Forgot to mention this: 
The Artisan Bread recipes, especially the sour-dough recipes, sound delectable!  I cannot resist any homemade bread!  I am very happy that I can not get my hands on any of the breads you guys bake.  The aroma of fresh, baked bread makes my head swim.  I could, without any problems, eat the whole loaf by myself.  If I ate as much bread as I wanted, without restraints, they'd have to use a box that they ship pianos in for my coffin when I'm buried.  : )

This is not a good thread to read when you are trying to diet.  Now, I'm hungry.

Frank

I tried several orchids ( one at a time) over the course of 20 years and killed every last one of them! I was then told to treat them more like a cactus and now I have 3! I have kept a spider plant alive for years - even planted some outside and they are thriving! I grew bonsai trees years ago - what the Texas sun spared got stolen anyway, it was a blessing in disguise.

Now I have a fig tree with plans to get a FEW more - nothing crazy, a garden with a a variety of veggies and flowers. On a serious note I would like to start collecting real estate to secure my future.

My orchids got the grunge last fall and I am down to a paltry few. I have several little japanese maple (Acer palmatum and japonicum) in pots and in bonsai pots (but no way you can call them bonsai). Fruits scattered about and over forty varieties of hosta. Wife complained that I never gave her a dozen roses, but now makes bouquets from over a dozen shrubs.

Same here. Growing and preserving as much as possible for many reasons. Right now am drying blueberries and other garden produce. In fall will be the persimmons. And hopefully down the line too many figs. :)  

Do you grow any unusual persimmons variety?  I've always been curious about the korean ones.

No, in fact, I don't grow any. The persimmons I dry are those given by friends. Mainly Hichayas and some Fuyus. Around here most people don't use most of their persimmons, so this fall I'm really going to be looking around to score. I'll have some extra fig trees to trade. ;)

Ah, might as well mention this here...

One fruit tree that's not a fruit tree on our property (we have lots of dogwoods of radically different natures, including evergreen dogwoods) is the "Summer Stars" Cornus Kousa dogwood.  It's never really mentioned online or in catalogs, and it seems pretty rare anyways, but the fruits, while very small and very tedious (skins aren't edible) are first rate.  Very sweet, non-acid, but flavorful enough to combat insipidity.  All C. kousa dogwoods have edible berries, but they don't usually taste very good.  "Summer Stars", however, is a beautiful (late spring/summer and fall color/berries), rather spreading for a dogwood, tree that can perform multiple duties.  Not least of which is providing avian distraction (tho' they get tired of the skins, too).  Mine is about 25 years old, and people definitely notice this tree (in a weedy yard full of collected oddities), especially in the fall.

I have access to Roses, Hydrangeas, Hibiscus, Buddleia if anyone wants to trade.   I don't have many figs that are big enough to take and root cuttings, but I can trade for other shrubs.

Wish List:

Ronde de Bordeaux, Sal's Corleone, Marseilles VS Black, Desert King

Fruit-wise, we grow strawberry (Camarosa and Sweet Charlie), mulberry (Illinois Everbearing), golden raspberries (Anne), blackberry, satsumas (Owari & Brown Select), plums (Guthrie), pawpaw (Shenandoah & Mango), asian pears (Hosui and Shinseiki), astringent persimmon (Jiru, Giombo, and Saijo) and blueberry (10+ varieties). This evening our children harvested 6# of blueberries from potted and in-ground bushes. We are most proud of the pineapple because of the time it takes to produce just one fruit. We have had one each of the last two summers. There are two on the way this summer, and ten queued at various stages of growth.

Veggie-wise, we maintain vegetables in raised beds, Earthboxes, and recently joined a community garden with 40'x40' vegetable only plots.

I'm a growaholic as long as it bears something I can eat. Beside figs, I have mulberries, grapes, muscadines, tangerine, and loquat in the fruit section. Then in the spring vegetable garden I grow snap beans to can, beets to pickle, tomatoes and cucumber for fresh eating and cucumber for pickles, southern peas, corn, okra to cook and freeze and melons for desert. In the fall garden I grow cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, beets, onions, tomatoes, cucumber, and turnips. Each year I find something new to plant and rotate some other out for the season. Did I say I love to grow food to eat.
"gene"

I'd like to thank everyone for sharing their collectors mentality!  It's very inspiring.  I never thought of growing so many things in pots.  I'm not sure about trying it since the summers here are brutal, we are expecting 100 degree days next week....it begins.  I'm curious about my garden and how it will fare this summer

Hi everyone,
Collecting...well, when I was about 8 years old I started collecting owls. Simply because I liked owls, and that they were "wise".  They went who knows where when I went away to college.  Years later I married a MCCOY, and started collecting MCCOY pottery.  I tried to settle on one type of work, vases perhaps, but people found out I collected MCCOY & so now I have a hodge podge of pieces. I am most proud of a 8 person place setting of  their dinnerware called Canyon, it took me forever to find that many, along with various serving pieces.
   Like Suzi, I also grow for my winemaking (and eating). My plants, trees, bushes and vines are young, just in their 2nd season.  The green thumb bug bit me 2 years ago.  About that time I had just had a major job change and was horribly depressed, and working with plants, learning about them, has helped me immensely.  My husband and sons don't understand, but my healthcare team surely does.  Kids are older and the last one is nearing independence and I guess I needed something else to nurture and to prove to myself that I had some worth (UGLY UGLY story about loss of job, age & health condition & salary discrimination--but I am still trying to get past that).
   I read all the time, just don't ask me to name books. I am a KINDLE addict and am so happy they have 3000+ free books to read. Being in the waiting period for disability puts a major freeze on spending to say the least. I seriously wonder how many people end up in bankruptcy due to the lag time?!? (sorry if that was too much information, but I am not ashamed)
   If it is yeast based I am in!   Wine, sourdough, kombucha, milk kefir, water kefir, whey based sodas, lactofermentation.  I am the proud owner of a sourdough that my Mother's Mother got from her Mother.  I have four siblings and I am the only one who had an interest in the family sourdough pot. When I moved out on my own I made sure I took sourdough with me.  My blueberry sourdough pancakes are a treat to the tummy!   Like Suzi I have slathered it on silicone liners and allowed it to airdry in the warmth of my microwave, warmed by the built in light underneath it, and shipped it out to countless people.  Had a kitchen accident once and I dropped my entire sourdough pot, broke the pot, but I was able to salvage a tablespoon and feed the poor baby back up (the dog was in heaven as he pounced to lick the yeasty goodness....I got my leftover untouched starter from a curve in the crock that had flipped upside down & the starter was just hanging there unbeknownst to the dog!)

Plant wise, let's see: 

Figs - 50+ variety

Meyer Lemon - lives outside from mid-March prior to 1st predicted frost
Chokecherry - 4' tree        Elderberry -  Sambucus canadensis & nigra, Adams 2, Bob Gordon)
Triple Crown Blackberry      Ouachita Blackberry       Heritage Red Raspberry      

Sugar Apple (Annona) - 3 seedlings    

Crabapple - 1 tree came with property, variety unknown       Elvira grape       HoneyJar jujube
Pineapple Sage      Mulberry - variety unknown     WeepingMulberry    Aronia      River Grape
Lemon Verbena            Lemongrass                Galangal              Hibiscus                Rose of Sharon

Goumi                     Taytwo pawpaw       RosaRugosa              Loquat     

4:1 cherry ( bing,black tartarian, rainier, stella grafted on Mazzard Cherry)

Fruit Cocktail (peach,red pear,apricot,nectarine,purple plum)    

5:1 Asian Pear(KoreanGiant,Shinko,20thCentury,Shenseiki,Hosiu)

Ichi-Ki-Kei Jiro persimmon                Nanking Cherry

Wonderful POM                 Golden Currant             Black Currant       Pear Mint, Chocolate Mint

And this year a friend showed me the wonder of fragrant roses, and I have a Mr. Lincoln, a Double Delight, and a Heirloom-can't remember the rest of its name.

 
   Suzi, I would love some starter...I will PM you.

I guess I count as a collector.  I started out with 4 orchids an 1985 and was at 1000 plants at the height of my collection.  I am now down to around 400 and that is plenty.  I grow my plants indoors, under lights.

I became the president of the local orchid society (5 years worth) and would be happy to share any information any of you might desire.

Dennis

Orchids are so beautiful!  I seem to fall into the "serial killer" classification where they are concerned.

I forgot to mention that we do grow olives.  A few years ago, while golfing, I noticed olive trees with the biggest olives I had ever seen, so we scheduled a round of golf there again, and brought containers.  While waiting, we picked, and I also got some suckers off the trees, and stuck them in my water glass to keep them fresh!  Pollination shouldn't be a problem since almost everyone in So CA has an olive tree...

It was fun brining the olives, and everything we did, we learned by googling!  I cut all the leaves off the cuttings, stuck them all into the ground, and in a couple months, two had new leaves!  They've been happy trees since then.  This is the year to seriously prune, and see if I can get more cuttings to grow.  We will root prune, top prune and take these two trees with us we move.

The olives were picked green and just turning black, brined for several weeks, covered with red vinegar, and olive oil, and blended with citrus, garlic, and fresh herbs.  We've served them at parties, and nobody died yet!  So many warnings on doing this, but ours turned out just fine.  I hear they get better with age.

Suzi