After recently posting for trades on the Tomato exchange I received some great trades for Tomatoes and some other things, but I have yet to find any of the Squash, Cucumbers, or Pumpkins I am looking for. I have a very long list of haves and wants. If interested in trading check my website. The seed counts for my Tomatoes are up to date, I am still listing the number of trades I have for flowers. Thanks, "MikeyJoe" Here is a link that might be useful: My Heirloom Website

Darcy-- no one has mentioned the evil squash vine borer. look up some photos of what 'frass' looks like, and also the moth itself (it's black & red & you will see it flying all over your plant laying its evil eggs). if it has gotten your plants, the eggs may have hatched and the little grubs eat away at the inside of the plant, working their way down to the base. and leaves wilting & turning yellow around the edge is the first sign... eventually you will go outside and your whole plant(s) will be dead overnight. you have to act fast if you want to save them. let us know if you see the signs (the moth &/or frass) & you need more help.

hey i have golden marconi pepper beefsteak tomato and some radishes would trade for chinese mustard, chinese cukes and red pole beans is this for a snap bean or shelling? marketbasket@netzero.com rhashell 11356 markland pike vevay in 47043

I did stick the squash in the fridge this AM, and put the carrots in a container of ice water (with cubes) in the fridge. Stems weren't submerged but it did the trick since I just snapped one! Wish I hadn't composted all my nice big carrots now, they could have been salvaged (for us if not market). Went to fair today and was nice to see that recipes with processing times were attached to jars. But the Grange was selling jams, jellies, etc. in its "Country Store" - I think they must have been from a copacker since they were "made for" the Grange and nutrition info on labels. Only $4-5 for 9-12 oz jars but weird thing was the preserves looked like jam, not chunks or whole fruit floating in syrup, and the jellies (which used pectin) were a soft set as soft or softer than I get without pectin! DH picked up the apple butter and it had not only dextrose and corn syrup but HFCS as well! Nila - no problem, I haven't been around much lately, been busy with the farm so I'm over on Market Gardener and Vegetable forums more than here. I just had to laugh when you said to "buy stuff right before you eat it" or preserve it, b/c I don't buy fresh veggies at all - I grow them, or buy frozen (or canned beans, we eat a lot of those), or sometimes barter or beg for something from another farmer if they have something we don't. Oh, exception is corn, since I don't grow that, but I haven't seen any good local corn yet this year. I did break down and buy 6 ears at store on Monday to have with the clams the menfolk dug. And I usually leave things on the vine (except beans, cukes, and tomatoes) until we're ready to eat them, except on market days when I pick everything close to ready, but then if it doesn't sell I have to use or preserve it as quickly as I can, which sometimes can take a couple of days. And I don't preserve any produce but my own - though if pole beans don't do well now that they're finally starting to produce (bush beans were a bust this year), I may buy beans and freeze them myself since they taste so much better than store-bought frozen beans. Have to see how much room I have in freezer. The good thing about buying at the store is that I can do it throughout the winter/spring instead of stocking up now. I prefer to use the freezer for meat (and a couple loaves of bread so I don't have to keep running out to buy it). Have a whole pork loin in there now I have to defrost and cut, then refreeze. I bought it last month when my sister was here and I didn't have time to do it then, I usually have butcher do it but I went to store late at night and they'd gone home. BJ's has a sale ($5/lb) on whole beef strip so I want to get that next week too. I'm not very experienced - this is my first year growing carrots successfully, I'm disappointed that I wasted half of them not knowing how to store them. Cukes were maybe a tiny bit more flexible than grocery-store cukes (not that I touch them that often, I can't stand the wax, but DD checked for me), squash were about the same as store-bought, but carrots were rubbery. This post was edited by ajsmama on Sat, Aug 17, 13 at 21:35