Kristi - yeah, don't worry about consuming the synthetic ferts. Sure, I would prefer it wasn't BLUE, but... other than that it's just minerals. (I mean, think of the whole e. coli on spinach thing we had last year - even organic ferts are dangerous when used incorrectly.) I say if you grow your stuff organic with the exception of adding some synthetic ferts, you can still call them "Nutriclean." I have nearly convinced myself to do this writing these posts today :) I'm trying out the Dr. Earth dry food on my acid-lovers... I like that it doesn't contain chicken poo to burn my plants. I suppose that depends on the formula. I am not sure how MUCH "probiotics" they put in, or how well they wake up when you use it, but the idea is sure good. You can see from the trend of manufacturers including those things that people are starting to come around to understand the soil food web. On the other hand, mychorrizal fungal spores die within a few hours after waking up, if they don't find roots to form a relationship with. They are probably more effective when applied directly to the roots just when planting, but it sure can't hurt. Now as far as the compost tea, it's alive... it must be used fresh. So it's best to make it yourself, unless you have a nearby tea source and can use it immediately. It's not hard to make, but certainly something you want to read up on. I can describe a simple way to make it, but should probably start another thread if you'd like that info. You will see bottled "worm tea" out there and honestly, I'm just not sure what's in those bottles. I can't see how it can stay alive or aerobic. I would not recommend it. Now, you certainly can buy good compost to make your tea with. Especially if you have a local source of worm castings - I'm lucky to have one nearby. I haven't looked lately, but I bet you will find tons of posts on compost tea if you search - probably in the organic forum and vermicomposting. The single best source for info on this subject, though, is a book called "Teaming With Microbes." You'll find it on Amazon. There is also a sort of "bible" of compost tea called the "Compost Tea Brewing Manual" which is available from soilfoodweb.com. There is also a "Compost Tea" group on Yahoo Groups which is THE source for info on compost tea. You can often get your questions answered by the world authority on the subject, Dr. Elaine Ingham. However - it gets AWFULLY technical there! And they ask that people who participate understand the basics first from the two books I mentioned above. I mention this though, because JaG, I have noticed there is an effort to set up government standards for compost tea. The way it is classified right now it is in the same category as manure and must be applied 90 days prior to planting. Organic growers are unable to use it as intended, and therefore, research on the subject is greatly impeded. But Dr. Ingham has expanded her labs to a worldwide operation so that organic producers everywhere can get their soil and teas tested by her labs. You are right in thinking that testing your compost and tea is the only way to know for sure what you are applying. I've never done this, though, and have been happy with my results. Never done an experiment either, though :-) JaG, there may be many reasons you didn't get results with your tea - poor extraction of organisms is the biggest problem a home brewer usually has. If there is interest, I can elaborate more on a seperate thread as I mentioned above. Jenn Here is a link that might be useful: Soil Food Web Inc.

My garbage can still smells bad from last year when I filled it every day with grocery sacks of JBs. I always emptied the traps early in the morning so I could get cleaned up afterwards before going to work. A couple of times I used Clorox spray bleach on my hands to get rid of the smell. Ah. Good times. I do believe the plague is about done here. I see a few here and there, but no swarms. I'll be spreading more milky spore when the weather cools and we get some rain...if the weather cools and we get some rain. It is supposed to be washed into the soil fairly soon after spreading for best effect. There's no way I can water it in everywhere I need to spread it, so I have to wait for rain. Chuck

i grew about fourteen white burley plants this year, happily with success, and without pesticides or any other poisons. however, the nicotine produced by these 'naturally' grown plants is considerable, and is not always the best insect control possible. ironically, the high-alkaloid flowering tops and new leaves attract huge colonies of aphids, which don't look like they suffer for the experience. also, the ladybugs on the plants stayed quite healthy (as opposed to the confused claim in the posting above) and were my primary aphid predator--some ants helped, as well. As they crawled all over the plants for hours each day, there was clearly some contact. And there were the occasional leaf-cutting caterpillar (or whatever) that chewed up foliage, in some cases obviously getting pretty far, so instant nicotine death wasn't likely there. on certain other insects, i'm sure the nicotine is a good control, but i would not want cats or birds (or anything else) to suffer its toxicity. if a person were using commercially-grown tobacco, they'd be enlightened by checking out the reprinted article on the uses of radioactive materials in fertilization, as reprinted in the book The Emperor Wears No Clothes, by Jack Herer. It's primarily a cannabis book, but has other info of value like this. Best natural-type control? Pyrethrum works fine for me.

At least to me, it's more about science than just randomly making a change or two out of curiosity. When I develop an original recipe or "improve" an existing recipe (mine or others), I keep a record of each change. I used the same method to develop a "base" cookie recipe using sorghum flour from a local mill using a set ratio of ingredients, then adapted the base recipe into different kinds of cookies. This method has a lot of practical uses. I have a form sheet I've pre-printed with the original recipe on the left half of the page and places on the right half for: -DATE -INGREDIENT CHANGES - with reasons why I chose them. -RESULTS -NEXT TIME - changes to make yet again and why or what results they will make or expect. Changes can include the pan type or size as well as ingredients or mixing methods. -NOTES Some recipes take many iterations. I remember reading how Sara Phillips, author of "Baking 9-1-1" and web site formerly baking911.com now http://www.craftybaking.com/?baking911=true made 100 changes before she got her recipe for low-fat white cake the way she liked, so if I make 4 or 5 alterations I figure "good enough"..... I'll live to bake another day with or without this recipe. ;-) This isn't America's Test Kitchen after all, but I do keep notes from things they have tested and how they worked so I don't have to make the same mistakes. Chris Kimball's books are also full of this information. I even send foods out to work with hubby with the ingredient list (not amounts) and critique sheets his office staff can use to judge or compare a recipe (believe me - these wonderful folks will eat ANYTHING and criticize EVERYTHING - so I'm not afraid of their honesty). You can always tell who was in 4-H because they are familiar with the judging process and do a good job - and I'll dismiss the critique "I don't like coconut." in a recipe with coconut in the title and on the ingredient list. After all those years as a Foods Judge, I also use my "Fair Judging Standards" (you can find lists of these on-line) as a guideline and I use terms used in judging for things like general appearance, shape, condition of top/crust, exterior color, volume/size, lightness (in weight for size), crumb (interior portion), texture, color (appropriate for the product, pleasing to the eye), moistness, tenderness, flavor (which is really a combination of taste and smell). Most recipes will follow the tried and true baking standards and ratio of ingredients, others are an anomaly - a "one off" - so to speak, that doesn't follow traditional baking or is a complete fluke. "Flukes" also have reasons they work. An example of that is a Molten Lava Cake, which was supposed to have been an accident when a sponge cake was under-baked, and now it has a number of different base cakes including flourless cake or brownie types. And who the heck decided adding a 4-oz. bottle of red food coloring to a Red Velvet Cake (which can be deadly to anyone who is allergic to that particular dye color) was a brilliant idea? Or, add a drained and chopped canned sauerkraut to a chocolate cake recipe - both are examples of taking "creative" license. --When developing gluten-free baked goods I have an entirely different set of guidelines because there are different ingredients used. --You can successfully make changes in recipes but it helps to be aware of some guidelines, such as established ratio of one ingredient to another for each type of baking. This is also how we judge recipes when we read them in books. Will this list of ingredients in a Brownie recipe make cake-like brownies, chewy brownies, or something in between? If you know the attributes of certain ingredients, the ratio between ingredients, you can make that determination by reading the recipe. When I was a member on another message board, a member who was a competent baker, complained about a Banana Bread recipe they made unsuccessfully several times and wondered if there was a mistake in the recipe. The recipe was from Peter Reinhart's "Crust and Crumb" (on the book jacket it says "MASTER FORMULAS FOR SERIOUS BREAD BAKERS) -- that is until he got to the ratio of dry ingredients to wet ingredients in his Banana Bread recipe wrong, which were completely off (and even with the correct ratio was at best an insipid banana bread recipe). --There are some things that are just standards in baking, so if you fiddle with them too much you may need to adjust in another area. It's also where you may want to make sure you have a scale for weighing ingredients. The crystals of granulated sugar are large and there is a lot of space between the crystals when you measure it in a cup. There is very little space in powdered sugar. Therefore, you would find weighing the amount of granulated sugar and substituting it with the equal amount - BY WEIGHT - of powdered sugar would mean you have the same amount by weight, but it won't be the same amount of "sugar" if you substitute cup-for-cup. The same goes for salt. If you normally use a fine crystal salt product (like a fine sea salt), there will be more salt per teaspoon (by weight) of the fine crystals than if you use a teaspoon (by measure) of a chunky crystal salt product (Kosher salt) because it's off-set by voids of air between the larger crystals. Therefore you really should weigh the salt for accuracy rather than by the teaspoonful otherwise you may find a finished product is too salty or not salty enough just by changing the type of salt crystal you used. In other words, it pays to measure accurately, and accurately means using a scale rather than a dry measure (cups, spoons). --Know ahead of time when you reduce fat and sugar without adjusting other ingredients, you will be sacrificing some tenderness, and it may dry out much quicker. It helps to make low-fat items in much smaller amounts - an 8x8-inch pan instead of a large 9x13 - so leftovers don't dry out quickly and are unappetizing. --If you increase the sugar and fat you may find it's TOO tender and falls apart when sliced. If this is something like a quick bread you are altering ingredients in, you may find it will work best baked in a small loaf, or a long narrow Danish Loaf Pan, instead of the traditional 9x5-inch quick bread loaf pan. Smaller slices will hold together better if the crumb is a little too tender. --You won't always get the same results by using 100% whole grain flour in a recipe that was made with bleached or unbleached flour. Bran in wholegrain flour will require an increase of hydration because it soaks up more liquid, which makes for a heavier finished product. --Don't make too many different changes at once, change one or two things each time you work on the recipe. --Other things that can change a recipe is using the muffin method of mixing ingredients instead of the cake method. Using liquid fat instead of solid fat, or vise versa. Separating eggs and beating the whites and adding the yolks (or even an extra egg yolk) when beating the sugar and fat until pale and thickened, then fold in the whites. --If you've increased the sugar content it could delay how the baked good "sets" and the original baking time could be off. There is logical established baking temperatures for baked goods high in sugar, so you may want to switch to a lower temperature and a longer baking time if you increase the sugar by a large percent. -Powdered sugar right from the bag will work differently than powdered sugar that has been finely sifted. Powdered sugar once came in 10X, 6X and 4X, and those numbers indicate the size of the mesh used to sift it, with 10X being the smallest and is sifted much finer. You can make some of these small changes to recipes yourself. --It also helps to know the internal temperature of different baked goods to test accurately for "doneness". AHHHHHHHHHHHH, the science of food. -Grainlady