Well one of them fell off the vine it didn't seem ripe, so I took it into the house for a couple of days. I finally decided to cut it open (still looked like a cantalope) it's a cantalope....it's one of the most sweetest melons that I have tasted in many years. Do melons ripen if you set them on the counter like a tomato? It had to have been mislabeled. Thanks Farmerdill and denninmi :)

If the recipes are pressure canned you won't need the vinegar. Cooking wine will be salty. Either a food is brought up to safe acid level to prevent botulism and normally then safe to use a boiling water bath canner or the food is pressure canned to destroy the botulism. The exception would be tomato products that still usually need added acid even when pressure canning. Boiling water is only 212 degrees, in a pressure canner, at 10 lb. pressure it is 240 degrees. The difference in heat is what is able to destroy botulism and other spoilage bacteria. You can't destroy botulism at 212 degrees if the acid is not high enough to prevent it.

Hi, it's me - Tricia. Great advice. I agree about the birthdate. Birthdays were not celebrated like we do today and many immigrants lived in countries where vital records were either not kept at all or were sketchy, at best. Church records are baptism dates - not usually birthdays. Result - many immigrants simply did not know when they were born. So, because it was required info they made a date up and, sometimes, didn't remember what they had put on each different form. Then, to further confuse the situation many immigrants were not literate or spoke dialects using just phonics and each person from the same village spelled the same word differently. Now, add in the problems on the other end in the US (lack of ability to understand foreign languages, poor literacy rates, equally poor spelling) and mistakes were more the rule than exception unless your immigrant came from an English speaking country. I agree to check other points of entry besides Ellis Island. Remember, to a non-English speaking person Ellis Island meant nothing. But, over the years it became the place most people associated with "immigrants" so they said that is where they were processed. T'aint always so. Even if they write Ellis Island on their official paperwork. My own grandfather is a good example. All of his official paperwork read Ellis Island. He told everybody Ellis Island, including me. I spent 10 years looking for him. Nadda. Hired the National Archives to search. Nadda. I'm a contact person for the German-Russian Historical Society for the village of Norka. Got an email one day - from a women searching for one of my aunts who immigrated with my grandfather. She said, "Ellis Island? Gee, that's funny. My aunt always said they arrived through Portland, Maine." With the correct point of entry - Grandpa was easy to find. Fifteen years old and towing behind 3 younger sisters. Sometimes, there no better genealogical research than dumb luck. :) I also think a membership with ancestry.com is a good investment if you're just getting started. But, I warn you - BE CAREFUL! People are idiots. They just copy what somebody else has written with no further research on their own. So, mistakes get passed on and on and on and on. LOTS of them. I use whatever I find on ancestry.com as a clue, nothing more, until I've confirmed the info by independent resources. Also, the Mormon church site is notorious for mistakes. So much so I could not with good conscience even recommend using their data bank. But, if you do - proceed with caution. My goal is always 3 separate confirming documents saying the same thing. And, I get copies if possible. I've got tens of thousands of hard copy records. I set an annual budget for vital records and such because it does get expensive. I had my second book, "Thunder on the Steppes, a genealogy of ______________", edited this past spring (while we were rebuilding from Sandy). I was especially nervous because I've written a novella inside the book to bring my German-Russian ancestors to life for my grandchildren. My first attempt at fiction. My editor loved it and said I should seek a publisher believing it has a broader audience than immediate family. I'm thrilled. First though I need to publish the entire genealogy and not get sidetracked. I'm so close to being finished - just got to sprint those last 200 meters and cross the line. It's taken over fifteen years. At that point, I'm going to call my genealogy project finished. Genealogy is never truly finished but after nearly 3 decades of research and two books each exceeding 800 pages and going back to the mid-1200s it's as complete as I'm going to take it. I'll leave it up to future generations to carry on. Have Fun! /tricia

mboston, For me, it took years to get a positive blood marker. ravencajun, ALS is a common misdiagnosis. I had several doctors tell me I had MS, also a common mistake. In med school their training consists of a single paragraph noting the dry mouth/eyes. Nothing about vital organs, neuropathy, central nervous system, etc. If you're ever looking for more info, I can highly recommend the Foundation's tapes of their annual meeting guest speakers. If your a Foundation member there is a large discount. Even if you're not the tapes are an excellent investment. /tricia