I had a wonderful time there at Andy Firk's permaculture event and seeds/plants swap in Arcadia, learned and laughed and ate a lot, slept lousily in the back seat of the Honda so am scoring a cheap tent, got to meet several people from FaceBook for the first time and see others again ( I LOVE FaceBook for making new gardening friends!), got to share some seeds and plants I knew that folks wanted, and in turn was blessed with wonderful things that people knew I wanted, I guess from my FaceBook postings and my blog like: That Perennial Edible Hibiscus I obsessed on a few months ago!!!! Josh (whom I'd brought African Yam tubers after Andy said he was lusting after as a yam obsesser and collector) walked up and put in my hand about 5 VERY nice cuttings! Then he put in my hands about 5 cuttings of "Longevity Spinach", that trailing green leaf edible and medicinal relative of Okinawa Spinach!!!!! Vicki brought me a big zip lock bag with two ripe seed heads of that giant Amaranth "Calalloo"! So now I have plenty of seeds to share. I met someone else who echoed her, Mike Urban and another woman.....easily 12 feet tall in summer, cut it back hard and it regrows, VERY large mild and tender bright green leaves good cooked or in smoothies and salads. Low in oxalic acid. Jim Kovaleski brought me from Maine a bulb of the Racombole garlic I grew for 13 years in Denver plus an entire aerial cluster of its bulblets, plus a bulb of a white soft neck garlic that he thinks MIGHT bulb up here. He's been breaking up the racombole bulblets and planting and selling the young plants as a garlicy "scallions". Josh gave me a true yam that has white flesh and a thin layer of purple right beneath the skin. People jumped on the "Clay" cow pea seeds I brought, plus the Chinese Celery seed that Pat gave me so much of. I gave Mary Jo this morning a cutting each of the Edible Perennial Hibiscus and the "Longevity Spinach" to root in her newly completed greenhouse. All say that established Calalloo does okay in winter, self sows like CRAZY, but that the most vigorous growth is in summer when mild greens are rare. Last week I scattered some in beds just to see what happens. The rest of the seeds I will sift out of the flower plume heads and put in envelopes to share with friends