Can i just chop n measure n freeze? Yes. Can i use cherry tomatoes? Yes but it is a different consistency. Can i also chop n freeze my bells n hot peppers? Yes. I spread them out on a cookie sheet to freeze a bit and then bag but if you pre-measure them you don't even need to do that. Would i drain before freezing or afterward? For salsa? Tomatoes - after thawing. do I need to peel tomatoes? It is recommended but is almost impossible with cherry tomatoes so many don't. Recommended because a) removes primary source of bacteria and b) gives better mouth fell and consistency without the peels. If you don't mind the bits of peel in the salsa then you can skip the peeling with cherries. As they thaw you'll find you can pick many of them right out anyway. The most important part of making salsa is using an approved and tested recipe. If planning to can it for shelf storage, that part is mandatory for safety. Dave

Something else to try: the "brown-n-serve" approach. Cook the half you want to freeze part way, then cool and freeze it. When you are ready to eat it, you just have to finish the cooking process. That seems to keep the cheese from becoming leather -- and the crust as well. When we make pizzas, we make an extra that is only par-baked and then frozen for later -- for those nights we just don't want to cook. When we are ready to eat it, we heat the oven to 400 or 425, and then put in the frozen pizza for 6 - 8 minutes. Sometimes we add a bit of extra sauce to the top and/or extra cheese, but not necessary. If we have the pizza stone in the oven, it takes a longer pre-heat because it takes a while for the stone to come up to temp. But it does make for a better second-time-around crust.

You can re freeze anything that isn't already spoiled. It won't improve in quality and it might lose some moisture, but it won't hurt you. Those cooked defrosted and refrozen salmon filets would have made great salmon patties. Linda C

It sounds like a comedy of errors. Is there anywhere you can move the potted seed parents under cover while pollinating them? "Rain" isn't an issue here (unfortunately) during the pollinating season. We do have occasional heavy fogs/dews, but they don't seem to inhibit fertilization. You might benefit from placing covers over the fertilized flowers to prevent the pollen from being washed off the stigma until they take. You may, also, need to allow the anthers to dry longer due to differences in varieties, humidity and temperature. That's something you should experiment with while you have flowers of the potential pollen parents to get a feel for how long to possibly expect them to release enough pollen for you to work with. Nothing is hopeless. It will just take a bit more experimenting and exploring to figure out how to circumvent what prevented success the last time you attempted it. Making sure the potential seed parents will even set seed is a good place to start. Before I began pollinating anything, I allowed my roses to set whatever they wished to set so I could determine what might make decent seed parents. From those self set hips, I raised many seedlings to see which germinated easily and well. I figured it would be frustrating and a waste of time and energy trying to get seedlings from roses which refused to set seed, or would set, but refused to germinate. There are many of each of those types. It took a season to figure out which seemed the easiest to work with while I practiced, but I believe it saved me a lot of effort, time and frustration. I still encounter the occasional "mother" which hates setting seed, or which will set them, but whose seed is not easily germinated, but they are fewer and farther between as time goes on. For those, I use them as pollen parents on tried and true seed setters. There are a number of roses which seem to be able to be pollinated with dirt....those which set seed from every flower and whose seeds germinate like weeds. Orangeade and Angel Face were extensively used, often for that very reason. My rose, Lynnie, is another. The miniature, Anytime, seems willing to accept almost any pollen and its seeds come up reliably. I'm sure there are others more suited to your climate which perform like that. Researching them on Help Me Find-Roses can help show you which may be like that and save a season of experimenting. If there are no offspring shown for the rose you are researching, that doesn't mean it won't make a good candidate. It might be too new or no one has reported using it yet. But, there are many in the database for which that kind of information is known and listed. You can also join the Rose Hybridizers Association and post questions about using particular varieties there to see if anyone has experience using them. What were some of the seed parents you tried, but didn't have success with? Perhaps someone here might have raised seedlings from them and can offer information. Kim