All the Dirt on Gardening

We bought a propane deep fryer to use as an outdoor canner after seeing our friends Richard and Jan Farris's setup at their farm. It was inexpensive, used, at a garage sale, but had to be taken to the car wash to get all the grease unstuck.  Today's project is quarts of pie filling.

Remember January 2007's ice storm? Here are two photos to remind you of what our yard looked like and maybe to help cool off your forehead from the 103-degrees we are suffering today. The photo below is the same shed as in the photo above - but this week displaying Mother Nature's incredible ability to regenerate herself no matter what the weather. Gardening at our house is limited to watering morning and night and maybe a little flower deadheading and vegetable picking. I have to confess that I am still canning even in this heat. We bought one of those turkey fryers with a propane tank attachment. We use the pot for boiling water, sterilizing jars and water bath sealing - all done outside on the patio in the shade. While you are stuck indoors escaping heat stroke, take a look at this website http://chla.library.cornell.edu/c/chla/about.html It is a link to Cornell University's core historical literature of agriculture. There are 1900 books online available for browsing a...