You know the old saying "Too much of a good thing."  Well, rain is a good thing but we got too much of it the last couple of weeks.  The forecast now is for beautiful sunny weather with normal temps (highs in the 80s) for as long as one can see.

As some readers may know, I've written articles for numerous magazines, including gardening articles for gardening magazines.  Well, about a year ago I got serious about writing a book on growing vegetables.  The working title is Grow With a Pro - a Farmer's Practical Advice for the Home Vegetable Grower.  While I haven't yet found a publisher, I found a wonderful, enthusiastic agent named Catt LeBaigue.  She works for the Heacock Literary agent which is one of the most reputable agencies there is.  One simple tip if you are ever looking for an agent-you don't want one that charges for reading or extraneous expenses.  The good ones only get money as a percentage of the royalties on the book.  Catt had many invites from publishers for the book and so far only one rejection.  She took a trip to Europe the past month and should be back in about a week.  She says most publishers take "holidays" during July and August so she didn't expect to hear anything further until after Labor Day.  I will keep the readers informed on anything new.  By the way, the book proposal that Catt is sending to the publishers took lots and lots of work.  It was over 100 pages long and included photos and was in Word format.  Catt says that publishers read the proposal on their Kindle.

In the book I discuss different vegetable varieties and include recommendations of specific seed varieties.  I would appreciate it if some of the newsletter readers would email me their favorite varieties as well as the ones they don't like, especially regarding sweet corn, tomatoes and potatoes.  We normally try to inform the customer on the varieties we have for sale but if you are interested in helping me out I can provide additional information on the particular varieties we are selling.  This year we are growing Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake beans to see how they compare to our famous Magicland beans.  I would appreciate it if you could try these bean varieties and let me know what you think.

I noticed my wife earlier in the newsletter mentioned my favorite all-time meal-Chicken Vesuvio.  Back umpteen years ago I lived on the southwest side of Chicago.  My favorite restaurant was Club Corsica located at 87^th and Western.  My dad had a war buddy that ran the joint and that's how we started going there, I think.  While they served all kinds of Italian food (as well as steaks and stuff) , my favorite was the Chicken Vesuvio.  The recipe we have now came directly and indirectly from Corsica's owner.  The best thing about the meal were the potatoes and the loads of garlic sautéed in a white wine sauce.  I remember talking to the owner one day about how he made it and he mentioned they used their deep fryer to partially cook the potatoes before they put them in the oven.  Well, we found it works nearly as good by omitting this step. We cook them something like our oven fries but not coating them with butter/garlic.   One thing that comes to mind when thinking about Chicken Vesuvio is when one day I had a toothache and my family stopped by Corsica for a meal.  As usual I ordered the Vesuvio.  Well the toothache went away.  I figured it would return later that day but it never did return.  That was strange.  By the way, Club Corsica no longer exists.  What a bummer!

Hoping and praying the weather forecast for the coming week is right on the money.

Nashle!

Tom