tox, It's a good point, but target plant selectivity is a hallmark of herbicide development. What everyone wants is high effectiveness with only the target plant, and no effect on the crop being protected. For clopyralid, as an example, forage and grass hays are permitted a residual level of 500 ppm. We know that tomatoes are sensitive to levels of 30 ppb in the soil. If you couple that kind of effective selectivity with some environemtal persistence, then the stage gets set for someone, somewhere to have an issue. edit - To illustrate the point -- if the half life for degradation were 30 days (about the average for clopyralid), and the soil level were 10 ppm, then by my calculation it would take ~9 months for that 10 ppm to decay to a level of While farmers did use to love the persistent aspect, many are now questioning the desirability because of how their options can get cut when faced with a need for crop rotation. That hit ND wheat farmers when scab became an issue. I have heard anecdotally that WI dairy farmers in some areas are now prohibited from exporting their manures off-farm, and many are running out of places to keep the stuff. My suspicion is that market forces in the ag world may set a new direction before EPA and registration become a major issue. This post was edited by TXEB on Thu, May 2, 13 at 12:44

Yes, fermenting in the jar is considered a safe way to make kraut and is handy if you only want to make smaller batches. You are just using quart or even pint jars rather than a crock or 2 gallon jar. ;) But her statement of "without further processing" isn't quite accurate unless you just want it for fresh eating and not storage. Once it is fermented (avg. 3-4 weeks) it needs to be refrigerated and eaten OR processed for long term storage. Drain the brine and save it, taste, rinse if too salty, bring the brine back to a boil (you'll need to make some extra brine usually), into hot jars, cover with boiling brine, BWB 10 mins for pints, 15 mins. for quarts. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Sauerkraut

I'm not a subscriber but also receieved it b'c I'm on some list somewhere b'c a few years ago I was asked to work with one of their writers on an article about tomatoes. There were several contributors from different parts of the country and it looks like a repeat of that again. I also know Cheryl Long, the Editor, from her long tenure at Organic Gardening when Mike McGrath was there and when I participated in many articles about tomatoes and peppers. But the OG of today is not the OG of old. And I'm not sure what I can contribute to this survey when I've already participated in a similar article. Sure, there are some fave new tomato varieties I have since that article ran, but I think it's best they choose all new contributors. Carolyn

Yes, wish it had more about tomatoes. Some interesting comments in a previous discussion on it. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Mother Earth News survey discussion