Recent content by flinthillbillie

Here's a link to a really informative website that addresses the acidity issue with canning salsa: http://www.cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_e/e-323.html All the recipes they give are safe for boiling water bath canning and they say the best ingredient for acidity is bottled lemon juice.

How about just letting one or two chickens at a time into the garden with you? I wouldn't want my whole flock in there either - they'd do way too much damage, but if I just let one or two in they don't seem to hurt anything and I know they're getting some of the bugs.

I ditto Grow4Food's suggestion of using lime. I sprinkle it in a circle at the base of the plant and that seems to do the trick.

I'm glad to read this thread because I was wondering the same thing about the seeds sprouting more than one plant. In the past I so disliked having to thin the tender tiny beets that this year I was diligent about spacing the seeds an inch apart. Despite that, they came up thicker than I...

I'm in zone 7 and am just putting my broccoli out. I'd say if you have the room to give it a try, go for it. It's probably too late for peas. I planted 2 little rows in March and a month later I had 3 (yup, that's 'three') plants finally apppear. I'm going to wait til fall to try again.

I used a piece of American wire folded in half and set it pointy side up ( like an upside down V) then supported it with long sticks in the middle. I planted the beans on each side and they grew (and grew, and grew) up each side and met at the top. Only trouble was, I couldn't reach the top...

I'd have to agree - don't use them if they've molded. As for oven drying, most ovens can't be set to a low enough temperature to dry tomatoes properly, but you can put a 100 watt lightbulb in your oven on one of those extension cord socket thingies and that should do the trick. I haven't tried...

I don't think they use an outlandish amount of electricity, but they do produce heat so there's some usage. It's probably comparable to burning a lightbulb. (We got one of those thingies last year that you plug into your appliances and it tells you how many kwhs they use in a period of time...

A friend of mine who was moving gave me her dehydrator (sans instructions) last year and I used it for tomatoes. I found cherry tomatoes did well cut in half. Other larger tomatoes needed to be cut into uniform thicknesses to dry properly. Seemed the dehydrator didn't warm uniformly...

Rosalind, I feel your pain! I bought a brand new Stihl last year, my pride and joy. I'd wanted one for a long time. Seems the thing had it in for me from the get-go. I could almost never get it to start for me and finally took it back in to the dealer in tears, begging for help. They...