In fairness to the USDA's use of "unsafe," "untested," etc. interchangably: Given what we know about bacteria and other pathogenic organisms, I think it's reasonable to assume, by default, that it's not safe to eat wet, cut vegetables that have been left on a shelf at room temperature for months unless there's a darn good reason to believe it is. For many recipes and processes, I believe that we have that reason: someone credible (for this kind of thing, anyway) has done testing and concluded they're safe. That's good enough for me. That someone has been doing it for thirty years and isn't dead yet is not. "Crazy until proven safe" might be a good motto when it comes to canning recipes. We might consider it "proven" that a fruit or vegetable concoction with at least a certain viscosity and acidity processed for a certain amount of time is safe, which is why it's safe to improvise some with pickle recipes even if the USDA doesn't agree. But I don't think anyone has come up with one processing time that's adequate for anything you can think of to pack into a jar and yields edible results. To sumarize and reiterate Petro's response to the confusion about processing times and botulinum spores: You CANNOT kill them in a BWB. (Boiling can destroy the toxin they produce, which only does you any good after you open the jars and right before you eat the contents.) Commercial canners bring foods to 250 degrees for three minutes to kill them. And that means that the internal temperature of the food is actually at that temperature for that length of time, not that the ambient temperature was 250 degrees for three minutes. This means processing times must be based on each food's viscosity and other properties, which determine how long it takes to heat through. Foods with pH less than 4.6 need not be processed at such a high temperature because the acid inhibits botulinum growth and toxin production (it still doesn't kill it). BWB processing is still necessary to pasteurize the food, to kill molds and other bacteria and perhaps to help deactivate botulinum. So the questions we need to ask when deciding whether and how to can something at home are Is the pH low enough to inhibit botulin production? and How long does it take to heat through? Without these answers, the canning process is a crapshoot. If a recipe gives consistent results, the USDA can answer these questions for us. If not, and we want to can a recipe anyway, we must answer these questions ourselves and FOR EACH BATCH. I'm not aware of any way to determine that every point in a batch of jars reached a certain temperature for a certain length of time at home. I do believe we can reliably determine the pH of a batch: with a good pH meter, perhaps like those used by wine or vinegar makers. (For chunky foods like pickles or fruit, you can put one jar through the blender--as long as each jar has close to the same amount of solid and liquid--and measure the pH of the results.) But with thick foods like pumpkin butter, even if you confirm the pH batch by batch, I still am not sure how to know your BWB processing time is long enough for pasteurization. The argument that you or your mother or grandmother have been using a recipe for decades and no one's died yet is invalid. I bet that of all the cases of foodborne botulism reported to the CDC, not one involved someone who had--or whose mother or grandmother had--botulism before. The fact that botulism is extremely rare is a testament to the success of the USDA guidelines, certainly not a reason to start ignoring them. And keep in mind that while botulism may be pretty rare, so is home canning. Your risk is not the same as that of the general population. "In recent history (i.e., the past, say, 30 years) the average annual incidence of food-caused boutulism is amazingly low. Of those reported cases a minority are from home-canned foods (most are from restaurants and other food-service organizations). And among those that do come from home-canned foods there are mitigating factors---such as using the food in a mayonaise-based dish, which then sits out at room temperature or in the sun for several hours." Look at the CDC handbook link Petro provided. On average, there were 23 cases per year of foodborne botulism in the US from 1950 to 1996 (and the numbers are pretty consistent, so only considering more recent years doesn't paint a prettier picture). Most of those are from home-canned food: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/files/botulism.pdf. You can figure this out from that report by looking at the number of outbreaks (affecting 2 or more people) caused by home-canned food and the total number of cases (apparently including those from "outbreaks"). 289 outbreaks x 2 = 578 / 1087 = .53. So AT LEAST 53% of foodborne cases are caused by home-canned food. CDC and other sources will say that most of these were caused by "improper canning techniques," but I imagine that they are assuming that if a canning technique allowed the production of botulin, it was improper--how else would they know? Besides, these sources would classify any canning of pumpkin butter as "improper". I could not find any evidence that all or most of these cases involved "mitigating factors". Please provide your sources, gardenlad. My point is this: malonanddonna says "A recipe pressure canned for an adequate amount of time effectively destroys any spores that might be present." I totally agree with this statement. However, in the case of pumpkin butter, we have no way of knowing what amount of time is adequate.

I too have a Super Bronco tiller, they do a great job. We don't use it though to till up the garden, our son in law does it with his John Deere and tiller. The Bronco gets to go up and down the rows of veggies. I used to use it a lot, but don't any more, our other son in law uses it or or daughter uses her tiller, which is smaller than the Bronco. It is too wet here for gardening yet, more rain coming this morning. As they say, that is what makes the little chicks grow! Sue in Central Indiana

we have the clouds and 70, but the rain isn't due in til night...did my walking today at meijers and actually remember a couple of items i've forgotten for 2 days, lol.. will have a full weekend and have to get the bath's cleaned...all the beds have clean sheets...besides mother's day, we're celebrating my only dgs's 4th bday...just saw his proposed party (pic-nick, cute right?) is suppose to be rainy...thank goodness, dd2 has a big enough house! with all the grands, parents and us, that's 17 alone...not mention his other grandparents, and friends... i so envy your ability to make a pie...i could never master a crust worth eating, although the fillings were good, lol.. you did remind me of ever present laundry...most is done but have a bunch to put away...

If I wrote my selling story, it would sound almost identical to yours! Except for our issue (initially) was an underground oil tank, which we removed and spent thousands converting to gas and installing a brand new top of the line furnace. Our house is updated down to the studs except for the windows which were next on our list. New kitchen with granite etc. We are 6+ months on the market and about to expire with our 2nd realtor. Our list price is now down to what our comp houses actually sold for about 6 months ago and on top of that we are offering to pay closing costs. Two low ball offers (we, like you, moved and our house is vacant). Considering a third agent or FSBO. I feel your pain! Not sure what state you are in but in my state (nj) normally the listing expires and then if you relist on the MLS it goes back to 0 again. However, RE agents can always pull the MLS listing history, which will show the house going on and off the market over time. Buyers who might be considering the house will know, as will the local agents.