Linda Lou, the salad spinner is a great idea. When I make relish I've been doing like Dave does and wringing all the liquid I can from the vegetables. Your way sounds a lot easier and gives me a reason to use that salad spinner that Elery bought and I haven't used a single time. Linda Lou has a great zucchini relish recipe: Linda Lou's Zucchini Relish 10 cups ground zucchini 3 cups ground onion 5 tablespoons salt 4 1/2 cups sugar 1 tablespoon dry mustard 3/4 teaspoon tumeric 1 1/2 teaspoon celery seed 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 2 1/2 cups cider vinegar 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1 red bell pepper, ground 1 green bell pepper, ground Using coarse grinder, grind zucchini and onion. If large zucchini are used, remove seeds before grinding. Combine zucchini and onion with salt and let stand overnight in the refrigerator. Drain thoroughly. Combine sugar, dry mustard, turmeric, celery seed, pepper, vinegar and nutmeg. Cook over medium heat until it begins to thicken; then add ground bell peppers and cook on low heat for 30 minutes or until desired consistency is reached. Pour into pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Adjust lids. Process in boiling water for 15 minutes. Yield: 6 pints Annie

MMMmmmm! That asparagus looks great. Thanks for sharing the news about your and Al's visit to Dorothy's and Glenn's with us. It sounds like you all had fun. And, for those who don't know that our Mulberryknob is a published author, I will post a link to her book, which I have read....and I really, really enjoyed it too! Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Keep Your Fingers In The Dirt

Hi Mike, Congratulations on your new bin! I will try to answer your questions based on my own experience, and I'm sure that others will add their own wisdom. First, I would be hesitant to put the worms into the sunlight - sunlight can hurt them and heat up the bin rapidly. They may be moving to the sides because the center is heating up past their comfort level. They should be just fine in your garage so long as they don't reach freezing levels. If you really want to bring them outside for a little warmth, keep them in the shade at all times. If your consistency is gooey, I would suggest two things: first, it may be the food processor is chopping up the food too small to allow for air flow. If I chop up my food, it is no smaller than one inch chunks. Most of the peelings and trimmings from food preparation are already small enough for the worms. When I started my first bin years ago, I went to a lot of trouble to process the food until I realized it really wasn't necessary, and decreased air flow and eventually made my bin smelly. White mites indicate that the bin has a lot of moisture in it. They won't hurt your worms, but the lack of airflow might. I would encourage you to put the food in as-is (not finely processed), and mix it with dry or barely moist bedding and the coffee grounds. Bigger chunks of food leave bigger air pockets. Dry bedding should absorb excess liquid and balance the moisture in the bin. I would encourage you to make sure that you are not overfeeding them. Two pounds of worms, at their absolute best, should consume a pound of food a day. You do not mention how long you've had the bin, but it can take a month or three to really get the microorganisms in the system going to the point that it can really process a full pound a day. Your worms will eventually multiply and eat through that two to four pounds of vegetable waste per day that you are producing, but right now it is too much for them. If the worms are getting more food than they can handle, it will start to rot, get gooey, and get compacted and decrease air flow, which compounds the moisture problem. When I first got worms, my goal was to feed them every scrap from my household in order to bring our green waste to zero. It was a really good goal, but it took several months before they were up to it. I have used a tray system but I found that my worms quickly outgrew it and I ended up using it in a manner that it was not intended, causing myself a lot of extra work. They can work really well, but in my experience cannot handle the amount of food that you are producing. Others on this forum may have other experience they can share with you. Here is a post of my vermi-tray experience, though it is probably not typical: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/verm/msg0816361714189.html If I were in your situation, I would do one of two things: Option 1 is to buy more worms to consume the waste my household currently produces, knowing that within a few months I will need to either find another source of food or start giving away worms. Option two is to be patient and add lots of bedding. Mix in a lot of dry bedding to balance out the moisture in the bin, and add your food scraps with enough bedding to keep the moisture balanced. I would be more inclined to add it in patches and pockets rather than in layers. Layers can decrease airflow and give the worms nowhere to go if the food heats up when it decomposes. In the mean time, throw your extra scraps in the compost heap or the freezer and know that the worms will have multiplied substantially within a few months and they will meet your household's scrap production. In order to help the worms eat the food faster, I like to mix in some of the existing compost with the food as I add it to the bin. (i.e. I make a pocket for the food that is larger than I need, dump in the food, some fresh bedding, and quickly toss it with my hands so that the food mixes with the bedding and a handful or so of the contents of the bin. Then I cover it with the contents of the bin.) I think this helps the microbes get into closer, faster contact with all the surfaces of the fresh food so that it can start decomposing and be available to the worms more quickly. Just a word of encouragement: your worms really will be eating up all of those scraps faster than you realize. I started with 2 pounds of worms and a single Vermihut in April of 2011. I now have 10 containers totaling almost 500 gallons and I'm starting to give away worms by the pound on a regular basis. I just built a new container that will hold approximately 80 cubic feet of worms and compost because my worms are quickly outgrowing their containers. I now collect from local restaurants to keep all my worms well-fed. I hope that this will be helpful to you, but please take what is useful to you and read through the forums. Most newbies have exactly this problem and there is a lot of information for you in questions already answered. Good luck to you, and let us know how it goes!

I really like this one...I don't care for the crunchies tho. Kinda sweet...but really delish! CRANBERRY RELISH 1 c. sugar 1 c. water 1 (12 oz.) bag cranberries 1 (3 oz.) pkg. raspberry gelatin 1/2 c. coarsely chopped walnuts (I didn't add) 1 (about 8 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained 1/2 c. diced celery (I didn't add) Dissolve sugar in water and bring to boil in large pot. Add berries. Return to boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until berries pop. Remove from heat. Stir in gelatin until completely dissolved. Cool completely. Add remaining ingredients. Refrigerate 24 hours. Serves 8 to 10. NOTE: The gelatin doesn't make the relish firm, but thickens it slightly.