I garden in a high desert environment, the nights are in the 40's until mid july and never get out of the 50's. Its a 100 day season. So it takes forever to get the soil warmed up. I get far more production from container plants, its not even close. I make my own 'potting soil' mix using all different sizes of pine bark from beetle-killed trees, perlite, pond-bottom soil and Azomite for trace stuff, charcoal I've sifted out from my wood stove, compost, styrofoam packing peanuts - what ever. Keeping in mind that drainage and aeration are crucial. And every fall I dump it out on a concrete slab, eyeball it to see if it needs more structure as the bits disintegrate, and this year I'll solarize the lot in trash bags to sterilize it. Then I mix it up with what ever new perlite or bark bits it needs and off we go. I have 60-odd containers ranging from 5 - 15 gal. I can put 4 plants in the larger sizes. I soak compost overnight in a big tub and sorta strain that out and use the water to feed the plants - 3 times a season. Of course, your milage may vary.....

jasdip- We have a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer and we gained some space by purchasing a model that doesn't have an ice/water dispenser, which also makes it cheaper to run (something like 7-cents per day when we checked it with a Watt-a-Meter). The freezer space was the same size as our 3/4-size upright freezer we gave away. The FoodSaver is my best friend when it comes to freezer storage. We use a 1-pound loaf of bread each week. I might make 2 loaves out of my recipe, or I'll make one loaf and something else (choices: 6 pecan rolls, 8-inch pan of dinner rolls, 6 burger buns, 6 hot dog buns) - whatever is needed. These are stored on the freezer door, and there is usually some cornbread, English muffins, regular muffins, freezer-style Whole Wheat Angel Biscuits, tortillas, (all homemade) also in the freezer. I try to keep meat purchases to $2 per pound or less, and spend no more than $10 per week for meat no matter how much it cost per pound. At the moment have cube steak, sirloin steak, ham, chicken breasts, chicken tenderloins, turkey burger, cooked ground beef/gluten, leftover roast turkey, cooked pork sausage/gluten, small packets of ground roast beef for roast beef salad sandwiches, some sliced meat for sandwiches, cooked ground beef, small packets of shredded meat, a variety of breakfast meats..... Packets of meaty bones for soup/broth. Tomato sauce: 1 part tomato powder to 4 parts water Tomato paste: 1 part tomato powder to 3 parts water Pizza sauce: 1 T. tomato powder + 3-4 T. water + little vinegar, sweetener (salt - optional) and Pizza or Italian Spices. I don't store cans or jars of commercial tomato products, nor do I do home-canning anymore - it's not cost effective for me. I make everything from tomato powder, homegrown tomatoes in the freezer, or dehydrated homegrown tomatoes. I buy tomato powder in #10 cans, but I first bought a small jar from The Spice House to see if it would work (link below). I never seem to have enough tomatoes to make my own tomato powder. katiec\- I love the name "Planed\-Overs" and may have to borrow it for classes ;\-). I've been into home food storage (similar to what is taught by the LDS Church) for many years now. I only purchase food at rock\-bottom, stock\-up, prices; and the biggest benefit is that I almost never run out of anything. \-Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: [The Spice House \- tomato powder](http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/tomato-powder)

Nancy, I did the roasted red pepper spread once. Just once, and it was a disaster. My broiler on my oven is on the bottom, as in on the floor. I have to lie on my stomach on the floor to use the broiler, which is not....well....optimum. LOL I did manage to get the peppers roasted and was told that if I put the roasted peppers into a paper bag and folded the top shut, it would steam and the peel would come right off. Yeah, sure it will... I picked up the bag, the bottom fell out from the moisture of the peppers and the peppers went all over the kitchen floor. I picked them up, dumped them in the sink and tried to peel them, but almost none of the peels came off. So, when I found a jar of roasted red peppers for less than $3 I never looked back. I did plant sweet red peppers this year, but not a single one has turned red and it's going to frost Wednesday night. Our growing season is pretty short here in Northern Michigan, so my peppers seldom ripen, but this was a particularly bad year. So, my first and only experience with roasting those peppers was such a disaster, I swore I'd never do it again. And I don't grill. At all. Elery will use the grill, I refuse to touch it. The last time I tried to grill a steak I had the da*ned thing on there for 45 minutes, and I like my steak rare. It was rare, all right, it wasn't even warm. When Elery came, it worked perfectly, of course. He said I "turned it on too fast". Whatever. Anyway, for all those reasons, I don't grow, roast and can red peppers. (grin) Annie

Garry and M.M.; rainfall will not make a soil profile compacted. It will certainly result in a compacted crust in heavy soils, but that would be only the top half centimeter or so. If you have heavy soils and you are irrigating with water that has significant amounts of sodium then you certainly will get a sodic/dispersive soil structure. When dry, a dispersive soil tends to be too hard for roots and seedlings to penetrate. It would be a far better idea to solve the sodium problem before the water enters the soil profile. In sodic soils, clay particles disperse rapidly when the soil becomes wet and it then sets hard when it dries. This is possibly what you see as being compaction. Compaction only occurs as a result of heavy traffic from animals or machines. Solve your sodium problem in your irrigation water and you will save a lot of expense. Soils with high sodium levels, or sodicity, can certainly benefit from applications of gypsum, which displace the sodium ions to improve soil porosity and water infiltration. Applying Gypsum of just about any sort will improve soil structure thereby improving water infiltration and aeration. Micronised Gypsum is quite common; all it means is that it has been ground very finely. However your stuff, Gyp-Life, is in a liquid form like "Clay-Breaker" so that using the word micronised is strange (but I guess it sounds good). I am not saying it is snake-oil but there are other products out there that are just as good and possibly cheaper. Humic acid is the product of the microbial decomposition of plant and animal matter. You will find it in all composts etc. When ever we mix organic matter in with our soil we add Humic acid. When we mulch our soils, Humic acid washes into the soil when we water it or it receives rain. It is simple soil chemistry. M.M., by all means try the stuff but be aware of what is going on in the soil itself like drainage, soil structure pH, etc. before you do anything. Even get a soil test if you can afford it. I never cease to be suspicious of new products that preach magical cures but do not explain why they are better than what we already have, be it toothpaste, anti-aging creams or even fertilisers. Garry go ahead and use the stuff by all means but that is not to say there is another easier and less costly way.