The undisclosed ingredients in the instances revealed by the investigation could pose an allergy risk. And there have been plenty of cases where supplements contained undisclosed pharmaceuticals, unacceptable levels of heavy metals or even toxic herbs like Aristolochia. This investigation provides further evidence that the minimal regulation the supplement industry enjoys is not protecting consumers. It's bad enough that bloated and false claims are routinely made for their products, worse when the contents don't reflect what's on the label. At this point, I can't see buying any herbal supplement product that isn't tested by a respected independent lab for content. I can trust what I grow myself, but little else.

Amy, I avoided the kitchen all I could this weekend because of the heat. We either ate cold meals, ate out, or cooked on the grill outdoors. It is too hot to can, but I'll be doing it this morning anyway. At least the weather today won't be quite as hot. My purple pole beans still are producing too, but I'm tired of picking them (because, you know, then I have to process them or cook them for dinner, lol) so I am going to let the ones still on the plant dry for seed. Nancy, The cooler air is just so nice, even without rain. Rebecca, I cannot believe how hard the squirrels have come back after the tomatoes after they figured out they still could get to them despite the stockings covering them. It is too bad you aren't rural and couldn't let a neighbor just shoot the little furry rodents. That would solve the problem. For what it is worth, I've been watering the zinnias 2 or 3 times a week, and they still manage to wilt and twist and look bad every afternoon. It is sad when the heat is too much for them. I'm hoping to be able to get them through the next couple of hot weeks so they can continue to bloom into fall. The butterflies love them so much that I'd hate to lose them. Melissa, Congrats on getting the home projects done. This is the time of the year when I usually start working on projects indoors in order to give myself a reason to avoid going outdoors in this heat. Even though my garden has had squash bugs for a couple of months, they really haven't been doing much apparent damage until the last couple of days. I know it is time to yank out squash plants now, if I can make myself stay outside long enough to do it, so the squash bugs will perish for lack of something to eat. The danger in doing that is that the surviving squash bugs might move to the muskmelon and watermelon plants in order to survive, so maybe I'll take out the squash plants one by one---maybe one per day---so I can continue to harvest melons for as long as possible before the bugs move to those plants. There are times (and this is one of them) when I wish I could just not care about being organic and instead just go nuts and spray all the squash plants with a synthetic pesticide to kill the squash bugs, but as much as I fantasize about doing it, I'm just not willing to use those chemicals in my garden. Sometimes peppers are slow in the heat and then produce very heavily in the autumn. Since yours haven't done much yet, I'm assuming they're saving themselves for the cooler fall weather. Sometimes putting out shallow pans of water for the birds will deter them from eating the tomatoes since what they're really after is water. Sheets will work only if they completely cover the plants like a tent and are held down firmly to the ground to keep birds from getting up underneath them. Bird netting works, but only if the birds cannot find a way underneath it. Those fake owls absolutely do not work so save your money there. Anything that moves in the sun, preferably something highly reflective, often will startle the birds and keep them away. You can use bird flash tape (our Walmart had it earlier in the season, I don't know if they have it now), aluminum pie pans, old CDs, etc. Tie them to the plants or to the cages using thread, string or fishing line and leave them loose so they can twist and turn and move in the wind. Eileen, Those cucumbers are diseased, which is not uncommon because there's tons of diseases that affect cucumbers---they are disease magnets and cucumber beetles spread diseases right and left all summer long. If you haven't fed the plants lately, you might feed them the water-soluble fertilizer of your choice to see if it pushes out a lot of new growth. Then you could remove all the old diseased foliage. I'm not sure what your cucumbers have. You can go to the Cornell University vegetable MD online website and compare your plants to photos there of cucurbit diseases and see if you find a match that helps you figure out what it is. To me, cucumber diseases look so much alike that I rarely bother trying to figure out which one a plant has---it largely is irrelevant because once they're sick and we are this hot, it is hard to save them. I just yank out the cucumbers in late July or early August and plant new seeds for fall. Here's the cucurbits page from vegetablemdonline: Cucurbit Disease Info At Vegetable MD Online With cucumber diseases, you often get multiple diseases at the same time, making diagnosis by photograph really tricky. You can cut off the sunscalded parts of the cucumbers and eat whatever is left. H/J, Normally the spider mite population peaks around late July and starts falling. Hopefully that will happen in your garden (it would help if some rain would fall since spider mites like it dry and dusty). The spider mites I had on my peppers earlier in the summer never did much damage and seem mostly gone now. Perhaps lady bugs or green lacewings or some other beneficial insect ate them. My tomato plants look like crap but are still producing too. That's really all we can ask of them when it is this hot and dry, and when pests and diseases galore are everywhere. Tomatillos do not fall off the plant while very small unless some insect or disease is infesting them. With tomatillos it usually is because some very small tomatillo grubs, sort of like tomato pinworms, infest them. I haven't had them here, but lots of people in OK have a lot of trouble with them and cannot get a tomatillo crop because of them. Spraying the plants in general with Bt might help. Ground cherries are edible, but I found myself unimpressed by them the year I grew them and never bothered growing them again. YMMV. Jerry, I bet it was all the rain that affected your watermelon flavor. I have had heavy rainfall do that to mine some years. I hope the watermelon jelly gels, but even if it doesn't, you'll have yummy watermelon juice to drink. My garden is burning up right along with yours. I could keep watering and maybe keep it going, but there's no point in this heat. I'm going to focus on keeping the peppers, the flower border and the fall tomatoes alive and let everything else go. In a few weeks, I'll plant stuff for fall......if it seems like it might rain again some day. I'm not big on trying to start a fall garden in vicious heat if there's no rain, so reserve the right to change my mind about fall plantings. Really, with lots of canning done, tons of potatoes and onions in dry storage, and the freezers just about full, I can walk away from the garden and know we have had a really productive year despite the weather. We did have 1/3 of an inch of rain yesterday evening. It was nice, but I'm not overly excited about it---today's sunshine probably will suck up all that moisture right out of the ground before the sun sets today. In the overall scheme of things, 0.33" isn't enough to get excited about. Now, if we'd had 1 or 2 or 3" I'd be deliriously happy, but that didn't happen and it almost never happens in July or August, so I'm not getting my hopes up. We've been dry all year and, while that 3" of rain that fell in early July helped a lot, it is long gone and the soil is dry and cracked and parched and it is going to take a lot of rain over a prolonged period of time to turn things around. I just don't see that happening in July or August. So, thinking about how dry we've been most months of the year just made me wonder what things look like statewide in terms of year-to-date rainfall...you know....who's had above average rainfall (Jerry? Nancy? anyone?)....who's had below average rainfall (Me? Amy? Melissa? Eileen? anyone else?).....is anyone sitting right at average rainfall? So, I'm going to go get the average rainfall maps and post them here and we can all look at them and ponder why the weather does what it does. Here's the year-to-date rainfall in inches: OKMesonet Year To Date Rainfall in Inches Of course, the rainfall map in inches is more meaningful if you know how much rain each area receives because there is a huge variation in average rainfall totals across the state. So, here's the map that shows rainfall as a percentage of average rainfall for the same time frame: Year To Date Rainfall As A Percentage of Average The numbers on the above map surprised me. Even folks who have had plentiful rainfall at times aren't doing that well overall. So, one final measurement is the map that shows how large of a rainfall deficit (or surplus) there is at each Mesonet station compared to what would be average rainfall for the same period. Here's that map: Year To Date Rainfall Departure From Average The above map is pretty self-explanatory. Blue is great, orange is awful, and everything else in between could be considered various shades of good or bad. And, really, for our gardens, what matters most is what has happened in the last month, but it has been so dry, I refuse to look at those maps because it would be too depressing. July is the hardest month. Dawn

I think I have a bad cold, not the flu. I need to kill my husband but love him too much to kill him. We have to put our fire radios on a charger every night to recharge the batteries. Apparently he did not set his radio on the charger, so it started beeping very loudly at 4 a.m. to let us know the battery was almost dead. It was like having a fire alarm going off in the house. Can anyone say "Wide awake?" We had another big fire today, but had spent the morning buying supplies---prepackaged snacks, gas cans, bungee cords, gloves, zipties (no, I don't know why---but the firefighters said they needed them, so we bought them), etc. and cleaning up/reorganizing all the trucks and tweaking minor mechanical issues and such, so we were ready. We had already done all the basics last night, like gassing up all the trucks and refilling all the water tanks. Today was spent fine-tuning everything else and cleaning up the trucks because they were dirty and sooty from last night. We also picked up about another dozen cases of bottled water and Gatorade. We were trying to be ready for anything that might happen. Two big multi-alarm fires in two days concerns me. Today was supposed to be a "low" fire danger day, but eventually our Fire Danger status for our county was showing "High" fire danger, so I guess our weather overachieved. The forecast high was 70 and we hit 77, which I think is a bad sign. By then, we had six VFDs, including ours, out at a combination vehicle fire (a Winnebago with a full 50-gallon tank of gas) and grass fire/wildfire (because a burning vehicle is going to ignite the grass beside it). So, for the second day in a row, our attempt to lay floor tile in the mudroom fizzled out. Maybe tomorrow will be our day. Or, maybe we'll finally get it done sometime in 2018. I feel out of sorts, Jennifer, and have for months. I blame the weather. I feel like, at least lately, we have all four seasons of weather every day. You wake up in the morning and it is cold, so you dress for Winter in sweats, a coat, boots and gloves and go out into 30 or 40 degree weather to take care of the animals. By mid-morning, it has warmed up a lot and you shed the heavier clothing because it feels like Spring. You start thinking it might turn out to be a really nice day after all now that it is no longer cold. Somehow, then, in the early afternoon the house is starting to feel hot, so you decide it is Summertime and turn on the air conditioner. Summertime isn't too bad, as long as you watch out for snakes hiding in the leaves when you're out in the yard with the animals but at the same time, you know that it isn't right to have 75 or 80 or 85 degree weather in November. Then, as soon as the sun starts to set, the temperatures fall rapidly, you turn off the air conditioner and a couple of hours later, make sure to turn on the heater before you go to bed because, now it is Winter again. Stack a bunch of these days on top of one another and it is enough to make anyone feel out of sorts. And...there's dust, pollen (weed and tree pollen here still is at moderate levels) and smoke in the air, so you really don't even want to be outside during the prettiest part of the day, especially if you're coughing your head off. I just want some normal weather. I want it to be cold when it should and hot when it should, and getting rain would be lovely, but I'm starting to think it isn't going to rain ever again. Or, at least it isn't going to rain again in 2017. Other than the above, everything is just peachy keen here. Rebecca, I like JetStar as well as all the other hybrids you mentioned. They all perform really well for me here. In our garden, Jet Star is more productive, but Big Beef has better flavor, so I tend to just grow them both. I think Big Beef is the best-flavored red hybrid available today, and Brandy Boy is the best combination of hybrid vigor, flavor and productivity available in a pink tomato. Amy, Yes, movies were expensive and herding a bunch of kids was a chore, but those still were sweet times, and I cherish the memories. I think the kids had as much fun seeing second-run movies at the $1 theater as they had seeing first-run movies at the bigger, more expensive places. I don't miss those days though---they were great at the time and now they're over. (grin) Now it is those children who are the adults taking their kids to the movies and they can do it without me and I'm not offended at all. I really enjoyed going to movies as a kid in the 1960s and 1970s. We had a little local theater that was open through at least the late 1960s (with a drugstore right beside it that had a lunch counter, stools and a soda fountain) and we went to a local drive-in a lot in the 1970s. I do love Gary 'O Sena. In fact, I like all of Keith Mueller's varieties, though Liz Birt is a more tart flavor so it appeals more to people who like old-fashioned flavor than to those who like the sweeter types of tomatoes. It is conversations like these that make my tomato grow list spontaneously expand and get too long. Nancy, I think it is an age thing. When I'm with my brothers and sisters, I don't want for the gathering to end. Perhaps it is partly because we're at the age now where we've buried at least some of our parents and their siblings and spouses, our grandparents are long gone, and we've lost a cousin here or there far too young, and we're becoming more and more aware of how quickly the time flies by. You look back and wonder where the decades went. It seems like just yesterday we siblings and cousins were the kids, and now a lot of us are the grandparents. How did that happen? Tomorrow we start the last week of November. Where did the month go? Dawn

So, I'm reading backwards and trying to catch up. Nancy, Sophie's Choice is a fine early tomato and I've noticed in some drought years that it is amazingly drought tolerant as well. I've grown it in maybe 8 or 10 years, as it has been available via seed retailers since around the mid 1990s. If you like old-fashioned tomato flavor that leans more towards being a bit tangy or acidic, you'll like this one. If you prefer sweeter fruit, this might not be a variety you'd like. Most years, the fruit on mine tend to stay on the smallish side, but that's not really uncommon with early varieties. It is great for containers as the plant itself is very compact. It does not always produce as well late in the season as some other early varieties do, so if I had limited space and had to choose between it and Early Girl, I'd choose EG over SC every time because you get more fruit per plant from the EG and season-long production. Chris and his girlfriend are blissfully happy, so I think she's the one, and I'm going to be patient and not push them because I just want for both of them to be happy----and if it is true love (and I believe it is, and I believe they both believe that too), then it is just a matter of time. We had a fun, casual and very relaxed Christmas lunch and we kept it simple---salad, lasagna, garlic bread, green beans and a simple desert (cupcakes and cookies). Chris took home leftovers for them to have at the house and also for him to take to work tomorrow (which is unusual, because the firefighters usually cook their lunch and dinner at the station, but maybe he doesn't really like what is on tomorrow's menu). The girls wore beautiful dark blue velveteen Christmas dresses but the rest of us were in jeans or sweats.....a three year old in a pretty dress wolfing down lasagna like a starving wolf was quite a sight to see...and she only had lasagna on her forehead, cheeks, chin, nose and mouth by the time she was done. I do think she managed to eat some of her lunch, but her face was wearing quite a lot of it too. She loves lasagna and ate very enthusiastically. I agree that you cannot go wrong with mac and cheese. I don't know anyone who doesn't like it. When we were planning our Christmas meal, I told Chris I could provide alternate food for the girls if they don't like lasagna, and he assured me that they both loved it (and both ate it just fine), so this was the simplest meal with no one requiring anything special or different. Tim and I ate more wheat in one meal than we normally eat in a week, but it was worth it. This lasagna is his mom's recipe, and what surprises me the most is that we've had this same recipe card, in her handwriting, for almost 40 years....well, I think about 37 years and Tim thinks 40. Either way, it is a miracle we haven't lost the recipe card in all this time. The card is getting pretty creased and worn, so we're going to scan it into the computer while it is still legible. Oh, and Tim must be the chef when his mom's lasagna is being made (and who am I to argue?) so the hardest thing I did today was make a salad and cook green beans--easy peasy. Kim, I hope all your journeys this season are safe ones and that you arrive home rested and ready to move on to the next stage of your professional gardening life. A little down time is always a good thing to refresh one's spirit. Rebecca, Your food sounds yummy and I hope the kind wasn't on the attack too much. It sounds like y'all had a really relaxing pleasant time together and I think that is how the holidays ought to be. Do y'all remember the Norman Rockwell image of the perfect family gathered around the table for Thanksgiving with the nice tablecloth and perfect place settings of the good dishes and the good silver and such? Of course there is the huge turkey on the platter and Grandpa is getting ready to carve it. I think it is entitled "Freedom From Want". Well, we had holidays like that in the 1980s and well into the 1990s, but things are so much more relaxed now, and I like this sort of celebration better. The food tastes just as good without all the fuss, and who needs china, silver and crystal? If we get any more relaxed and casual with our family, we'll be sitting cross-legged on the floor eating pizza. And, that would be okay because what matters is just being together. Jennifer, I am jealous of your snow. No matter how little you got, it was more than we got. They keep throwing some sort of wintery precipitation into our forecast---sometimes for 2 or 3 days per week, but as those days approach, it falls out of our forecast and we get nothing. I love snow, but I'm okay if it doesn't fall too because when we get snow down here, it more often is only sleet or freezing rain or a wintery mix and the roads get treacherous and it takes Tim and Chris three or four hours to get to or from work. We rarely get something that looks like actual white snow flakes. Sometimes we just get graupel. For chickens who need to roam more, there's always chicken tractors available, and some of them are fairly small and compact. You can buy them or make your own, and some of them are lightweight enough that one person can easily move them around the yard. Or, if you want to put the chickens in new areas that you can periodically change up (but this will not include overhead protection from predatory birds) there's portable, electrified poultry netting that runs off fence energizers. Some of it, at least, comes already attached to poles you can stick easily into the ground, so you can move it around periodically. For anybody not familiar with electrified poultry netting, you can see examples of some of those products here: Electrified Poultry Netting at Premier 1 Supplies Don't worry. The day will roll around again when there will be little ones in your home (at least visiting for Christmas) and you'll find yourself putting out cookies and milk for Santa and food for the raindeer once again. Our almost 9-year-old future granddaughter reported breathlessly and with great joy to us today that Santa ate 2 of the 3 cookies she left out for him and took one bite from the third. He drank all the milk. She was impressed and decided he must have been really full from eating cookies from all over the world and he loved their cookies so started in on the third one but just couldn't finish it. I think that pleased her more than the fact he ate the other two cookies. It made me smile to listen to her tale as our son and her mom looked on, as I remember when our son was the young child thrilled that Santa ate the cookies. At least we all understand why Santa Claus is a little bit rotund....after a solid month of eating too many treats between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I know our family is going to try hard now to return to more healthy eating, and much less junk. It was such a lovely, if cold, day today and I sort of hate to see Christmas end. It probably is a good thing it comes but once a year. So, now we start looking ahead to the good bowl games that really matter. I hope the Oklahoma teams do well in their bowl games this year. For me, the bowl games are the bridge that carry us from Christmas into the new year. Dawn