Fall gardens can be tricky, especially for the longer season crops, because in order to get them to harvest, you need to start them, often, in July, but July and August are HOT. The basic rule of thumb is find your first frost date. Then look at "days to harvest" on the seed pack (note that if its a crop that is normally transplanted rather than direct seeded they REALLY mean days from transplant). Then find one of those online date calculators and subtract one from the other to get a rough idea of when to plant. For crops that can take a frost, you can usually assume you'll get 2 weeks to a month additional growing time. Keep good notes and experiment. I find the ONLY way I can get a good cauliflower crop is if I plant it in the fall (and choose a variety with a short days to maturity time). Johnny's Select Seeds has a good calculator for this under their Growers Library/Planning Tools and Calculators. It's good for remembering all the possibilities. www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/online-tools-calculators.html

@@cookingtheharvestAhh, that was kind of you to reply in such detail. I appreciate your time. I am interested in your newsletter, but I don’t know what “Image URL” means? Also, I admit that I had to look up the word ubiquitous. A bonus vocabulary word for the week, lol. Love it.

@@shannon.N You are very sweet. Sorry, I'll check the URL. Try this one instead. mailchi.mp/bbafc6a7b1cb/interested-in-monthly-updates-from-miles-away-farm

@@cookingtheharvestPerfect, it worked.

Thank you! Fixing now.

It's probably in my top 5 herbs for sure. Great as part of your own Italian seasoning, and I love it with thyme with chicken or pork. This is an all time favorite. kzbin.info/www/bejne/parYh6h7ltqhfK8si=RHwnXwlj43xxBXle

Yes.

Baking soda might be fine in a home kitchen, but it is not recognized as sanitizer by the state and local health authorities. (It is not a disinfectant - just good as a scrubber). And because I am selling this product, I need to comply. My guess is if you used much baking soda, it would leave your herbs tasting "soapy" so if you choose to use baking soda, be sure to rinse well.

Not really. They are more like a relish. The sugar draws out a lot of the water in the peppers, and because they are sliced, there is a lot of surface area, so they are fairly soft. If you add pickle crisp, it will change the texture slightly, but its not going to be a crunchy pickle experience.

You are not alone!

You can also just tie it up and hang it to dry. Depending on your climate (high humidity or not) you may want to make your bunches smaller so there's more air flow. But air drying it should work just fine.

Depending on where you live, you can put them on the dash of your car or the backseat. Just leave the windows cracked and put some parchment paper down or something like that. I used to put them in the back of my suburban before I got my food dehydrator. keep in mind we live in a low humidity area so that works really well for us

@@ForgingFreedomTV love this idea.

Yes, absolutely. But you would want to plug each one into your lye calculator as a separate entry. They have slightly different SAP values.

Hi. 2% is standard for most ferments. But 3% or higher is pretty standard for produce that tends to mold easily while fermenting. That includes cucumbers and pepper mash. The Probiotic Jar has a really great chart of this, if you google "Probiotic Jar salt percentage chart" you'll find it.

@@cookingtheharvest thank you!

Thank you so much. That's exactly what I was hoping for!

No. Pepper jelly is an actual jelly (think similar to jello) that is thickened with pectin and has flecks of peppers in it. This is simply sweet pickled peppers. Both are delicious.

It was quite good. Canning ground beef definitely changes the texture a bit, but with all the seasonings and a bun, not really noticeable. We tend to take this camping. It's a quick easy meal when we've been driving or hiking all day. I'll never make that clove heavy ketchup again, but it was a good way to use it up!

I actually love cilantro. But I find that 1) it's very hard to grow fresh in August/September when the rest of the ingredients for salsa are ripe (its a cool season plant - I've had it volunteer in my garden in MARCH) and 2) it looses a lot of its flavor when canned. So I add it if I have it on hand (or have some frozen) but usually we just add it fresh when we open a jar!

Hi Dawn. I'm SO sorry about the shingles! Ugh. Awful. I'm not a medical doctor of any kind, so I can't really advise you. And what works for some may not work for others (diet, stress level, environmental exposure, age, genetics...). But know that lemon balm is very mild and you can't really overdo it as a tea or oil infusion. I do HIGHLY recommend Rosemary Gladstar's herbal books for learning about how to use herbs and dosing. My understanding (no personal experience) is that Valerian root is good for anxiety (they call it nature's valium). Very easy to grow and reseeds like crazy, but because you harvest the root, it can take a few years to get to harvest. Try it from an herbalist first to see if it helps.

That makes sense. Probably also depends on specific variety as well. Just so fun. Love the idea of a purple garden!

I just have SO MANY CHILIES that when I do chili salts I tend to use the whole dried chili. (Same for drying tomato skins after making sauce - I just don't bother). It helps that I have poultry that scarf up the left overs, so I feel like it never goes to waste. :-).

I don't find that they usually shatter. But if they did, I'd either send the mixture through a finer setting on the food mill to sift out the shells, or just keep stirring and removing them. I've never had it be an issue.

Awesome. Thank you for confirming.

I grew up in northern California. Incredible climate for tomatoes. I'm a little bit jealous.

The iodine can retard the fermentation process and can change the flavor slightly. If that's all I had, that's what I would use. But its generally recommended to use non iodized salt in all ferments.

@@cookingtheharvest thanks

Totally understand (and it would hurt my heart too!).

Oh cool. I'll be up there at the end of June!

Thanks so much. I looked all of those up. For English readers, Capim limao is Lemongrass.

For me, because I'm selling this product dried, I have to use something that is PROVEN to sanitize. It's part of my kitchen license. In order for salt to do that, it would need to be enough that it would actually flavor the dried herb, so a non-starter for me. But you can do whatever you like. 🙂

OK, understand. Thanks for your answer.😊

I find them to be fairly middle of the road. Not super firm, not super soft. Good flavor but nothing that stands out as a specific note. Great for refried beans. Note they are semi vining, so some kind of low trellis is a good idea.