Mr. Clint, I'm not trying to chase you off, just try to make you understand your ability to crank out food comparatively easy for 365 days a year is a direct function of where you live, not from colossal cultural practices. Yes there are some tried and true methods of agriculture that have been around for ages that continue to be practiced and help in the struggle - crop rotation, trashy cultivation, trap crops, etc. But keep in mind none of the "natural" methods was rarely ever the sole means for protecting crops under Midwest conditions. Along with all that timeless advice, it was not uncommon for lead arsenate, Paris green, and other nasty things to be used to protect food crops. All I'm saying is here growing food is more of a battle and aged agricultural principles, although they may help, won't take care of the problem. Heck, last summer an orchard near here lost 100% of its apple crop due to fungus (black rot I believe). Seriously, I'm on their email list (as part of the Kansas Fruit Growers) and they sent an email indicating they canceled all sales. It is more of a battle to grow food here. Farmers around here have experienced it. Dare I mention it, but even the "evil" chemical companies market their crop protectants accordingly (Warrior, Pounce, Ambush, Assail, Stinger, etc.) I'm sure you'll argue the chemical companies are just doing that to keep the war mentality going, but I disagree. They are appealing to experiences that are already there (i.e. losing a whole apple crop to fungus) That growing food here is more challenging doesn't automatically make it unenjoyable. Perhaps an analogy would be rock climbing. It can be very difficult along the way, but can also be rewarding if successful.

Hi Tony, Beautiful pics. I see your photo of Snowqueen nectarine. Can I safely assume you grew that fruit & did not buy it at the grocery? Seems like a silly question, but... most reports I've seen say that Snowqueen is one the most highly-rated nects for flavor, but is NOT cold hardy beyond Zone-7, which is why I have not attempted growing it on my vacation property in Zone-6b. Are you growing Snowqueen in the ground in Zone-5A Nebraska? Did it survive this past winter? If you are successfully fruiting Snowqueen in Zone-5A, then all bets are off! How old is the tree? From where did you obtain it? Was the fruit richly flavored? Thanks in advance for whatever information you can share. Cheers, -Matt

Let's see what you have to work with when the root throws off suckers this spring. If they are small you'll need to wait until they build some girth and strength; otherwise it's just so easy to cut right through them. The first thing I learned to do was cleft grafting, and it's still a go-to for me. It works for a broad range of scion-rootstock size discrepancies. I mean you can have a scion matched with a rootstock the same size or many times larger. But if the sizes of the two are close do a whip or whip and tongue if you like. And I really like the way those meld. Sometimes I fall back on a chip. You can place a chip from a pencil-sized budstick on a stick the size of your thumb without much trouble, and you can do it whether the bark is slipping or not, and regardless of whether the wood is supple and splitting readily. Bark grafting is very, very doable, but I've had a few instances where the branch didn't seem to want to grow over the splice well, and the connection seems a little tenuous. But I have a link to a very good tutorial that will get you going on it. Konrad does a super tidy and precise graft that he has pictures of, too. I don't have the link at hand but he'll provide it, I'm sure, if you ask. Those are all spring grafts. In late summer/early fall you can do chipping and budding. These are designed to heal over in the current year and then emerge the following season. So I don't have an exact answer to your question. I do, however, have a caveat, and that is that I don't know as much about what I'm talking about as it sounds like. There are a number of others who frequent this site who do more, and better, grafting in a few hours time than I've done in my entire life. I'm closer to being a newbie than they are, though, so maybe my experience at learning all these things is worth sharing. Some of the things I try to explain are the ones that I've stumbled over while learning. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Joe Real bark grafting link

Annie, Our governor here in Washington just signed the Cottage Food Law in July, 2013. I checked the requirements for your state and they are, fortunately for you, much more lenient than ours. We have to pay $230 annually; have a limit of $15,000 income (you're at $20,000, and go up to $25,000 in five years); and I can NOT use my separate canning kitchen ... because it's not part of the same building as my home. Go figure! (The canning kitchen doesn't have home cooking, or animals, or children, and there's no co-mingling with anything else.) And don't you just love not being allowed to sell ICE? That just doesn't make sense to me either! However, at least we have this law here now, and that's helping many people. But for me it's fine, because I don't sell my items; I donate them to the church and gift them. It's just something that I enjoy doing for myself and for others. That's why my costs of $1.25 to $1.50 per jar is fine. I'm fortunate because I have so much fruit in my orchard; I'm great at finding sales; I enjoy the time I spend creating things and "prettying up" the jars, labels, etc. The time I spend doing this pleases me; the $300+ I spend on supplies is just another donation or gift to St. Luke's so they receive the full purchase prices; and, everything I make is appreciated by those who purchase and use the products. I had to freeze some fruit because I wasn't well enough to do anything right after my surgery 8 weeks ago -- so I have cherries, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries in the deep freeze. I'm half-way through my goal of 20 dozen jars ... still have to make: Cherry preserves; Peach-Brown Sugar Jam; Blueberry Jam; Apple Butter; Apple Pie Jam; Dill Pickles; canned Italian Plums; Italian Plum Jam with Triple Sec; Pear Honey; Pear Chutney; Apple Chutney; Watermelon Pickles; Raspberry Jam; ... and anything else I decide I just MUST DO! I'm donating a dozen jars of each variety, and keeping several of each for my use and gifting. I've enjoyed reading all of your comments and appreciate your recipes. Just wish I could make and (legally) sell some of your Salsa! But at least I can enjoy it for myself and friends! Kathy