Silvia, so great to see you posting! As usual, your garden looks great. This year has been the best so far for us with the greens. We have collards, kale and lettuce. The collards are past knee-high and the kale is almost that high. The chickens are getting a daily treat from them. Whenever I want to use them I just go out and break off the lower leaves and leave the tops to keep growing. The broccoli and Brussels sprouts are up but not gangbusters like the greens. The peppers and eggplant have pretty much stopped producing. But if they make it through the Winter they might come back in the Spring.We had hot peppers so much this past year that I had to pickle, freeze and dry a bunch and still gave some away. The snap peas are growing and producing but they are not going as well as previous years. So every year is different. One thing we did this year was to put down clear plastic before we prepared the Winter garden to solarize the soil. I think it helped. We have also amended the soil with chicken manure compost since we have chickens now. We also have some tomato plant volunteers in several places in the garden, must be seeds from the compost pile. Of course if it freezes they will go by-by.

My vote is for a dehydrator, and it doesn't have to be big OR fancy. Check prices on a NESCO American Harvest. They are often found at Wal-Mart and Ace Hardware stores and you can easily expand their capacity by purchasing extra trays. The temperatures of most home ovens don't go as low as is needed and can actually "cook" the food you are drying, rather than dehydrating it. This results in the outside being hard and the inside moisture can't expel properly through this hard crust. When you store improperly dried foods they will mold and will be wasted food. Not all foods dry at the same temperature. It's important you dry meat at a much higher temperature than say herbs like chives. -You will also use less utilities using a dehydrator. They take very little electricity; and because they have a fan in them, you will get more even results. The fan is almost as necessary in good dehydrating as the temperature. -When I find great bargains on frozen vegetables, but don't have the room for storing them in my freezer, I dehydrate them and put them in dry storage. -Overripe and discounted fruit is quickly made into fruit leather (aka roll-ups). These are not only great as a snack food, but can be used as the base for fruit sauces. -Sweet potatoes are cooked, mashed, and dehydrated on the fruit leather sheets. When crispy, they are pulverized in the blender into sweet potato powder. By adding the powder to hot water you get "instant" mashed sweet potatoes. -Apple season is upon us and I find all the free-for-the-picking apples possible. Apple slices are a great snack food, but I also use dehydrated apple slices for making applesauce and apple pie filling. Dehydrated apple cubes are added to quick breads and homemade granola. -A dehydrator is a good way to avoid wasted food. Instead of vegetables languishing in the crisper drawer, dehydrate it. Those discounted containers of mushrooms are quickly dehydrated. -It is amazing how many dehydrated tomatoes you can store in a quart jar. Make your own tomato powder and you can use it for making tomato sauce or tomato paste. -We use zucchini slices instead of potato chips. Dried cucumbers are also good used with a dip or crumbled on the top of a salad. -After the holidays, when cranberries are at nearly give-away prices, I dehydrate as many bags as I can find. -Small cubes of COOKED lean meat can be dehydrated and are great added to homemade soup mixes, tossed in soup or casseroles, etc. -If you soak nuts overnight in lightly salted water (they will be just starting to sprout), then dehydrate them until they are crispy-dry. Nuts processed this way are easier to digest and will keep longer in dry storage than fresh nuts. I purchase the bulk of the nuts I use when they go on sale after the holidays and prepare them this way for storage. -If you get a dehydrator, I'd also suggest purchasing a cutting mandoline for cutting slices quickly and evenly. It makes quick work of many foods you dehydrate. -The other thing I'd suggest is a good book on the subject: *How To Dry Foods - by Deanna DeLong *Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cookbook - by Mary Bell *Making & Using Dried Foods - by Phyllis Hobson I no longer do home canning, but concentrate on dehydrating and dehydro-freezing for food preservation. Check your local library for books about dehydrating. You will also find great information at the link below. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: National Center for Home Food Preservation - how to dry

A family salad that must be served at all holidays, started long before I came into the family, and I still keep the tradiiton today and everyone loves it and it is almost identical, except it is called "Dr. Pepper salad" and you sub the DP for the Coke and instead of cherries, you use marachino cherries and you heat the DP and dissolve the jello, then you put all in processor, except marshmallows, which wasn't on "the" recipe. I smile everytime I make it, brings back alot of fun family holiday memories and with alot of family members now gone that's cool. try it, you might be surprised, but then I'm no ace of a cook here either, plus I've been known to use a can of mushroom soup...lol. brenda

I really like this one...I don't care for the crunchies tho. Kinda sweet...but really delish! CRANBERRY RELISH 1 c. sugar 1 c. water 1 (12 oz.) bag cranberries 1 (3 oz.) pkg. raspberry gelatin 1/2 c. coarsely chopped walnuts (I didn't add) 1 (about 8 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained 1/2 c. diced celery (I didn't add) Dissolve sugar in water and bring to boil in large pot. Add berries. Return to boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until berries pop. Remove from heat. Stir in gelatin until completely dissolved. Cool completely. Add remaining ingredients. Refrigerate 24 hours. Serves 8 to 10. NOTE: The gelatin doesn't make the relish firm, but thickens it slightly.