Hi Angie - For future reference you can always find the details on the USDA/NCHFP website but you got the basic answer. Used to be all sorts of allowances that ceased to exist once listeria was discovered. Acid-loving, rapid growing, both heat and cold-tolerant, listeria proved to be just one of many exceptions to claims like "in a 75% vinegar solution no bacteria can possibly grow and multiply, in a matter of one week." Add too that all the research that proves that pH does not remain stable but rises over time on the shelf and a lot of the old beliefs flew out the window. And just to add to the confusion, when you read things like but I also thought I read somewhere that pickled peppers were actually safe for a period even if not canned the question to be asked is pickled how? Fermented, brined, or quick-pack are all "pickled peppers" but all have very different safety concerns. Dave

LOL...:) Of course your plant will produce chilis. Many pepper plants are self pollinating and alot of times only need to be brushed up against or have a little breeze to do the job. Lack of sunlight will slow things down, you will probbly never have a monster of a plant but you should not have problems otherwise. Be careful not to overwater, it is better to let a chili plant get overly dry than to overwater. I wait until I see some droop in the leaves before watering. Keeping a light on it cannot hurt and definitly let it get as much direct light as you can. good luck..:) kendra

I know exactly how you feel. I have moved multiple times and I've now given up on any ground garden. Because I don't think I my current house is going to be my forever home, I am growing in large water troughs and it worked pretty well last year. Last year I planted a celebrity tomato in one that is 100 gallons and it did great. It's a semi determinant variety though and only got to be about 4 - 5 feet tall. This year I'm pushing it because I am trying an indeterminate type which gets to be 6 - 10 feet. I would think it would depend on the variety you are growing , whether it will do well in a container. I honestly do not know if MINE will do well or not. Also I don't know if cardboard will last months especially since you have to get it wet. The next thing is Potting soil in a container vs. ground. Ground soil does't do well in containers. I would look at growing the tomatoes in a planter that is large enough for it to grow.

I am just finishing a four month reno that affected nearly my whole first floor (and half the second) and left me with no kitchen or eating area the whole time. I have a fridge in the garage but the fridge portion was no good to me bc it’s winter and everything froze in there. I set up one end of my living room with a long folding table. I had some very lightweight thin sheets of wood cut to fit it at Home Depot and laid that down for heat protection, then put a table cloth over it that hung down to the floor. I put a dorm fridge at one end of the table, and on the table I put a toaster, microwave, and toaster oven. At the other end was the trash and recycling bins. I kept one plate, one cup, one bowl, two knives, two spoons, and two forks in the house, along with salt and pepper, a spatula, some tongs, and several disposable food storage containers that could either store leftovers or act as additional bowls if needed. All of it went in a basket under the folding table, behind the tablecloth, which gave me some sense of neatness and order. Another basket under the table held food basics - bread, pb&j, cereal. Almost every single other thing in my kitchen was packed up and put into storage. I cooked tons of stuff ahead of time and froze them in individual serving sizes and put them in the garage freezer. My best advice is to get the stuff you will not need out of your house. ALL of it - put it in storage. I put a lot in storage, but there were some misc hard to pack things (like bottles of liquor, and a large wall mirror, and a clock) that I decided I could just stick in my living room or office. I also didn’t want to put any sort of pantry food in a storage facility so anything I hadn’t used up before the reno I put in boxes and set it in other rooms. I regretted these decisions big time. I’ve spent four months tripping over that stuff or shuffling it from place to place - I should have just found a way to pack it and store the possessions and given the food to a food bank. It seems like every available surface had stuff piled on it that I should have stored. I hated that way more than not having a kitchen. And remove any excess stuff from the room you’ll be living in - pare it down to only what you need. Otherwise it will just feel cramped and overwhelming. I just found it’s super important to create some order and visual calmness in the spaces you are living in. Other advice - take everything off the walls, even in rooms adjoining the work area, otherwise it may fall during work that vibrates. Buy extra filters for your HVAC and change them frequently during the work. And absolutely do not use your garage as storage for what is normally in your house. The very best advice I saw on Houzz before my remodel was to ruthlessly purge and organize my garage ahead of time. I did it, and thank goodness I did - both the house and garage would have been sheer chaos if I hadn’t, because the garage was used to stage materials and set up saws and other tools. Even though I had completely cleared both bays, this stuff completely filled the garage at times, leaving only a narrow aisle up the middle, so thank god I didn’t try to also use it to store stuff from the house. One of the big surprises to me was the amount of money it costs to deal with the reno but is not being paid to the contractor or designer. Examples include: movers to move things in and out of storage, storage fees, post-reno deep cleaning, post-reno duct cleaning, area rug and carpet cleaning, service charges from my home security company to come and put sensors on my new windows, appliance delivery and installation fees, packing supplies, etc. It adds up. BUT it will all be worth it!! Good luck!