Jodik says: The coir might look dry on top, but down in the center of the pot, it could be quite moisture-laden! I have found it helpful to insert little wooden skewers carefully into the soil to about root level, and leave them there... I take them out and press them against my cheek to test for dampness... if they feel at all damp, I wait to water... but if the skewer comes out dry, it's time to water. My coir is 4" deep in a closed pot. I put the skewer to the bottom of the pot. When I take it out how many inches of bone dry top "soil" should there be before it's time to water again? Is it 1", 2" or 4"? I just went 10 days without water and only 1" of the top was dry so am I supposed to water this direct sun pot once every two weeks or so to avoid over watering, really? And how much water for my 6" closed pot? I had been watering 1 1/2 cup or so once a week and my plant was fine but I'm now worried that was too much so I'm re-evaluating. I know what conventional wisdom says (water deep, not shallow) but that advice doesn't seem to apply to my situation. Also how long should it be before I see new leaf growth in the summer time (first season outside)? My 18 month old Red Lion so far has only grown new leaves once a year. At potting and at dormancy end.

I'm going to keep the pointy end heading the same (sorry, that's boater's venacular) for a minute. Americans desire for "perfect" looking food is also partly what's driving the heavy use of pesticides & herbicides. Americans are consumed with "looks" over substance. Farmers use more & more 'cides to create prettier products. They plant seeds that ship easier & stay looking pretty over those that taste good and, maybe, even offer better nutrition. Sure, there are also economical benefits to the 'cides mass agri-business uses such as more product per acre but we can't lay ALL THE BLAME of those awful strawberries on them. We want inexpensive, plentiful, & pretty food but we, in general, are unwilling to pay for the quality we expect. It's a vicious cycle. We decide we're going to eat local & organic. So, off we go to the farmer's market. Hmmm, the organic apple doesn't look pretty & is smaller than the apples at the other non-organic stand plus it's half the price. Which do we purchase? Pretty? Healthy? We each choose. My two local grocery stores do not offer bruised produce. It is thrown away in black bags as shown in the video. Heck, here there's not even a "mark down" meat section like I've read others describe here on the forum. If it's pulled from the shelves - it's trash, period. We live with the sea every day. We are long distance, deep water boaters. We are fisherman. It's ridiculous to say that a lobster MUST be alive at the time of cooking to be safe to eat. But, since most Americans do not have much hands-on experience with seafood...it's good advice to follow. Lobster spoils very rapidly after death & the ensuing bacteria build-up can make you ill. But, I assure you, if something goes wrong in emptying one of our traps & a lobster dies - we do not feed it to the gulls. We'd be rightly laughed out of town if we suggested such a thing. That's waste - pure & simple. But, when I lived in Denver there was no way I'd purchase a dead lobster because I had no personal way of knowing when death occured. In general, IMO, a lobster's good for a day properly refrigerated. Some will still cook at two days but I've got a compromised immune system so am persnickity. If a fresh fish smells like ammonia it's probably starting to rot. As with most things, there are exceptions. (Skate being one.) But, again, it's good general practice to not eat fish that's starting to smell of ammonia. Should smell slightly briney, like the sea. If DH brought home fish yesterday, or the day before, & it had a slight aroma - would I still cook it? Yes, & I'd do as John has suggested - wash it in lemon juice. It's surface bacteria. BUT, I know exactly when, where, etc. that fish was caught, how it was cleaned, how it was held, & how it was stored. Makes a big difference. And I still say that everybody that owns a home should have a compost pile to avoid waste even if the resulting compost is used on the roses instead of a veggie garden. Recycling rotted produce from the refrigerator to the earth is the environmentally sound thing to do. Also, if every year you top off your gardens with 4-6" of leaf mould, compost, & manure you will not need to purchase/use commercial fertilizers except for pots. You'll have less garbage that needs hauling away, the city trucks will use less gas, & you won't need to buy as many bags. Win-win. :) Sorry 'bout the compost lecture but it's something I believe most Americans can easily do & don't. /tricia

maybe I do need to explain my idea of dry brining a little bit. I did a google search and it seems I differ from some of the info. Almost all of it is about meat and I must tell you that dry brining is just as good for vegetables. It takes that little hard edge (maybe bitter for some people) off the vegetable making it more palatable. What I do is pretty informal. I prepare vegetables for cooking such as washing and snipping off the end of green beans, or slicing mushrooms or peeling some of the coarse stem off broccoli and chop, etc. I then put the vegetables in a collander. I use about 1 tsp kosher salt per 8 oz of fresh mushrooms. Or two teaspoons for 1 1/2 pounds of green beans. For carrots, I use two teaspoons for 10 mediums carrots thickly sliced (on the diagonal). But don't leave out the seasoning step. Stir the salt into the vegetables in the collander. Then I mince a large jalapeno with seeds in my food processor. Then stir the jalapeno bits into the vegetable mixture in the collander. I think this is the point you could substitute other seasonings such as thyme or dill or garlic or oregano. Stir everthing well trying to make sure your veggies are coated with the herbs (or jalapeno bits). Then put the collander over an empty bowl and cover the collander with a dishcloth. Here is where I get really loose with the directions depending on how much time I've got. But I rarely leave the veggies sitting on the counter in the collander (covered) for more than 3 hours. But I think you could if you accidentally went that long but I have no idea what the maximum time would be. May depend on the veggie. Once your ready to cook, then nothing else special to do but cook. A lot of veggies are good roasted. You can put the results from your collander on a roasting pan and spray lightly with one of those spray cans of olive oil. And then roast for normal amount of time. There will be liquid probably in the bowl beneath the collander. I just discard this though it might be good for making a stock but could be rather salty. Sorry I'm winging most of this but the main point of this is that the salt besides taking the edge off the veggies seems to somehow cause the seasonings to really be drawn into the veggies and penetrates them better than without the brining, IMO. When I cook catfish fillets, I let them sit in the collander with the jalapeno bits and salt covered for a few hours. But inevitably, when I roast them, I need to roast for about 10 minutes, drain and roast some more. Not sure if I get the liquid because my catfish is cheap or what but the final version of the catfish with the jalapeno spicy flavor is nothing short of fabulous. I don't eat catfish any other way now. Yum, yum, yum. Sorry to make this so long but when I went looking on google, turns out there isn't much on this. I posted a pickled carrots recipe in other thread that I love for low fat, diet snacking and healthy too that involves dry brining first with minced jalapenos, then briefly boiling in vinegar and water and chilling in jars in the fridge. If you like spicy food, the salt will really enhance the jalapeno flavor, IMO. Search for "pickled carrots" and I bet it will pop up.

After perusing the suggestions here and doing lots of web surfing I've pretty much discarded my initial hunches. Now I think one of the keys is the leavening agent. Evidently, hartshorn was the traditional leavening agent, as Carol says. Most people today probably use baking powder, as called for by many recipes. But there are at least two types of baking powder. I have reason to believe my grandmother used Davis double acting, which I believe has a heat activated compound as well as a water activated one. I don't think she used hartshorn, although that is possible. I need to ask my mother if she knows. My daughter has both Davis and Rumford in her kitchen and doesn't recall which one was used in previous years' springerle. Rumford is also labeled as double acting, but is faster acting and may be exhausted during the overnight drying period called for by most springerle recipes. The purpose of drying is to retain the sharpness of the embossed designs during baking. Rumford says this about their product: "As an all-phosphate baking powder, Rumford Baking Powder does not contain any aluminum. This property makes it somewhat faster acting than typical double-acting baking powders. Youâll still see a boost of leavening in the oven, but most of the reaction occurs in the mixing bowl. While this makes a more delicate crumb structure in the finished product, do not dawdle. Youâve got to work quickly for best results." Well, an overnight drying period is some serious dawdling. I'm thinking that Rumford baking powder is not a good choice for springerle. I think springerle needs either hartshorn or a baking powder which includes calcium aluminium phosphate. Of course, there are other factors such as proportion of ingredients, amount of mixing, baking time and baking temperature which must be considered too. Drying time doesn't seem to be critical. Lengthy beating of the eggs and sugar, as mentioned by Grainlady, is sometimes emphasized. I don't know the reason for that, incorporating air I guess. My daughter's results improved when she switched to a recipe using cake flour. If I understand it correctly, that would jibe with the cautions against developing gluten. But it is unusual for a springerle recipe to call for cake flour. In my OP, I failed to mention a feature of my grandmother's springerle because I didn't know how to describe it. In a couple of sites I found, there is a discussion of springerle having a "foot". This is an oval base on the bottom of the cookie which raises it slightly off the baking sheet. That feature is familiar to me. I don't know if that is what happened to bcskye's springerle which "kind of puffed out of the bottom". Maybe so. That's my progress report for know. I'll let you know of any further developments. In the mean time, take a look at some of the sites featuring springerle on the internet (the one linked below has some nice photos) and tell me what your experience has been with different brands of baking powder.