Andrea

Tumeric seems to work well for me along with trying to eat anti-inflammatory foods.

Hope both of you have wonderful days! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I'm still on the tentative list. I have to wait and make sure that DH doesn't have an out of town job that weekend before I book my flight. I can't leave the 87 mil and 16 dd alone without a driver for that many days. The good news is that there are several very affordable flights into Atlanta so I'm keeping my fingers crossed! I'll let you know as soon as I book my ticket!

Welcome Back!

I didn't put in much of a garden this past Spring, too busy. But I'm getting more figs than I have ever had in the past, my blueberries are still producing (wierd), and my New Zealand spinach has taken over several of the garden boxes so I'm trying to reclaim them! My freezer should be full of spinach in another week or so! Oh, my onions did fine too. Beets are going in tomorrow! I hope I get a bumper crop next Spring - we're out of home canned beets!

http://www.food.com/recipe/ice-cubes-420398 Enjoy! :rofl:

Interesting - I always thought potatoes and tomatoes were incompatible and shouldn't be planted next to one another? http://gardening.about.com/od/totallytomatoes/qt/Tomato-Companions.htm Bad Companions for Tomatoes Cabbage (Brassica) Family - All relatives of cabbage stunt the growth of tomato plants, (incl: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, cauliflower, Kale, kohlrabi, rutabaga, turnip). Corn - The corn earworm is the same as the tomato fruitworm. (Also known as the cotton bollworm.) Dill - Mature dill plants, as mentioned above, will start to inhibit tomato plant growth. Plant the dill you want to go to seed away from your tomatoes. Eggplant, Peppers and Potatoes - These plants are in the same family as tomatoes and are all susceptible to early and late blight, which will build up in the soil and get worse each year. Avoid planting them near each other or in place of each other for at least 3 years. Also planting tomatoes near potatoes can make the potatoes more susceptible to potato blight. Fennel - Inhibits tomato plant growth. Walnuts - Don't plant tomatoes under walnut or butternut trees, which produce an allelopathic chemical called juglone that inhibits the growth of tomatoes (and all the members of the nightshade family). Tomatoes are also susceptible to the disease walnut wilt.

http://www.missourinet.com/2012/08/14/fapri-director-crop-production-report-portents-higher-meat-prices/ Director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri, Pat Westhoff, says that will translate to higher meat prices. “We won’t see too much in the near term. We could even have the opposite effect where … especially in the case of beef we’re going to have a little bit more beef hitting the market here in the near term as farmers liquidate animals they might otherwise have held onto. That’s going to actually push beef prices down a bit in the very near term, but by 2013 I’d expect to see higher prices for meat across-the-board.”

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-13/news/sns-rt-us-usa-obama-meatbre87c0yq-20120813_1_hog-farmers-corn-crop-slaughter-rate President Barack Obama made few new fans among ailing hog farmers and cattle ranchers in the United States on Monday with his plan to boost their incomes by buying $170 million worth of meat -- equivalent to about 10 hours' worth of the nation's output last week. *************************************** This isn't even a drop in the bucket. He's going to bail out hog farmers by purchasing 10 hours worth of their output? This isn't going to affect anything.

CanadaSue over at This Blue Marble had this to say about meat prices: shouldn't have stayed up until almost five this morning - I was tired but not sleepy & I'm paying for it now! Nap in a bit. SO & I looked around again after I staggered out of bed & decided a few more shopping runs wouldn't go amiss. Sales here run Friday through Thursday & some items were starting to get low. Ohers weren't yet but no guarantee they'll still be on for good prices next week or later. I picked up enough laundry detergent to get us through early next summer. The last cleaner concentrate I needed, Bounce sheets for the few times we 'cheat' & use the dryer. Flats of the only store bought soups we use - chicken noodle & vegetable. I like pea soup but I'm the only one & it's not on sale yet. Flats of again, the few canned veggies we use. Vinegar, cooking oils, a few powdered spices. We were tired coming home but decided to go back & pick up some cases of soda for fall. We ran into one of our neighbours who told us if we finished about when he did, he'd give us a lift home. He was doing what we were - stocking up. He's a well trained butcher & as such is in contact with meat suppliers, packers, etc. - as senior butcher where he works, he orders the meat for the store. We were chatting about taking advantage of sales & I piped up that I could hardly wait for the beef sales sure to result from the forced selloff about to start. He promptly dashed my hopes. The wholesalers & packing plants are eagerly buying up stock - it just hasn't hit the slaughterhouses yet. They're buying at rock bottom prices & we will NOT see that refleted in retail prices - certainly not nearly to the extent one would hope. Much of the beef is being sold to Japan. They get it at what to them is sale prices & what to the wholesalers is one hell of a markup. There will be token sales at most stores in September but starting towards the end of September, beef prices will start incrementally rising weekly or biweekly until they meet solid market pressure. With a lock on the market, that pressure will be a long time coming. His advice? Take advantage of ANY decent prices between now & the end of September on beef. They're only going to get worse - much worse over the latter part of fall & until next slaughter season. Pork may move downwards a bit; not by much. Chicken won't - too short a market cycle & producers faced with feed bills they don't like will simply dial back production to force poultry prices up to where they cover costs & give a profit. A lot of fish & seafood might offer surprisingly good values - certainly in comparison to meat this year. I hope he's wrong but he hasn't been in past seasons about meat pricces. Oh - so far we've spent $253 on stockpiling. I added up the regular pricing & subtracted what we paid. We've already saved $68 which more than offsets theoretical interest costs on borrowing up to $1,000 for stockpiling. And that's before price increases. I feel increasingly reassured. http://thisbluemarble.com/showthread.php?p=368663#post368663

Congrats! Whew, what a relief to have that behind you - weddings are lovely but they are so much work!

LOL - I have far more than 3 "gadgets" that I use every day! In fact, the three gadgets I listed I don't use daily at all, but I put them down because I was absolutely astonished that I would find them so useful! Microwaves, dishwashers, knives, canners, dehydrators, etc - these DON'T count! List absolutely bizarre kitchen tools that you use that you never ever in a million years thought you would find a use for! (I'm making my Christmas list! )

Oh, one more thing - check your vinegar! I was looking a gallon size jugs of vinegar and the cheaper store brand was only at 4% acidity! I'm so glad I looked at the fine print. Make sure that you only use vinegar that is at 5% acidity. Up until I saw that in the store, I had assumed that all vinegar was 5%!

Home canned pickles are generally mushier than commercially canned ones but if this is a recipe that you've used for years and the pickes didn't turn out like they normally do, please toss them immediately. Maybe your headspace wasn't just right? Maybe you didn't get enough of the air bubbles out? Maybe you forgot to clean the rim of the jar with vinegar before you put the lid and ring on? Maybe you did everything right and it was just one of those things! Sometimes things happen. Violet will be able to give you more answers. As for using the jar and lid again, of course you can! Just sterilize them and start over. Welcome to the forum! We're glad you've joined us!

LOL - brought in a huge armful of New Zealand spinach from the garden, picked through it, soaked it, rinsed it, soaked it, rinsed it again, blanched it, drained it, and just put TWO 10 oz packages in the freezer! Sigh, I didn't even put a dent in the patch.

What an exciting time! Congrats!

Thanks for the review! I just ordered fruit leather trays for my dehydrator so as soon as they arrive, I'm on this!

sprouted wheat berries - going to grind them up and make sprouted wheat flour. Supposedly, sprouting the wheat first greatly increases the nutritional content and makes the wheat easier to digest. I'll be making bread tomorrow - 2 loaves - one with regular whole wheat, one with sprouted whole wheat. I'm going to see if there is much of a difference.

(((Cat))) Have a cup of chamomile!

Interesting, Thanks!

Thank you SO MUCH for that website link! Wow - what a wealth of information! I have all the ingredients for the sweet potato bark on hand. I think I'm going to have a go at it. It is so nutritious and I bet it would be delicious to throw a few pieces into my morning oatmeal!

Looks great! How did it turn out? Sweet potatoes are an awesome food, especially for those with inflammation issues. I try to eat several each week, usually for breakfast. It would be great to have a portable snack option! Let us know how they tasted!

Sorry, just seeing this post! It's probably too late but Winco Foods has an incredible array of whole grains in their bulk foods department and decent prices to boot. Don't know if you'll be in one place long enough but they will special order for you and it usually takes 1-2 days for items to get in. If you buy in the large bags, you also get a 10% discount on the price.

So, I have a kitchen full of gadgets. Everyone knows I like to cook so I get lots of interesting gifts. Some, that I thought I'd never use, I use all the time! So, what are your three favorite cooking gadgets? Mine: 1) meat thermometer - why did I cook for 30 years without one?!? This thing is great and there is no guesswork involved. 2) Stir-Crazy - http://www.asseenontvguys.com/stir-crazy-as-seen-on-tv.aspx Making jam is such a snap now! I let that thing stir away while I prepare my next batch of fruit! 3) Food Processor - I just have a cheapo Hamilton Beach from Wal-Mart. It makes food prep so much faster and when I'm done, it goes through the dishwasher!

I just have the simple two tray one that they sell at Emergency Essentials. Although, right now I'm just using quart size canning jars with cheesecloth to sprout my wheat berries. It's simpler.