I have actually told vendors at the fair that "This isn't canned properly. You shouldn't be selling this to the public when canned this way because...." I don't care if they get upset. They are the ones who went public with their wares. They are the ones who should have made the effort to learn. They are the ones putting the public at risk. If they ask for more info I give it to them and do it nicely. If they get huffy and indignant maybe they will think about it and investigate more later. Meanwhile at least the other people around have heard me. Then I contact the local extension office rep there since it is their responsibility to make sure this doesn't happen in the first place. That's the bad red devil that sits on one of my shoulders. He figures we should just pick up the jars and then make sure the owner and everyone else there sees you open and dump them in the trash as you explain why. What can I say, he's old and evil. But the angel sitting on the other shoulder (yes, I do have one despite what others may think) always reminds me that there are a lot of folks that don't know enough to even consider the possibility that they don't know enough. You aren't old and evil like me :-) so do what Carol suggested, contact the county extension office (if this was a county fair) or the state extension office and provide them with the necessary info. It is their responsibility and who knows, maybe it will at least make someone down the line think twice. Dave

multi tier worm bins are real bad for brand newie worm wranglers. The trouble is they seem like simplicity itself. open lid and throw kitchen scraps which are 70% water in top tray and sprinkle with water. Over time these kitchen scraps 'decompose' and the worms eat upwards on the food, fungi, organisisms all muching away at these foods. The water and moisture from the kitchen scraps follow gravity to the bottom of the bin into the sump. So this bottom area tends to mainly be moist and smelly since new worm wranglers tend to not empty the leachate (which is toxic and poisonous) off enough, so the worms tend to dislike this bottom area since it has yucky stagnant water pooling there; its basically a swamp since it also contains worm castings. Thus new worm wranglers often drain off this foul smelling soup and flush the system with more water, but by 'overwatering' now they are compacting the upper layers with water molecules. this is because water acyaully is very heavy and it clings to itself, so the overwatering tends to compress the food bedding layers and the water clings to itself and displaces oxygen. So now we get anerobic decomposition and instead of aerobic methane that quickly disapates off in a well balanced oxygenated worm bin we get a compressed mass of food that slows down its decomposition due to lack of oxygen. Now we get ammonia gas and this gas kills worms real dead, so the worms must run away (into the bottom sump) or do a worm run and leave the bin entirely to avoid being gassed to death. So, to dry, to wet? the newbie worm wrangler tends to lighten up on how much water they add, so gravity tends to pull down moisture into the bottom layers and water sump. So now the upper layers of newer food tend to dry out more and worms breathe through their WET MOIST skin so they tend to move to where the water is (into the sump) luckily. AS long as they have a ladder to reclimb back up to the bedding layers instead of drwoning in the sump. Remember they need moisture to breathe so they dehydatrate if they stay up top. If it rains then they worm run away to the refreshing outside rain and die from sunlight or lawn fertilizer or whatever. So this is why (especially) with a sudden unplanned for run of hot weather that evaporates or transpirates your top layers of moisuture away your worms flee to the bottom sump layer for the life giving water. Remember without water worms are dead, dry bedding to a worm is the same as you crawling over broken glass or sandpaper without protection; it would not be nice so do not 'neglect' your worms. These factors and others are why multi tier worm farms are not the greatest for newbie worm wranglers, but remember worms are very resilient and people learn if they lose or hurt their babies (worms), so over time humans get better at 'listening' to what worms "like". Generally worms like being left alone to do their thing and mainly new worm wranglers try to hard to 'help' the worms with to much food or water but we humans usually get better over time, but of course you have to take note of the weather since worms cannot learn to drink from a tap; how could they turn it on ? ;)

Oh you guys, I love your pictures and descriptions!! Carolyn - is there any way to slow down the slide show? The frames pass so quickly it is impossible to study your technique. Rhome410 - so happy to see a link to your blog. I checked it out and am most impressed - I had an odd thing happen with my turkey - 19 # - miele web site suggested 2 and 1/2 hours on auto roast which was close to my past experience. I did put a spoonful or two of stuffing in the cavity just to give it flavor, and set the auto roast probe to 165. At 2 and 1/2 hours the probe hit temp, but the turkey didn't really look as brown as it has in the past, and the thigh didn't feel quite loose, so I left it another 30 minutes and checked with my own thermometer - 170 in the thigh and breast - 165 in the cavity. Removed the turkey and let rest for 30 min or so while I made gravy.(OK, major run on sentance, but that is how my mind is working today). Carving, the meat looked great - super moist, turned the turkey and found a very uncooked, almost raw, section of the thigh closest to the body. I am certain that this bird was completely thawed as it was brined the day before, and as I handled it prior to cooking there were no real cold spots. The only thing that I forgot to do was to let the turkey sit out for an hour or so before stuffing. I had it in the ice chest in the garage - so I guess it is possible that the thigh could have been up against the bag of ice . At any rate, we carved the entire turkey with the exception of the undercooked thigh and it was great. Fortunately I had made a batch of stuffing seperate from the bird so we used it and not any of the stuffing in the bird.

oops! sorry. hit a wrong button. I wanted to comment on Campbell's soup. I totally agree about the taste. Dish water is a good discription of the chicken noodle now. and the Tomato, one of my favs, is so bland as well. I remember my mother making soup for us 6 kids and the condensed soup was really what you would call condensed. one regular can of tomato came out of the can in a almost can shaped mass and the directions said to add 3 cans of water! you had to really stir it like mad to get that condensed soup to mix smoothly with the water to create the creamy soup, it was that thicke! and it tasted great! Soup was an economical way to feed a family then. not so much now! Now you only mix in 1 can of water and the "condensed" soup just runs out of the can. really there is no sense adding any water because what you get now is red water, no longer the thick and creamy packed with tomato flavor. bland and watery. same for the chicken noodle. they just keep cheapening the product, like people wont notice. I get the whole "let's get rid of all the artificial crap and high sodium and make this healthier because that's what people want. but if you can't do that and still produce a product that tastes good and people want to buy it, you might as well realize your product is done. people are buying now on nostalgia only and eventually Campell's Soup will be no more.