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We had two nights of frost this week which succeeded in smiting my tomato plants. So, I harvested all of the green tomatos, about 20 lbs worth. They are mostly "large plum" size or smaller with not a speck of any color but green to be seen. Now, what do I do with them? I don't remember what...

I have canna lilies planted in my front garden. I live in the PNW area and have had 2 nights of frost. What I want to know is, should I cut off the tops of the plants, down to the ground? Also, some of the tubers are really close to the surface and are actually above the soil. Should I put...

Last year I grew yellow crook-necked squash and all, except for a couple of odd ones that were warty and never matured, were smooth skinned. This year, I got my seedling from the same grower and every one of the fruits are maturing but are VERY warty this year. Why? Some disease I don't know...

I was given two grocery bags of plums but they are not like any plums I've ever seen before. They are the size of small cherry tomatos and the color of red grapes. Can anybody tell me what variety they are. I'm going to make jam with them but MAN, thats a lot of little plums to de-pit...

While this is my second year growing watermelon, its the first year I've actually even gotten close to getting one to harvest. I'm growing three varieties, all smaller sized, one red, one yellow and one orange fleshed. I've got one melon about the size of a cantalope right now. How do you...

I planted 3 kinds of beets, turnips, carrots and radishes all in a commercial bagged garden soil from WalMart and none of them have done very well at all. Anybody know why? My leaf crops, i.e. bok choy, spinach, lettuce, basil, squash and watermelon all are growing like gangbusters in the same...

I'm gonna get a real bumper crop of my San Marsano tomatos this year and want to can them as fire-roasted, crushed tomatos as this is the form I use the most. I've canned them and roasted them before, but never canned the roasted ones. I usually roast them in a pan on the closed BBQ grill, but...

I planted my tomato plants the first day of May and fertilized them with tomato fertilizer at that time. The plants are blossoming and there are a very few scattered fruits already. Can and should I fertilize them one more time? The soil they are in isn't very nutrient rich and is somewhat...

I planted dutch yellow shallot bulbs in April. The green part came up nicely and now has slumped over. It looks as if the bulbs are being pushed up out of the ground with some being totally exposed now. Are they ready to harvest? They don't look very large, but where one bulb was planted...

Please! I would much rather make jam than jelly. The berries were already frozen when I got them. I've previously made jam out of frozen strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. I know I have about a 4lb bag of frozen gooseberries. I've never even tasted a gooseberry before. Do you...

Has anybody out there made gooseberry jelly or jam? I've got a bag of gooseberries in the freezer, enough for a batch of jam/jelly, but would appreciate any advice. I was going to thaw them out, run them through a chenois to separate the juice from the seeds, and strain this through...

There is a 60+ year old bougainvillea growing outside my grandparents house in Glendale, AZ. For sentimental reasons I want to dig it up and move it to Roseburg, OR. I have checked with the CA dept of AG and was told that I could bring it across the border if it wasn't contained in its...

I canned a salsa mixture and upon suggestion from somebody(can't remember who) I added a can of tomato sauce to it. The salsa turned out way too watery. So, I opened up all of the jars, strained the salsa and added the solids into a new batch WITHOUT adding anything else (just tomatos, onions...

I am disabled with RA and normally have the good sense to let my DS or DD help me pick the tomatos in the back of the bed, except today. Today I was out there with my 2-1/2-year-old grandson picking the ripened tomatos. I saw one way in the back of the bed by the fence and kept reaching in...

I don't have a pic and can't locate one on the net of the bug that I found in my outdoor potted planter. The planter used to have a rose bush growing in it but the rose bush died (the only one to die by the way). There is nothing but potting soil in the pot now. The bug looked like a beetle...

I'm looking for a recipe to can dill pickle relish. Can anybody supply me with one?

I hear several of you talking about your "expected first frost date" and want to know how to find that info for my area. I don't have a copy of the Farmer's almanac yet myself. If this is where the info is, would someone who has one look up my area for me and pass on the info? I live in...

I recently gave my English thyme plant which has been flowering the last week or two and is nearly 5 times the size it was when I planted it in late April a really short butch cut. I tied up the trimmed off stems into 5 big bunches and hung them upside down from an old shower caddy. I hung...

Do you serve any kind of sauce over them? My dad, when he had the restaraunt, put some kind of sauce over them and I can't remember exactly what it was. It definately wasn't salsa or tomatillo sauce either. Inquiring minds want to know.

We have a lot of Anaheim peppers and I want to save seeds from them, both for someone here and for myself. My question is, since we roast the peppers to peel them, will this "kill" the seeds? I usually char them either on the outdoor grill or under the broiler, put them in a bowl, cover them...