Greetings All, I FINALLY got around to making the Apple Butter and wanted to give you all a big THANKS! Last weekend got consumed by errand, appointments, and social obligations so I was unable to get any cooking done. This weekend I put up the 'Do Not Disturb' sign, locked the door, and turned the phone off. Of course I didn't spend it all cooking. A lot of the time was spent turning nothing (counter space) into something (counter space). Unbelievable the amount of junk (and old canned goods) that accumulates in... Well, we won't go there. ;) Anyway, the recipe I chose was a basic one from the Ball canning book (starting simple). It didn't turn out GREAT and it wasn't terrible. I towards the end I thought it was tasting too sweet so I added an additional tablespoon of lemon juice. Maybe good, maybe not. There also seemed to be too much cinnamon and I might have cooked it down to far. It spread okay warm but I haven't tried it from the fridge. Anyway, fresh bread cut both the sugar and the cinnamon so I think I worried needlessly. There WAS an aftertaste of bottled lemon juice which I attribute to adding it in so late in the process. Over all it was tasty but I think it could be better... Next time. :D For now, I have most of it in the freezer in 4 ounce Rubbermaid containers. I'll vacuum seal those later and thaw as required. Once again, Thanks for all your help. Regards, Tim :)

Jill, You're welcome. Dried molasses is one of those things that sounds "odd" until you understand how it works to improve microbial life in the soil, isn't it? I think the molasses sold as a cattle supplement could work as long as you know they haven't addded anything to it that would be bad for your soil or for stuff grown in that soil. From what I understand, when sugar beets or sugar cane are processed to make sugar, sugar is the primary product they're after. So, after they've made the sugar, the leftover syrupy stuff is made into molasses for human consumption and for use in the garden. Then, the lower quality stuff that is left over from that process is turned into cattle feed. Unless something peculiar is added to it for the cattle, I don't know why it wouldn't work to stimulate microbial activity in the soil too. I'm less certain about the corn meal sold as cattle feed. Do you know if it is labeled as "corn meal" or as corn gluten meal" because I think it makes a difference. Corn gluten meal is the one used on the soil. How wonderful that you getting some ripe tomatoes! That is when it really feels like summer! And your daughter sounds like she's on the road to becoming a gardener herself! One funny thing about SunGold is that a lot of people who grow it the first time will complain that it doesn't taste that great, and then all of us who grow it every year are saying "What????" After a while, we figured out that a lot of newbies were harvesting it too early....as soon as it went from green to gold and weren't waiting for it to turn that distinctive golden-orange. So, clearly your daughter knew to wait for the Sungolds to get to the "yummy" stage which makes her a pretty smart cookie! I have tons of tomatoes on the plants, and it is a good thing, because "cool and rainy" are a distant memory here. Since our temps are in the danger zone, and are cranking up even higher this week, I probably won't get much additional fruit set on the plants that produce large tomatoes. If I can keep the cherry, currant, grape and paste types healthy, though, they'll set fruit for months yet. I did a walk-through of every row last night, and I have a handful of plants that look really bad. One of them is Wapisipicon Peach, which has never looked very good--just stayed wispy and wimpy and off-colored the whole time, literally from the day it was transplanted into the garden. It wilted and died over a 3 to 4 day period, so I'll take it out today. Two others that just look really bad and have had early blight for weeks are Caspian Pink and Valena Pink. Both of them are about 5' tall and the early blight has just traveled from bottom to top of the plant very rapidly. I've been trying to baby them along, but think I'll take them out today as they are getting worse and not better. The Valena Pink has two huge tomatoes that must weigh a pound-and-a-half or two. They are some of the largest tomatoes I've ever had on a plant. Those two are far enough along that I can pick them now and I think they will ripen. There are about a half-dozen smaller ones that won't though. Caspian Pink often looks really bad but outgrows the blight most years, but I don't think it will this year. Considering I have 140 plants, taking out a couple is no big deal. I do everything I can to avoid foliar diseases, except I don't spray with a fungicide as a preventive measure, and this is actually the best year ever. Usually I have blight on quite a few of them, so only having a bad case of it on three of them is not too bad. Long ago, I had to give up on the idea of having "beautiful" plants and settle for plants that produce ripe tomatoes! However, this year a lot of them do look pretty beautiful. I guess it is hard for early blight to grow and spread when there is no moisture. : ) Keep looking on the bright side.....because the weather has been wicked this year and you can't let it get you down. I am sorry you aren't going to have a good spring corn crop. Mine went in so late due to the late freezes that I don't know if I am going to get good ears or not. The corn itself looks great and has just tasseled, but with these high temperatures, the pollen may be sterile. I guess time will tell. Sorry about your pumpkins and okra too.....thank God for the fall garden! For fall corn, I think I am going to grow shoepeg corn ("Country Gentleman") because it is DH's and DS's favorite corn. I have "Seredipity" for spring corn and will just keep my fingers crossed that it pollinates before the heat gets too bad. M okra is making a slow recovery from being nibbled to the ground by the deer. About 8 plants came back although the others died. I should get okra from those 8, but have replanted more to replace the ones that didn't survive. One thing about fall gardening that I love (other than the fact that we get a "second chance" with crops that underperformed) is that a lot of the pests' life cycles are geared towards spring and summer crops. I never have as much of a pest problem on fall crops as on spring ones. And, now that I have a fence that truly seems to be deer-proof, I can grow more cool-season crops in the fall. Our deer have always preferred all the cool-season crops to the warm-season ones, especially cabbage and broccoli. Sweet potatoes love heat, so maybe it has been too cool for them to grow and maybe they will kick into gear now that more summer heat has arrived. With all the rain some of you have had, especially in your part of the state, I am amazed you have any garden left at all. I remember last year when my garden stayed wet for weeks and weeks, and even in the raised beds the moisture levels stayed incredibly high, and everything suffered greatly. To think y'all are having that kind of mositure again is mind-boggling. It is hard (but not impossible) to give peppers too much moisure (or soil that is too rich). Are your peppers off-color and dropping leaves? That probably would be too much moisture OR a nitrogen deficiency because the water-clogged roots can't take up nutrients because they are so full of water. If your tomatoes and peppers are in beds with identical drainage, the peppers "ought to" thrive if the tomatoes are thriving. Of course, your tomato plants probably are much larger than the pepper plants, so they can and do use more moisture. So, thinking about it in those terms, I can see why the peppers might be suffering. Last year I just kept my peppers in containers all summer and had a really good harvest and I don't think they would have done well here in last year's moisture. Too hot and dry....too cool and wet....too much this, and too little that. I'd like to have one year, just one year, with AVERAGE temperatures and AVERAGE rainfall. Instead, we seem to swing from one extreme to another, which IS (unfortunately) normal for us. At least we aren't in poor, flooded Iowa or in the San Francisco area where they are having temps in the 100s to 110s instead of their usual 70s and low 80s. A lot of California gardeners on the Tomato Forum have been begging for "hot weather plant tips" and, as you know from living here, there's not a lot you can do about the heat except hope it cools off. Our weather may be odd, but it still is pretty much what we and our gardens are used to having. Dawn

Spicehouse.com sells it out of Evanston Chicago and the savory spice shop in Denver has it too. Fesenjoon is an Iranian Chicken dish made with Walnuts, pomegranate molasses and chicken and is delicious. My SIL introduced it to me. Here is a quick recipe: Chicken pieces from 1 chicken Ground walnuts, 1 pound 3-4 onions Pomegranate molasses in the bottle... 3/4 of the bottle aprox 6 fl oz Sugar, 2-3 spoons ...you can add more if you want it sweeter 1/2 cup of cooking oil Salt Slice and fry onions until slightly golden... Take chicken pieces and add with the onions until color changes. Add 3 glasses of hot water and let it boil...... Then turn heat down and let it boil slowly for about 30 minutes adding more hot water if needed. Grind walnuts in a food processor till a fine consistency looking kind of like sugar. Then add nuts, salt and pomegranate paste to chicken. You may need to add a glass of hot water if the paste is too thick. Add sugar to the sweetness wanted, making sure its not too sweet. Proper fesenjoon should be sweet but at the same time a little tart. Cook it long enough till all of the oil from the walnuts rises. You will see a layer of oil that I suggest you should scoop out later. The consistency must be thick. Serve it with some saffron flavored rice.

--Here it is-- REFRIGERATOR MOLASSES COOKIES BY AUNT JENNY-- 1 cup Spry 1 cup molases 1 cup brown sugar 1 egg 4 cups flour 1 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon soda 2 teaspoon ginger 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon cloves Mix Spry,molasses, and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over low heat and boil 2 minutes. Cool to luke-warm...add egg and beat well...sift dry ingredients together add to molasses and blend well. Pack firmly in sprycoated 8x8-inch pan lined with waxed paper. Chill in frig overnight. Slice dough 1/8 inch thick and cut cookies desired length. Place on greased cookie sheet.Sprinkle with sugar before baking. 350 oven 10 minutes...makes 8 doz glad I could help Paula