Hi, I'm in NC too! Red clay can be a big issue here in NC; its very fertile once you can get a plant into it!! Be ready to add organic material (compost, "nature's helper" ground bark fines, etc). Choose your garden site carefully, you'll need 6-8 hours of sun AFTER the leaves have all come out on the trees. You don't want your plot too far from the house or from a water source. If you know where you want your garden located already, I'd suggest sending hubby out now with a bunch of cardboard to cover over the area. (Weight down the cardboard with bricks, boards, or mulch.) That will start killing back the sod in your garden plot and will make life much easier. Depending on your location, you will also need to consider fencing to keep out rabbits or (heaven help you) deer. Usually rabbits only terrorize pea plants for me, but with last year's drought they ate everything off and I had to put a 2.5' fence around the garden to save anything. I agree with the earlier posters about starting small but have one suggestion. If you know, for example, that you eventually want a 25' x 75' garden but don't feel like you can swing that this year with the pregnancy I'd recommend using the "future garden" site as a place to stack your cardboard, newspapers, leaves, grass clippings, etc this year. It will kill off the grass in the garden addition area for next year and keep all of your garden amendments close at hand this year. I don't recommend the garden cloth/weed barriers for your garden paths UNLESS you are lucky and somehow managed to get the only yard in NC without couch grass/bermuda grass. I'd suggest either setting up your garden with paths that are at least 3' wide this year, to allow you to use a stool or rolling garden bench when tending your plants. Mulching the paths with pine needles or ground up wood will keep it relatively weed free (I use several layers of newspaper under the mulch when first setting this up) and conserve water as well. Most city landfills have days or times of the day when you can pull in with a truck and a tarp and they'll load free mulch into your truck for little or no cost. They will require that you tie a tarp over it before leaving. Check with your local landfill site. As to what types of vegetables you plant, that's all in what you like to eat. Some things are more work to get going (example: asparagus, artichokes) but you should plant what you are interested in having fresh. I personally don't plant potatoes or carrots because clay soil makes both of these more work and less chance of a great outcome AND they're cheap and plentiful at the store. Tomatoes, lettuce, cukes, beans, and squash are another story. What you grow tastes much better than the store and its relatively easy to have a nice haul. I don't grow corn because we typically get several high wind storms every summer and that cancels out the crop. I love growing flowers and herbs alongside of my veggies for the beauty and benefit. Nothing like weeding with a crowd of butterflies and hummingbirds! Let me know if you are near the mountains of NC, I'd be happy to meet you and give you starts of herbs for your yard. Grow well and prosper neighbor!

Vegetarian egg rolls freeze well. Make them, fry them, freeze them, & when you are too tired to cook  eat them. Stuffed cabbage is another. Here is a link to others recipes: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/vegex/msg072030576364.html If you want an easy dish, the Arabic markets often sell canned stuffed grape leaves  the ingredients are similar. They are stuffed with eggplant or rice. Another dish that is time consuming to make but freezes well is pierogie. There is a cheese filled or sauerkraut filled one that freezes well. http://www.piasecki.org/pierogi.htm HereÂs one for vegiburger taquitoes. http://www.recipesource.com/special-diets/vegetarian/vegeburger-taquitos1.html Here are some for enchiladas, which freeze well. http://ths.gardenweb.com/search/nph-ind.cgi?term=enchilada&forum=vegex&forum_name=Vegetarian+Recipe+Exchange Mushroom tarts freeze well. Another possibility is fruit soup. Guacamole freezes well if you add something to prevent discoloration. Sometimes I eat yogurt with fruit for lunch. You can buy a can of frozen strawberries or your favorite fruit & mix it with a good plain yogurt. The best yogurt I have found  even better than home made is at Arabic markets. It is so thick it is like cream, & tastes better than the brand name flavored yogurt.

What exactly is "approved" sources? I don't imagine the government approves any sources other than themselves, so who is doing the approving? Is there some kind of list somewhere you are referring to? Or do you mean only use recipes listed on the NCHFP website? The Ball Corporation (Jarden in Canada) publications on home canning have been held as THE approved source for over 100 years. The are often referred to as the canning bible and are well known for their ongoing research and updated publications on safety issues. This was long before the USDA or FDA came into existence. Also for decades Rodale Publishing was also regarded as totally safe in their canning publications. Unfortunately they quit maintaining the currency of their canning publications when NCHFP was created but with a few exceptions most of their publications are still valid. In addition there are the USDA and FDA publications, all the publications from NCHFP, all the publications from the many land-grant university extension services, and many publication from well-known food scientists such as Linda Ziedrich, Ellie Topp, Margaret Howard, etc. People who have the educational credentials and research background to know what they are talking about as opposed to the many bloggers and authors that merely subscribe to the "it hasn't killed anyone yet" school of science. There are a number of discussions here about what constitutes approved sources, which books are approved and which should be avoided, and reviews of various canning blogs pro and con. There used to be a number of MFP's (Master Food Preservers) that participated here on a regular basis and we made a concerted effort to review new publications and websites as they came up. Unfortunately Deanna and I are the only ones we have heard from since the move to Houzz but all that past info from the others is still available here and classes are available to anyone who wishes to takes them through their local county extension service. If you don't want to invest the time in getting the MFP credentials then take some basic classes or even the basic online course offered by NCHFP is a place to start. Honestly I find a lot of this kind of arbitrary. I'm sure it does seem that way when one is new to the process or has none of the underlying science training. But they aren't arbitrary. There are valid reasons, based in research and testing for all these guidelines. So everyone is left choices: (1) to either get the training so that they do understand it all and know where changes can and cannot be made (2) or accept them at face value and do them in order to have the assurances of safety they provide (3) or to challenge, question, ignore, and criticize them and just do their own thing when it comes to canning as long as they willingly accept the associated risks that come with that approach. The internet has plenty of blogs and forums that have adopted #3 approach and preach against the accepted guidelines. In some cases it is because they don't know any better, in some cases it is because they don't care, and in some cases it is because they claim to hate the government and reject all that it stands for or represents. This particular forum has long had the reputation of being safety oriented, or rejecting the make-it-up-as-you-go-along canning methods, and a place where those new to home canning can get safe advice. Are the guidelines perfect? Of course not. But they are the best and safest options we have available. Dave

Summercloud, the triangle seems like a hefty distance to me but I've thought about driving over there for something. I have some seedlings I could trade....Creme de Cassis hollyhock, Excelsior foxgloves, alyssum, calendula, bachelor's buttons, red corn poppy, zinnias, picotee cosmos, dwarf cosmos, nemophila Baby Blue Eyes, basil, tomatoes, love lies bleeding. I have others but quantities not quite as good...Fama scabiosa, Las Vegas gomphrena, Blue Horizon ageratum. I have not grown a milkweed but thought about it. Have a few butterfly weed plants. Looks like tonight will be the last hard freeze, at least for awhile. Temps up to 81 in a few days! The crispy new growth will show up then I bet. I have a bunch of new basals on roses that will be sad to lose if they're toast. But I still look forward to lots of blooms..we'll see.