The only thing I grow in a high tunnel are my early girl tomatoes. I plant them a month early, and get my first harvest in June rather than July. The photo of the single okra plant inside the hoop house was one taken as a freak storm was approaching. I threw that hoop house together with scraps of sheet metal, black plastic, old vis-queen, and what ever I could find, in an attempt to save this plant's germplasm from the freezing temperatures that were approaching. Unfortunately, high winds that night prevailed, and I lost the battle. Only 5 pods were saved to full maturity. These were distributed among friends at the Department of Agriculture, and a few OSU professors I knew. The dusty ground in that photo will attest to the drought conditions in which that plant prospered. I was only able to water it sparingly, as our well was close to going dry. The photo was taken in October of 2011 after a Summer of record heat. August 2, 2011 reached 115 degrees.

You don't want a very high temp. to smoke the peppers or you'll burn them. Somewhere between 150-200 degrees. You don't run the smoke all the time either or you'll get a really bitter tasting pod,especially if your using Mesquite for wood chunks. I use Scrub oak and hickory most of the time.I like the sweetness of hickory and the dry smokey oak taste combination. One of my smokers has hangers for skewers in it.I like to thread my pods and hang them from the skewers in my verticle smoker to dry them.hanging they dry really fast and I can fit a ton of them in there as opposed to racks stacked in the smoker.I don't have to rotate or stir the pods around like I did when I was using tin foil covered grills in my barrel smoker. I sent you a PM from this site a couple days ago.Tim couldn't get my E Mail fixed on my puter yet.He was in a hurry and didn't have much time. Don't know if you got it. Yellowtail is my favorite smoked fish.Excellent stuff. Smoked thick pieces of beef jerky are good too but they somehow dissapear too fast. Smoked Turkey and Ham day is comming up soon too. When Chuck is on sale buy a whole 20lb chunk.Poke holes in it all over the place at different depths and put garlic,green onion and a slice of hot pepper in the holes. Rub it down with a hot pepper rub and let it sit in a plastic garbage bag in the fridge for a couple days (to soak everything up) then cold smoke it(200%-250% smoker temp.) for about a day or so (depending on fat content etc.up to 30 hrs.)till it reaches about 180 inside. Outside will be well done and it'll be like you do prime rib-gets rarer as you cut it. Put a throw away aluminum pan under the meat to catch the juices so you can cool them in the fridge to take the fat off easier. Cut it with beef boulion or it will be too smokey tasting and have too much of the rub in it from the meat, reheat it for AU JUICE.Or add flower for gravey. You can add a dash of onion and garlic powder but usually the spice rub from the meat seasoned it enough. ou can shred the meat and mix in the sauce for pulled beef sandwiches on a hard roll(soaked with hot juice,covered with a slice of cheese too) or burritos,tostadas etc.

Good Morning! I opened Sharon's (GMOM)cookbook fun last night!!!!! Love it all Sharon! *Several crochet and handmade pot holders....I think the ones with the birds are pot holders???? I will email you! *Gardening gloves *America's Country Inn Cookbook *Promise Yourself a Good Meal With Optimism Cookbook (Optimist Club) *Fresh Delights Fruits and Vegetables Cookbook *Tropical Blossoms Of The Caribbean...a little book just about specific Caribbean flowers...pics and descriptions! *Sweet and Salty Mix Thanks so very much!!!! Annie

Howdy! If anyone has used one of the cheap-looking, buy pretty neat idea systems, how did you halt the grill top from swaying while one took the food off? Thanks! Happy Cooking!