Carmen, you are a lucky lady! Did you make something yummy to eat with the marmalade? Don't you just love homemade canned goods? Carmen I realized as I tend my garden you really hooked me up on plants. I have two different types of orchids from you that appear happy. One of those is the white epiphyllum. I planted both in a medium of mostly orchid soil I had and mixed with some potting soil. I also have a vicks plant and chaya. Thank you dear lady! Sylvia, you make some amazing dishes, you so should be sharing recipes on the cooking forum! Pumpkin lasagna? Yum! My husband has been so pumped about vegetable gardening since Sylvia's garden party. He hadn't shown any interest in my gardening activities up until now. Currently he has planted five different types of tomatoes and two pepper plants. They are all in pots and I hope everything goes well for him. Anyway, I heard him telling someone about attending a "Garden Convention." I couldn't help but to razz him a little. "No dear, you went to a garden party!" He is currently researching information on raised beds. We may have a problem with sunlight as the under utilized areas of our back yard are the east and west sides of the house and that doesn't appear to provide enough sunlight. My back yard has a southern exposure but I planted a Dutch Elm there a few years back and it shades the best area for a garden. Still trying to work this one out. Have a great day in your gardens folks! Kathy

trailrunner, I have this one from RobinKate, my family loves it. I'm thinking it would be very pretty made with the white tomatoes I grow every year: Tomato Orange Marmalade Adapted from Gourmet 2003 It is important that you use the best quality tomatoes you can for this recipe. You can use any color of tomato you want, a mix is especially striking. Don't use paste tomatoes as they do not have enough liquid in them. If need be in winter you can make a batch using 1 quart jar of home canned crushed tomatoes. However supermarket tomato look alikes will not work. A friend tried that once and when I asked how it was she replied, "Well... I ate it." Which meant no one else would. 3 pounds peeled, cored and chopped ripe heirloom tomatoes, including juices (the weight is after peeling, coring and chopping, including the weight of any juices) 3 cups sugar 2 organic juice oranges, washed 1 organic lemon, washed 1/8 tsp salt Place peeled, chopped tomatoes and their juices in a 5 to 6 qt or larger, wide pot, (the ingredients will all fit in a smaller pot but you need to leave space so they will not bubble over, ideally it should be at least 9 1/2 inches wide to encourage rapid evaporation). Slice oranges and lemons as thinly as possible, including peel and pith. I slice mine on my mandolin using the thinest insert and then remove all the seeds and slice the rounds into 4 pieces (and the pieces that are only peel I julienne, you can also quarter the fruit and then slice it as thinly as possible with a knife. Place the lemon and orange slices in the pan with the tomatoes, checking again for any citrus pits you missed, in the pot with the tomato. Add the sugar and salt and place over moderate heat while stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved. Turn the heat to high and continue to cook until the setting point is reached.* Using a canning funnel ladle hot marmalade into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Run a bubble wand or small knife around the inside of the jar to remove air bubbles. Use a damp paper towel to clean the surface of the rims, place a clean lid on top, add the rings and tighten as tightly as you can with your hands. Place the filled jars in a water bath canner and process for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes is up remove the lid, turn off the heat and leave to rest for 5 minutes before removing the jars to cool on a towel or receiving blanket. I don't know if this is the one you are looking for, but it's good. Thanks RobinKate, I know you're out there somewhere! Annie

Got 4 pans of tomatos roasted.. and smelling so good... next we will put them through my kitchen aid mill... and then simmer slowly till thickened up some... I didn't put peppers in this batch cuz Larry wants to make chow chow.. and says he doesn't like peppers in his tomato soup... but I DID use spicy spaghetti seasoning which has some dehydrated bell pepper in it.. and it makes it soo yummy... love that stuff... I have canned tomatos from last year still, so don't need any of those.. but we can always use spaghetti sauce ... and yes I love the idea of chutney... hadn't yet thought of that.. thank you ont gal.. I will roast some more tomorrow... Carolyn

Colleen, I agree, for what that's worth. I live in a small college town, but my chances of being a victim of violent gun related crime are 1 in 346, according to state statistics. It would be 1 in 47 if I lived in Detroit. My chances of getting sick from eating home canned jam are far lower than that, as bacteria and mold can live in the acidic environment of home canned jams, but only a few are pathogens. The government writes their "guidelines" based on the premise that the dumbest person in the dirtiest kitchenstill won't die if they follow the instructions. They build in room to mess up and still be OK. They fail to differentiate between quality issues and safety issues, as KatieC also mentioned. So, would I eat LindaC's jam sealed with paraffin? Without hesitation, and I have, her crabapple jelly was lovely and delicious, she sent me some. I just cannot get the "hang" of paraffin and never have been particularly successful, so I use rings and lids on the jam and use the old jelly jars that had metal covers without threads for things like a salt container by the stove. Ashley uses them as containers for her homemade candles and sugar scrubs, along with any "cool shaped" jars, so they aren't discarded, but I don't use them for canning. Additionally, if you are providing those items to the public, many are very suspicious about home made products. Remember all those threads here about whether something is safe to eat? I know people who throw out milk because it's reached the expiration date, without even stopping to see if it's sour or can still be used. Those people are not going to buy/want/consume a product that's out of their comfort zone, and people will sue you at the drop of a hat if they even think there's an inkling that you have an "unsafe" product. Aa for reusing jars, first the guidelines said not to use them, they were not approved. Then the guidelines said go ahead and use them, but expect more breakage and seal failures. Now they are "not suggested" or something similar. Whatever. I use those old wide mouth Miracle Whip jars to can tomatoes, I reuse spaghetti sauce jars if lids fit, some of the old marshmallow cream jars have a really nice "squatty" shape and wide mouth lids fit perfectly, I use those for salsa. So, if a lid fits, I use it, and I don't get any more breakage than I do with commercial mason jars. I do not put them in the pressure canner because then I do seem to get some additional breakage, but boiling water doesn't hurt them and some of those Miracle Whip jars that I put tomatoes in are 25 years old or more. (shrug) They still work. Annie