but I was sure 1 quart of vinegar plus the juice and fruit of 1 lemon would makes it acidic enough. It may be. The point is there is no way to know for sure without testing and since acidity doesn't remain stable on the shelf but fades over time, even if it tested safe now there is no way to know if it would still be safe when opened. And it isn't something you would cook before consuming so you lose that edge of protection too. So it is a do-at-your-own-risk recipe and only you can decide if the risk is worth it to you. I'm willing to take some risks but for me there is no way canned Worcestershire Sauce would be worth any risk even though we use a fair amount of it in our house too. Dave

Alexa, Congrats on the community garden! You'll have more of a problem getting people to weed than can, I think. I believe you are in PA in the Philly area. I would definitely contact Penn State University, Dept. of agriculture and food sciences.I was born, raised, and spent my first 35 years there. They were always helpful to me (still are, they have great resources for beekeepers). And if an old 50 year old woman that learned to open kettle can, or (GASP) oven can our produce, you can learn very easily, you have no bad habits to break! I am in awe of the fact that some people have no local source for jars, lids, pickling salt or pectin. Even my little local groceries way overstock, and it's available year round. I can drive 10 miles into Cleveland, TN, the extension office has a COMMERCIAL cannery. You make an appointment, she books you by how soon the produce you have will last, and they have 4 big pressure canners that hold about 30-50 jars. I have only been there a few times, she tests my canner gauge for free, I prefer to do my stuff at home. But anyway I have been there long enough to lust after the motorized tomato juicers, all the commercial food processors,etc. AHHH, I lust after such things, but since I can't have them I'll stick with my own kitchen. Good Luck!! Joan

Bill, Both realtors did indeed give us comps. They showed that the most expensive house to sell recently sold at about $100k, with a few in the mid 90's, but they was nowhere near as updated as ours. This house is so well maintained, we take very good care of our possessions. There were, of course, a ton that sold for much lower as short sales and bank owned properties as well. I realize that buyers don't care what we owe.... but us selling it for less than 105k is the same as us trying to get a square peg to fit in a round hole. It just can't be done. We have a total of 5k in savings so the other 10k that we would pay off to get it down to 105k would be going on a credit card. I have a new job that requires us to move, so we really don't have any more options. Renting is not a very good option because the rent that people are getting around here for equivalent houses is about $150-200 less than what I currently pay in mortgage and taxes per month. That's not including insurance and the costs of maintaining a rental. Also, house values are expected to drop another 6-9% in this area over the next year, with another possible drop over two years... so it will just keep losing more and more money. Finally, we will not be in the area and thus would have to be long distance landlords... never a good prospect. We cannot just bail on the house or short sale it because we cannot afford another house right now (and need to be fairly mobile for the next 2 years or so when I may need to be transferred) and will be renting. If our credit gets totaled, we wont even be able to rent a place. So if you guys have any good ideas on how to get out of this, or good marketing ideas, I am all ears! Thanks, Bobby

When my husband and I were selling our house last year, we went through a string of bad luck. We staged our home and put a lot of stuff in his office (he had his own business). Needless to say the building the office was in burned down and we lost a lot of pictures, but mostly just junk. We finally sold the house only to have the first buyers back out 4 days before the closing, but we were locked into buying our new house. We then put our home back on the market and prayed we would sell it in a newly SLOW market. Anyway we had many potential buyers come back and view the house 3 and 4 times but after 5 weeks still no offer. With the stress of holding 2 mortgages we were desperate. One day when my husband was commuting home from work it just so happened he was sitting next to a realtor. They got to talking about our house and she mentioned to him when ever she needed to get a house sold she would burn sage leaves to ward off evil spirits. That weekend we were holding an open house. Unbeknownst to me, as we were leaving the house my husband ran back in to "get something." He was taking a really long time so I ran in to find out what in the world he was doing. I saw him running through the living room with a smoking piece of aluminum foil and the overwhelming smell of burning herbs which smelled very illegal! I wanted to kill him. At the same time our realtor arrives and was nearly knocked back at the smell. At the time I didn't think it was funny and I was fuming. Needless to say, we got an offer that day, and we closed in 4 weeks. The ironic thing was our buyer was a Drug Enforcement Agent. He must of knew it was sage and not something else.