Michelle..in the past I've germinated them in the cold frame, but it's been so cold this month, I still have the flat indoors. It'll go out as soon as the temps get to the 70's in the frame. I use 1-gallon nursery pots for them. I always have some broken ones, so I cut the bottoms out of them and keep them just for this purpose. I use them on the potted peppers as well. They come off when the plant outgrows them. By then it's usually warm enough. I got over 500 various nursery pots from a woman who listed them on freecycle last year. A couple of neighbors drop off theirs, and I cruise the neighborhood on recycle day, especially this time of year, picking them up.

I made it exactly by the recipe, including the cloves. I saved out enough of the batch for supper that night and processed the rest (a full canner load). I had never used the dried beans (rehydrated per the recipe) before, and thought they tasted rather bland in the unprocessed supper batch of chili. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened one of the processed jars--the flavors and texture were much improved and matured by the pressure canning. If you do a taste test prior to processing and are thinking of adjusting the seasonings--I would wait. You can always adjust seasonings after opening the jars, but you can't take it back once you put it in! I've heard that cloves can give a strong taste in canning, but this is a small amount in the recipe. It does NOT give it a clove taste, and after tasting it, I doubt I could even identify that it had cloves in it. On the other hand, when I make this again, I won't leave it out because the whole recipe works as-is. I hope you like it as much as I did. Jill

I'd use 3T for 4-4.5C of fruit, see my Oct 7 post. We're getting close to 150 so I'm just editing this rather than posting again. Hope you read this Dennis Try 3T if you think 4 is too much - I generally use 3T for 4C of fruit, I would think classic pectin would be the same though I use the N-S. Yes, it will clump if you add it to liquid, mix a little (I think I recommended 1/4C of sugar) with the 3T pectin before adding it to the pot, bring to a boil per pacakge(canister) directions then dump the rest of the sugar in all at once. Boil for 2-3 minutes (though the directions say 1). Mike's been lucky, if he leaves the jars on the shelf for months he may find taffy. Something like fruit juice you might be able to get away with long boiling and get a good set, esp. bottled juice that has a lot of water in it, if you didn't boil it away before adding pectin/sugar. But when making a jam, you not only risk ending up with a harder set than you planned on, but also you lose the fresh fruit flavor with long boiling. Maybe you need to let juicy things like tomatoes cook longer (or drain them), but I'd do it before adding the pectin if possible, and I've never tried fresh pineapple but from Jason's and Linda Z's experience it sounds like that needs longer cooking too, but again I'd do it before the pectin and sugar are added since there is a "sweet spot" - too long and you end up with caramelized taffy, even longer and oddly enough you won't get a set b/c *overcooking* the pectin will cause the bonds that are formed earlier to break, which is why it's hard to re-make a jam that's set too stiff. It's better to just stir in water or fruit juice when you open the jar, or melt it and use it as a glaze or something. Maybe I should have asked Mike if his strawberry jam was runny? I've never cooked a jam that long after adding pectin, though I have cooked jams using just fruit and sugar too long and ended up with something you couldn't even scrape off the spoon with your teeth LOL (I believe that was blackberry). My cousin didn't realize how high in pectin gooseberries are added pectin to them and ended up with "gooseberry glue" as she called it! sharonie - Chop the apricots really fine, and let them sit in the vinegar longer. Though you may have overcooked your Gold a bit too, it's hard to tell. Maybe Annie will jump in, she's got more experience than I do, esp. with making that. But last year I overcooked my Gold a little bit b/c I as trying to get it to set before the fair, it darkened (and I only got a red ribbon) so if your jelly part looked nice and light golden, I'd say it was just the apricots weren't fully hydrated. HTH This post was edited by ajsmama on Tue, Oct 21, 14 at 7:54

If you have a brand or variety you like, well you're set. In the stores round us, there are a variety of dried chile peppers that are sold by variety, not by brand. Ancho, serrano, etc. I have never bought dried chile powder except in NM, and there I bought dried ground green- prob Hatch, and one of my favorites, ground dried Chimayo. I don't use the dried green as much as I could since we still have frozen green chiles from Hatch. They're dwindling tho. :-( btw, there are also some recipes that call for roasting (on a griddle etc) dried red chiles (variety usually specified) and THEN hydrating them for use with additional ground red chile powder (again, the variety is specified). I hope this gives you some ideas about the use of chiles and if you are in CA you must have a lot of sources.