171: Average Beginnings (Themed)

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Happy Monday from Trash Panda Puzzles!

I recently visited the Boston area for the first time on a work trip, and I was amazed by how many trees there were everywhere. I’ve always thought the Twin Cities was fairly green, but it pales in comparison. Just before heading east, I attended the annual Minnesota Garlic Festival. Although this year’s harvest was finally large enough to sustain my own garlic-growing efforts, I still wanted to support local farmers and help make growing garlic worth their while. Without them, we wouldn’t have nearly as many delicious varieties of garlic and other foods to enjoy.

Today’s crossword features a 15×15 grid with standard symmetry. The grid doesn’t have quite the open flow I was aiming for, but I couldn’t get it to fill without adding a couple of extra blocks. If this were a themeless crossword, I probably would have scrapped one of the quadrants and started over, but right now I’m focused on improving my themed crossword construction skills.

Crossword Stats

Title Inspiration: 19A, 34A, 40A, 55A

Seed Entries: 19A, 34A, 40A, 55A

Personal Word List/Score: 9D

Found with Grawlix: 19A, 40A, 55A

Reappearing Entries (5+): 34A, 43D, 52D, 60A

Repeat Rate: 45.9%

Fresh-to-Me Entries (7+): 8D, 9D, 19A, 37D, 40A, 42D, 55A

Unique Entries to Date: 6,716 (+41)

Non-NYT Entries: 9D, 19A, 37D, 40A, 55A

Be the good you want to see,

Jac

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