How productive that will be will depend on the soil so you need to start there with a good, reliable soil test. You may want to get a copy of Mel Bartholomews "Square Foot Gardening" to learn more about close planting and yields. Also dig in with these simple soil tests, 1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. and as this is added I can hear the sighs and see the roll of eyes from some here who think this is repeated to often and is unnecessary. Since organic gardeneing starts with the soil this is the place to start.

I don't heat my jars. After they have been sterilized I just put them on the counter lined up to be filled. If you touch a jar after you have filled it up with boiling hot veggies or jelly or whatever, you realize it immediately becomes very hot from what you put into it. IMO I think it is a waste of time and energy to heat them up and keep them warm. I think this notion came about when people were canning in cold houses and kitchens way back when. There the difference between ambient air temperature making the jars cold and filling with hot product might make them shatter. I know that the modern canning jars are made to allow both heating and freezing, thus are tempered glass, to resist shattering. I've never had a jar break while filling it. Even when cold packing, I see even less a reason to heat the jar as long as it has been sterilized. Nancy

I had the strangest thing happen yesterday. I had the whole spiel typed out to tell you all and got booted so just dropped the thing. I went into Walmart to buy a roll of masking tape to use on my marking tables today at the Farmer"s Market. Thought I'd cruise down the canning isle and see if they had restocked lids. I didn't need any but just wanted to check. To my surprise all the canning supplies were marked down with those big red and black stickers they use. Quart and pint Ball jars were $5. Wide mouth and reg. were the same. Lids were $1. reg. and $1.50 wide mouth. The platinum wide mouth jars were $2.50 for the four pack. Ball salt $1. I bought 20 doz. of each size lid and 6 doz. of reg quarts and pints. The new freezer jam packs were $2. I bought 6 pks. I did leave a lot there but spent over $100. I got home thinking what a bargain. Very seldom do canning supplies go on sale here. This is a farming community. When I got home I realized I forgot the masking tape. So, after dinner I went back [it's just around the corner] and picked up the tape and went to check the canning isle and everything was back to the original price. Evidently someone marked things down in error. The blue enamel canner with rack was still $13. though.

I live in the real world and have limited income so I so the following with an old jar - the last 150-180 I got were canned in the 1970's and some still had liquid content and others (because of roof leaks) had the lids completely rusted out with dried up contents inside. Made two piles - dried up contents - liquid contents Getting the band off sometimes a real problem when very rusted. Easiest thing was to take a small metal cutter and nick the metal ring and turn it off just sardine can with a needle nose pliar. Hold dug in garden and all liquid contents poured into bottom of hole for soil organisms to break down. These jars were placed in a large tub of warm water with bleach and strong soap. Dried up contents were put into a different tub with warm soapy water for a week or so to let the contents soften. Removal of rust stains on the exterior of bottles done with industrial toilet cleaner intended for removal of rust from toilet interiors. It worked very well. When done, threw away the rubber gloves and covered the jar content hole with 12 inches of soil and a board. In groups, turned on my outside propane burner and cooked all the jars for 30 to 60 minutes. Removed groups of jars and stood upside down to drain and put next batch in. After cool enough to handle, checked all bottles for cracks and rim chips. I had missed a couple during the initial "dirty" inspection and discarded these. Used all the bottles up a week later to can tomato products - BWB and Pressure Can. None broke. Got some neat old jars. Spent a good 8 hours time on cleaning the 150 to 180 jars. I live in a urban area in So. Calif. and canning jars here at pretty rare. There are no basements at "Aunties" house full of jars (there are no basements anywhere). Finding 150 to 180 in one place 35 miles away was a real find. I know Linda Lou would have thrown them all out. That would have been the cautious thing to do. I also should not have replaced the missing shingles on the roof of my house and I should not have picked up the rattle snake in the yard and moved it to the edge of the forest. I now treasure my old bottles and I don't kill snakes. Jim in So. Calif.