We interrupt our regular programming...

Several weeks ago I blogged about how I made my own stevia extract.

In case you weren't around for that, or just like looking at the pretty pictures, here is a link back in time...

http://suburbandweller.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-got-your-stevia-right-here.html

Oddly, this particular post had a higher than normal number of hits than all my other rants and raves.  I had a grand total of 7 1/2 people!! 2 more than my regular views!  I don't know if I could handle such fame.

Anyway, other than the goat herder in upper volta with his wi-fi stapled to the back of his yak, the other was a company from up Seattle way.

They are Steviva.

http://www.steviva.com/

If they found my site interesting, they didn't say, I guess they were trying to be polite. :)

ANYway...

They wrote me and asked if I would review a few of their products.  Completely perplexed by this, I didn't know what else to say, but YES!

(To quote Ghostbusters, "when someone asks if you are a god, you say yes!)

In my grand moment of a momentary ego boost, the only thought that flew through my head was, "They love me! They really love me!!!" (Honestly, I have been trying to work in that movie quote for some time.)

Here are the products they sent me...



The appear to be a very socially and environmentally friendly company.

From their website:

-all plastic packaging is made from 100% recycled PET plastic.

-fleet vehicles run on alt fuels

-manufacturing and offices are powered by renewable energy sources

-all paper is recycled

and best of all...

-they give a portion of their net profits to environmental concerns.

This was enough for me to try their product. :)

I had a chance to try the Fructevia and the Stevia.

Steviva is a concentrate of stevia in powdered form.  I found this works very well as a sugar substitute.  It dissolves very well in hot tea or coffee.   In ice tea, it clumps a little bit, but with a little stirring it dissolves nicely.

It had a very nice flavor. (If you aren't accustomed to it, stevia will taste little different than sugar, but after a while you won't even notice)

The Fructevia has a very nice smooth sugary flavor due to the infusion of fructose fruit sugar.  I found this dissolved a little better in cold drinks. No problem with hot drinks.

Fructevia is used for baking and they suggest using half as much as you would normally use when using sugar for baking.  I will have to give that a shot.  I will give my findings in future blogs.

Overall, I believe these to be two very fine products.  I would suggest their use to anyone looking for a high quality sugar substitute.

Check out their site and give them a try. :)

Meanwhile, out in the garden...

I put in my garlic for the season: 77 dealies.  (Honestly, please someone tell me what each little wedge of garlic is called.  It's a little tough talking seriously about gardening with other gardeners and referring to the garlic things as "dealies". LOL)

And I think I finally put to rest the mystery behind the Mystery Plant...



(Thank you, Mr. Hand)

Looks like watermelon to me.  I took this pic yesterday.  It's already about doubled in size.  So, yeah, watermelon.

Now, the question is: will it make it to full size before our first freeze?  That is the 64 thousand dollar question.

I will post updates on the potentially ill fated watermelon.

This was a quick one.

Next week: I have no idea what I'm going to write about!!

Until then: Green is Good and sometimes very mysterious.

Cheers!