Two 40-50 foot oaks and many limbs hovering over my house. The tree guy here, used ropes and a ladder, and nothing else but a chain saw. The big and buggy maple out front when cut, and fallen had gone all the way across the street and slammed into the guard rail. We had traffic blocked for about 15 minutes for them to clear way the mess. All it took was a 2 day visit at about 6 hours a day total. They will soon be back to get rid of some birch and more, as one had fallen right outside my kitchen window and I woke to find it in my walk way. Luckily nothing planted there was damaged. But if it were to happen now, we can say its a $3000 damage I don't wish to pay for. My poor little old New Zealand made alumminium famed glass greehouse is only 6x8. Its now got dead birch tree limbs just waiting for more snow load to come. Wish you luck. BTW, most of my garden is sunny until about 3-4 PM. after that and before 9 am its shady. But I still manage. The oaks further back are at least 75 foot tall, and the trunks are well over 2-3 feet around. My poor blueberries lean to the eastern sky all the time and there are no real branches on the west sides of the rows over the big oaks. Mighty they are, but can be cut down if very necessary. Next door quickly realized that if I have damages from his trees, he will be getting many expensive bills to pay!

Even I have heat processed my dilly beans. The only thing that sees no heat here is my pepperoncini, but there, I use straight vinegar and salt, and use a vacuum system that pulls out all the air trapped inside these very tender, thin skinned peppers. Then, when they get canned, the vacuum is applied again and they get rinsed in a very hot water after they are capped. This process is specific to those who have many years of experience canning high acid foods. Last years pepper batch has been very good, and has held up quite well because I also used some Pickle Crisp.

G'morning! They float when processed in Water Bath... there is just not as much head space (top + bottom) so it was not as noticeable. I never had any problems in the past using W/B process, but unfortunately now that many varieties of tomato's have lost their acidity through modern genetic tweaking and hybridizing it is now necessary to add acid to tomatoes, including heirloom varieties when canning them :-( The level of temperature needed to kill botulism bacteria for low-acid foods can only be reached by using a pressure canner. So, I bought a new pressure canner, and now I am going through the growing pains of learning how to use it. I am just above sea level, so I only used 10 psi to process. It is quite the learning curve - it was SO much easier 10 years ago! I've always wanted to try canning Salmon though so now that I've invested in the proper equipment, that will be my next project :-) I did notice the interior of the canner was shiny ... I added a tbsp of vinegar to the water as suggested in the manual but I guess it was the lemon juice? Since I was having so much trouble getting the pressure up (took WAY 2 long on my stove), I've now invested in an outdoor cooking burner so when I get a chance I will try another batch of tomatoes and see if that improves the final outcome. I will also try using citric acid instead of lemon juice because I have a feeling I am not going to like the flavor in a few months once that lemon juice settles in :-( I was trying to avoid doing a hot pack - it is just one more step that makes it a longer process :-( I am almost at the point that I want to freeze them in the future ... seems like a LOT less trouble! I will persist tho - because I have invested 2 much time and $ 2 give up now :-) Thx again for all of your help and suggestions - I really appreciate it! :-) Have a gr8 day!

I posted this on a different message board a few weeks ago, but thought it might be helpful. This all started when I pulled out my old water bath canner and realized I could not use it on my glass top stove. I had not done any canning for a lot of years. First off, I have a glass top stove. Originally I was going to get the presto canner, but I read about canning outside, and thought that would be the way to go. So, this fall, I bought an All American pressure canner. It's the 21 qt size. I bought an outdoor propane cooker and use that. Actually, do to a manufactureing problem with the first one I bought, I ended up purchasing a second one while waiting for the replacement parts on the first (veggies wouldn't wait). The second works way better for water bath canning. Since then I bought a nice 12 qt stock pot that I can use for waterbath pints on my glass top stove. But, then I decided doing this outdoors was going to be a problem with the cold weather setting in, and I want to do smaller batches occasionally. Since I have a big canner, I thought the smaller presto 16 qt would be good to get. While on a trip to visit relatives in a much more metro area, I found the Presto 21 qt canner. This seemed a bit too big (size of box) and I thought the 16 qt would be smaller in diameter, so I passed it up. The next day, I found the 16 qt pot, and turns out it the same size diameter as the 21 qt. It was the one I had planned on getting, so I brought it home. Upon use, I discovered that I can't water bath quart jars in the 16 qt. With all the research I did, I never came across that until I read the instruction manual. But originally I was not planning on using it to water bath, so maybe I just didn't "regester" that even if I read it at some point. I did want a smaller canner, but the 16 and the 21 are the same size with the 21 being taller, so it's not like I got a "smaller" canner. Silly me thought because it worked on the glass stove, it would have a diameter similar to what my 12 qt stock pot has, only taller (if that was the case, then it would hold qt jars for water bath). So, now I've got two really nice pressure canners, and I still can't water bath qts on my stove! I really like the presto canner, but now I wish I had bought the 21 qt size. But that is the same size as my All American, so then I wouldn't really need that one . . . though I really do prefer the AA to the Presto. My husband isn't too happy with me, with all I've spent on canning stuff this fall, I would have spent a lot less to get another freezer! LOL!!! At least I've put up enough that the "value" of it if we had to purchase it does offset what I spent - and next year it will pretty much just be the cost of lids. But my canning equipment and supplies is no where near what he has for his reloading, so he isn't complaining too loudly. If I had to do it all over again, I would buy the Presto 21 qt right off the bat, and skip everything else. Added: the Presto canner had a big warning NOT to use it with a propane burner. It does not seem hefty enough to handle that heat. Cathy