Sorry it's taken me so long to get to this question, juliejart. I used 1 1/2 cups total for an 8-pint batch (half Golden Sherry and half brandy); however, this was a fruit mincemeat, not a meat mincemeat, if you know what I mean, so a lot was absorbed by the dried fruit. For meat mincemeat (I have two recipes - one for venison and 1 historic family one for pork.) I add brandy when prepping the pie. Amounts are at the bottom of this post. Here's the recipe with my notes: Mixed-Fruit Mincemeat (My Variation) Categories : Canning & Preserving Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1/2 pound dried apricots -- chopped 1/2 pound dried cherries -- chopped 1/2 pound dried dates -- chopped 1/2 pound golden raisins 1/2 pound currants -- or dark raisins 2 cups apple cider -- or apple juice 3/4 cup brandy 3/4 cup sherry -- (I used Almad Golden) 2 pounds tart apples 2 pounds firm ripe Bartlett pears 1/2 cup fresh orange juice 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice 3 tablespoons finely chopped orange zest 2 tablespoons finely chopped lemon zest 1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger In a large bowl combine the apricots, cherries, dates, raisins, currants, apple cider, brandy and sherry. Stir until well combined. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and set aside to macerate for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Peel, core and chop the apples and pears. In an 8- to 10-quart pan, combine the apples, pears, orange juice and lemon juice. Stir in the dried fruit mixture, orange zest and lemon zest. Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and ginger until well-blended. Stir the sugar mixture into the fruit in the pan. Over medium heat, bring the mincemeat mixture to a boil, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Reduce the heat and simmer until the apples are tender, about 40 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. If mixture becomes too dry, add a little more cider vinegar. Ladle the mincemeat into hot jars, removing as many air bubbles as possible and leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Using a plastic knife, remove any trapped air bubbles. Wipe the jar rims and threads with a clean, damp cloth. Cover with hot lids and apply screw rings. Process both pint and quart jars in a 200F (93C) water bath for 30 minutes. Description: "The original recipe came from "Blue-Ribbon Preserves."" Yield: "8 pints" NOTES : This stuff is so good it ought to be a sin to eat it. Day 1 I mixed the dried fruits with 1 cup of brown sugar and chopped mixture in the FP in several batches. Macerated 30 hours until Day 2. I think the sugar with the liquor mellowed the fruit. Day 2 chopped and sliced the apples and pears by hand for a more discernable, fresher texture. That worked very well. My version doubles the pears and apples and halves the sugar. Headspace: Slight venting with quarts. I think something closer to 1- 1 1/4" would be better, even wide-mouths like these were. Expanded right up to lid just like pressure-canner. When I canned venison mincemeat I didn't use brandy until I baked the pie. The venison is so rich usually I'd add 1 cup or so of fresh chopped apple to the quart when ready to bake and 1-2 tablespoons of brandy. But DH prefers it plain. If you have it, Drambuie is a really fine addition to mincemeat pie. (Well, Drambuie is a really fine addition, period. Skip the pie, LOL.) Carol

Hi Mas and Dani: Lucky you in zone 6 and warm enough for Belinda's Dream. My zone is 5a, I saw how beautiful that rose is at Home Depot, but I bypass it after this past brutal winter. Even some public knock-out bushes didn't make it. Here's the ingredients in RoseTone: Feather meal, chicken manure, cocoa meal, bone meal, aflafa meal, green sand, humates, sulfate of potash, plus beneficial bacteria. NPK 4-3-2. Folks put 1 cup of RoseTone in the planting hole, no problem whatsoever. A few days ago I put 1/2 cup of Jobes Organic Fertilizer for each tiny geranium. It's similar to RoseTone, but with NPK 2-7-4. Jobes is actually riskier at higher dose, due to higher phosphorus (bone meal), and potassium. No burning whatsoever, the geraniums became vibrant in colors, thanks to the trace elements in bone meal. Personally I think Epsoma Tomato-Tone at NPK 3-4-6 is better for roses: more of potassium & phosphorus for blooms. Let's get back to Rose Tone at NPK 4-3-2. All the ingredients are slow-released, except for sulfate of potash (a low 2). It's best to put 1 cup in the planting hole, since phosphorus (a low 3) stay put where applied. One study showed that phosphorus only moves down 1" per year, that's why folks mix 1 cup of bone meal in the planting hole (18" wide, and 18" deep). The NPK 4-3-2 values of Rose-Tone are quite low, it's actually safer to mix THOROUGHLY into the planting hole, than applying on top, where it gunks up in one spot.

I have Norton waterstones, 1000 and 4000 grit, and use them on my Henckel's and carbon steel knives. There are numerous YouTube videos out there on technique, but I learned most of what I know about knife sharpening from the Cheftalk website, which harbors fanatics on the subject. I've never used oilstones...they seem unnecessarily messy...nor have I tried a strop. The Chef's Choice sharpens well but removes a lot metal, so I use that on my ''throw-away'' knives. We have a lakeside summer home with lots of guests, and knives are frequently abused or lost. I can't bother with expensive knives and time-consuming sharpening there. I just use a steel for ''touch-ups'', which tells me I really need to get busy and actually sharpen the knives. This all works for me, but I don't own any Japanese knives that require different sharpening angles. I know Chef's Choice now makes a sharpener with adjustable angles that some people like. I've been rethinking the practice of washing knives by hand. I've always been told, and believed, that it's evil to put knives in the DW basket because they bang around and that dulls the edges. However, I now think maybe they're safer in the slots in the plastic top cutlery rack than they are in my soapy hands over a granite sink. And DW detergents are much less noxious now than previously. So, assuming the handles are impervious to DW's, is it safe to put knives in the DW now? I don't know but would be interested to hear others' opinions.

Hi Daniel, That is what I was thinking. It seems like the infected bag of soil would be the most likely thing to have brought this bacteria in- however with that being said, when I think about it- the plants that started to show these symptoms before some of the others (such as the 4th picture from the top of all images I posted (green plant w/ very red bumps)) were not in arrangements and had not yet been removed from their containers I bought them in. This leads me to think that one of the plants I had purchased must have had this bacteria and as I had a fan going to circulate the air, the scene was set for this bacteria to thrive. Especially onto the plants that I had removed leaves from (cuttings). I guess I will never know how the disease was actually contracted since it sounds like there are so many different ways this bacteria can survive even without showing symptoms. I have noticed that once a plant is infected- even if it's only showing signs at the bottom of the plant (so the top of the plant still looks completely unharmed and healthy) the entire plant is actually infected; and if you de-head the succulent and try and grow just the top, you are actually just spreading the bacteria into whatever soil you place it onto. This subsequently not only infects that soil but then infects whatever other baby plants you have sharing that same soil. This is what I am most concerned with now, as I have been propagating succulents since last April and I know I brought leaves from the infected plants (prior to symptoms) up to be with other leaves. Based off everything I have read on this disease so far, I am worried I need to dispose of all of the babies I have been propagating for 10 months in order to ensure there is no trace of this bacteria any longer... Here is a picture of all the little guys I have been trying to grow for wedding favors (my wedding is in July) and although they probably wouldn't have been big enough by then, it still hurts to have to toss these!! Man, talk about a bad Monday! :( Oh well..