Gjcore asks: " Any ideas on how to achieve the right balance in our brews for the 3 stages of plant life?" The key to getting the right nutrients to the plants at the right time relates to what is being fed to the microbes when making Bug Juice. By having the right nutrients being fed at the right time the plant can respond the way the gardener desires. As an example: Early growth Adding fish emulsion or a seed meal (alfalfa, soybean, or other high protein (nitrogen) source will result in good fast growth for the plant. Mid growth Adding bone meal, seaweed, or other high phosphorus nutrient will ensure good root growth as well as stem development. Flowering/fruiting growth Adding seaweed, potash, greensand, or other high potassium source will insure good fruiting and weight to harvests. And too, adding calcium at any given stage will insure plants will have the right ratio to adsorb all the nutrients being fed to plants. While using any given tea will always aid in plant growth IMO, having the nutrients in the soil to feed microbes is always important. While some will advocate having a soil test to know what is needed within soil, the ability to measure organic nutrients in said soil is extremely expensive and unrealistic throughout the growing season. Plants are smart enough to know what they need and when they need it; we are responsible to make sure all the nutrients are in the soil at the right time. Talk of pollution from overfeeding plants is all well and good, however, soil endowed with ample organic matter and compost/humus will store nutrients until needed by plants. To my knowledge, no soil test has been developed to measure what is stored with soil compost/humus levels yet, thus to mime about testing something that is "untestable" leaves much to be desired. Better to maintain high levels of compost and humus in the soil, make sure all the nutrients are in the soil for plants to be able to absorb said nutrients, and the gardener at the ready to harvest and consume said harvest are the best way to get healthy food to the table. Full spectrum amendments (loaded with all the nutrients we need for our body) added to the soil in the form of fertilizer or compost tea remove all doubt of weather the nutrients are there; we know they are there because we put them there. This includes all the nutrients a so-called "soil test" never tested for in the first place. I am not saying to never get a soil test; what I am saying is I never waste my money on a soil test; we test our soil at the dinner table. Blutranes

Instant pectin? There is powdered pectin or liquid pectin. Which form and brand name do you have? As a general guide you can add powdered pectin to any recipe but not liquid pectin. But normally it is used only when specified by the recipe. They are not interchangeable. You can use fresh lime or lemon juice when making jams and jellies because they are not there for safety reason (with a couple of exceptions). They are included to make the jam/jelly set. But when the lemon/lime juice is used for acidification reasons, such as when canning tomatoes, then bottled juices only. Fresh lemons and limes have a wide range of pH, bottled juices are stabilized with a fixed pH. Dave

The response I received from the news station wasn't quite what I'd hoped. For those not in the Seattle area, the segment showed peeling a ripe tomato by scalding followed by ice bath, quartering, putting it into a jar and adding boiling water, two piece lid. Instructions given but not shown were 45 min BWB, then the 'ping' to assure a seal was explained. Easy, pretty, fresh. But incomplete all the same. Response copied here - without permission but hope it's OK "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. The focus of my story was home cooking, which is not subject to USDA guidelines. USDA guidelines are, very often, extremely specific and tough -- which is a good thing! -- because the USDA is charged with monitoring public health as it pertains to commercial food enterprises. Not trying to come up with an "excuse" here...but...the fact is that the segment you're talking about is not presented as a comprehensive treatment of a given topic. It is designed to simply be a broad outline of "tips" or "suggestions" to give viewers ideas. Perhaps I should have included a "tip" that pointed viewers toward comprehensive guidelines for home canning. If you have any story ideas or suggestions for coverage -- that fits into the kinds of things I do -- please feel free to let me know Again, thank you for sending the e-mail and bringing up a good point." On the good side, the Canned Tomatoes instructions have been removed from the restaurants link and is no longer in their recipes.

Here's a list of pH levels of some of our most beloved canning ingredients: Item Name and Approximate pH Lemon Juice 2.00 - 2.60 Lime Juice 2.00 - 2.35 Orange Juice California 3.30 - 4.19 Orange, Juice Florida 3.30 - 4.15 Pineapple Juice, canned 3.30 - 3.60 Tomatoes 4.30 - 4.90 Tomatoes, canned 3.50 - 4.70 Tomatoes, Juice 4.10 - 4.60 Tomatoes, Paste 3.50 - 4.70 Tomatoes, Puree 4.30 - 4.47 Tomatoes, Strained 4.32 - 4.58 Tomatoes, Vine ripened 4.42 - 4.65 Vinegar 2.40 - 3.40 Vinegar, cider 3.10 I'd bet this is the same list that Linda Lou referenced above. The complete list is at the link below - I go to this list a lot when I'm not sure what is low-acid (higher numbers on the pH scale) vs. borderline vs. high-acid (lower numbers on the pH scale) food for "experimenting". Here is a link that might be useful: Approximate pH of Foods and Food products