it at all. I thought it was horrible. Maybe I should have tried to
>>> take it back. ;-)
>>
>> (laugh) I really should have found out if they got a refund.
>
> I doubt it. You can take things back to a store if it is defective.
> You can't take things back to a fruit stand because you didn't like
> it.

It's a family farm stand. All bets are off if they wanted to give the
money back or not.

>>> $5 is a lot to pay for a gourd.
>>
>> It's a decorative thing, all those things are pricey this time of
>> the year. Like some evergreen fronds with a ribbon shouldn't cost so
>> much but
>> in December, they do.
>
> My wife does the Thanksgiving fall decoration thing and uses gourds.
> They are usually no more than $1 each around here.

The little ones cost that here. These are bigger, like a small pumpkin.
Anyway, I'm not complaining about the price, it was okay with me.
Squashes cost less, though, per pound. Here.

>> Speaking of decorations, driving around this morning I was surprised
>> to see many people are going all out with the fall/Halloween displays
>> this year. Maybe Christmas will be brighter, literally ... a couple
>> of years now it's been subdued.
>
> Maybe it depends on where you live. I am in a rural area and a lot of
> people do things with corn stalks, bales of straw and pumpkins.

We have a lot of that here, too, I have pumpkins/mums/Indian corn
myself. This year the displays are more elaborate than in the past,
like they're trying to outdo each other a la Christmas displays.
Looks cute. But the Halloween stuff was more surprising to me
than just the generic fall stuff. Surprising is probably not the right
word, just it's gotten to be more widespread and less old-pillowcase-
ghosts-in-trees than I've seen before.

> I am
> surprised that they actually sell bundles of corn stalks. I just go
> back to my neighbour's corn field and cut a bunch of stalks that the
> cobs have already been removed from.

While we do have corn fields here, they are not in my back yard
and I wouldn't presume to trespass on some farm to take their
stalks, especially if the farmer is selling them.

> I don't know if he used a
> harvester that doesn't damage the stalks or of the deer and raccoons
> got them all, but it's no lose to him.

Obviously he doesn't mind you taking his corn stalks, he's your
neighbor. The way I see it, if the farmers can find another income
source by selling what would normally be compost, good for them.

nancy