Senecio rowleyanus, STRING OF PEARLS, STRING OF PEAS, STRING OF BEADS, STRING OF MARBLES. Native to SW Africa. It's available in the U.S. We also have a plant here called "Rosary Vine". It's Ceropegia woodsii. Joe

I made it exactly by the recipe, including the cloves. I saved out enough of the batch for supper that night and processed the rest (a full canner load). I had never used the dried beans (rehydrated per the recipe) before, and thought they tasted rather bland in the unprocessed supper batch of chili. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened one of the processed jars--the flavors and texture were much improved and matured by the pressure canning. If you do a taste test prior to processing and are thinking of adjusting the seasonings--I would wait. You can always adjust seasonings after opening the jars, but you can't take it back once you put it in! I've heard that cloves can give a strong taste in canning, but this is a small amount in the recipe. It does NOT give it a clove taste, and after tasting it, I doubt I could even identify that it had cloves in it. On the other hand, when I make this again, I won't leave it out because the whole recipe works as-is. I hope you like it as much as I did. Jill

Actually a bit of acid )citric, vinegar, etc.) can reinforce the heat a little. Ever eaten a raw pepperoncini? These are those little thin green pickled peppers you see at salad bars. I grew many (huge amount from a single plant!!). Tasted raw, and un-pickled they were only ho hum. Once in a brine a week later, the heat was very noticable, and was not the same plain Jane pepper anymore. That may be the main reason they are not usually found as fresh produce, because people get a dissapointment once they chew a few.. The Food Saver machine is made by the same company as all the other heat sealers sold now (Seal a Meal, etc.) now, and they also own Ball company. Jarden is their main name. I like the sealers for meats and for quick prepared meals like meat pies that are made fresh and packed in the vacuum bags. Most items last a year or longer in a decent freezer, and because the plastic material is very thick with two types of plastics, its also not as 'breathable', which causes flavor loss. Zip Lock for the freezer stuff cant even come close to the same freezer protecion. If freezing the peppers, destem, and deseed. Cut into halves at least, so there are no big air pockets inside. Set the sealing machine vacuum to high, and the rest is history..

if i sauce up 2 or three pints at a time and put them in the fridge, how long will it keep? Also, could i go back and pressure can a large batch once i have collected enough in the fridge? Just core and freeze the tomatoes for now rather than making them into sauce. Once you have enough in the freezer to make it worth your time THEN make them into sauce and can and process it the same day. Hopefully without causing a big controversy - again - I'll just point out that fridge storage with later processing is less than ideal. We have discussed this here many times in the past. Bad things continue to grow in the fridge so storage in the freezer is much safer and produces a much better quality than storage in the fridge. And with fridge storage you have to duplicate all the work of heating the sauce back up to boiling, re-jar, new lids etc. before processing. It wastes your time and the energy used. How to process them is your choice. Plain tomato sauce with lemon juice or citric acid added can be done in the BWB. If any other foods are added to flavor the sauce then pressure canning is required. Smoke them and grind them? Do you dry before or after smoking? Remove the skin before grinding or no? Smoke, then dry, then grind. Dave