Thanks! I ended up making a special trip to the store - just to be sure. Here's my recipe, which I've been using for a few years now. My kids love it!: http://proverbsthirtyonewoman.blogspot.com/2012/04/making-dandelion-jelly.html Here is a link that might be useful: Dandelion Jelly Recipe

Yes, plant thick. I have a few varieties that always do well and trying a couple more this year. Sugar Ann and classic Sugar Snap do well for me. I plant, direct seed, my first double row as soon as i can work the soil, then again the next 2-3 weekends, a week apart-ish. (wet rough weather will sometimes keep me out of the garden). If i relied on just one of those plantings i may not see one pea. Seeds are cheap and the harvest can be buckets full. Once the weather warms, in go my pole beans right behind the peas, in, again, a three week planting, but way less thick. As they are getting a footing, the peas start to brown and crisp and pull out with ease. Planting a few varieties, (i go overboard with 15-20), will give lots of peas and beans as they have different growth times. Early on i had given up on peas for a few years thinking i had the wrong climate but now that i 'insurance' plant i get enough to give plenty away. I get all my peas from Johnny's. And a random pack here and there if i can't help myself from the nursery racks...those racks seem to have a 'buy me' magnet. I try not to look...

mathias, I've used both in canning and see no difference in the texture or set of jam or jelly. I've always used cane sugar for candy making because Grandma told me I had to. (grin) Grandma ought to know, so I don't question that! Sugar beets are grown here and produced locally, so it's cheaper than cane sugar, but nearly all sugar beets are genetically modified and that makes a difference to some people, me included. I like to wait and see if there are long term effects we aren't aware of now. Annie

"people in power haven't tried to keep cures for diseases from getting out in the open you are truly naïve" Seriously? Are you a conspiracy person? Who are these people in power conspiring to keep people ill? -- "You don't think it's odd that all this money has been raised to find all these cures but none have been found?" That's how science works. If people knew where to look, knowledge would be much easier to obtain. You may not appreciate that the fact that nothing is found with a particular investigation doesn't mean nothing will be found, simply that where or how they were investigating wasn't fruitful. Work goes on. -- "Going to doctors but staying sick?" Doctors are in on the conspiracy with people in power too, they want to keep their patients ill intentionally? Yeah? -- "Medicine is all trial and error" Yes, this is true, it's true of much of scientific research in general too. Can you suggest a better approach? Smarter people than you and me and the world of science in general have settled on an approach to expand knowledge. Why do you accept unproven approaches that AREN'T tested or subject to trial and error? Do you think that's smarter or a more valid approach? -- "And all of those trials you speak of have no affect on me because I don't go to the dr." That's your choice. Do you think it's a thoughtful one? Do you have medical insurance and choose not to use it, or do you not have coverage? I've known some people over the years who've scoffed at conventional medicine as you do and turn to alternatives BECAUSE they couldn't afford health insurance. For several, it was a short sighted decision because they needed care and had to scramble to get coverage. I hope you don't have kids whose wellbeing you're risking because of your extreme views. -- "If I get sick I take my natural remedies and feel better in no time. " Sure you do. Just hope you never have anything seriously wrong with you, it will strain your faith beliefs. -- "Just because you don't agree with something it doesn't make it wrong" True. -- "And I'm pretty sure tests have also been run on these other remedies. You'll never hear about them if they actually accomplish something though." Don't be so sure, that's the greatest beef about so-called "alternative medicine". Lack of testing and lack of proof. If something is proven to be effective, the researchers rush to publish papers and everyone knows about it pronto. Ever hear of PubMed? It's an NIH-run online catalog of ALL biomedical research that's published. Should a piece be missed in a periodical, researchers doing catalog references will come upon any findings that are new or different concerning an area of interest they have. There are no secrets. In fact, researchers rush to find areas others haven't investigated because being first is a way to become better known. In the alternative medicine area, it's mostly crickets. Religions are a belief based environment, science is not. Wishing doesn't make it so. -- "Drug companies can't patent natural things. " Sure they can. -- In the absence of proof, a suggestion or a hypothesis is described as lacking proof or being unsupported by evidence. That means it's false/invalid/doesn't exist. It's not the negative, "it hasn't been disproven". That argument is illogical and isn't valid for science. Or medicine. You're very misinformed. Sorry.