Hi dubai-gardener, I am still what I would consider a rather newbie gardener and this will be my 4th season trying to grow vegetables. My first season I successfully grew tomatoes. They weren't tasty varieties unfortunately. The second season I planted well over 200 tomato seeds of many varieties (seed bought from the US) and they all kept dying. By the time I got only one to successfully grow, the temperatures were too high for the flowers to turn into fruit. Last year I finally successfully grew beautiful and tasty Brandywine Sudduth tomatoes. I only had 3 plants though, and one got some kind of disease. But they were the best tomatoes I have ever had. I was able to also get about 5 cucumbers out of 4 plants (huge aphid problem) and also grew a couple of spaghetti squash though I stored them too long thinking they can last like normal winter squash and they went bad before I tasted one :( the 2nd season I was late but got zucchini, eggplant, and buttercup squash to grow but the heat did not let them produce :( I wasn't going to garden this year but I am about to plant some pepper and eggplant varieties tonight :) I regret not planting tomato seeds earlier though... I will definitely try to grow them next year though! Oh, and I tried yellow, white, purple, and red carrots but 2 years in a row I got nice foliage but the largest carrot only grew to about 3" so I give up trying again for now. The beets I only got seedlings and nothing much more. Not sure what went wrong with those. Where do you buy your cow manure from? I would love to do bokashi once we move into a home where we have plenty of garden space to bury the food. I have been researching it and the next time I travel to the US I am going to buy a biiiig ol' bag of the bokashi ingredients to make my own bokashi granules. That stuff is expensive here! I will eventually buy the bokashi buckets from here though. But I think a house with a yard is still about a year away :( I have seen cute lil' bees all years I grew veggies but they never pollinated my squash plants for me. I had to do all that by hand. They loooooooved these one flowers we have... they swarmed the yellow colored ones (didn't touch the same variety in red) If you want a pic of the flowers I can take one for you so you can try to encourage bees into your garden :) I have had ladybugs visit my rooftop garden two years in a row but they arrived a bit late for my cucumber plants. They laid eggs and their larvae did eat up most of the aphids.... I just wish they showed up earlier :( That disappoints me that Shalimar is not really filling their bags to 50litres! Next time I have to buy soil I will measure it myself and if it is indeed less I will have to speak with the owner about this!

Nope it is just a bag of candy. It is the same as what they have in Holland...they call it "drop". It comes in about 200 varieties at the "snoop" store. That is the Dutch word for candy store. We lived there for a year. And the kids were always at the "snoop store". Some folks really like salty licorice and others really don't. These do also have ammonia in them and it can be very strong tasing. Also the licorice and the salt can affect electrolytes if you eat too much. That probably won't be a problem as you will not necessarily LOVE the taste. They will really be the talk of the table though. Please post a pic when you get them. Caroline

I used red cabbage (my fave) and had a great deal of fun massaging it limp & juicy. I should mention I had no access to kosher salt so it was table salt I used. I packed my three medium cabbages and their released juices into a two-litre jar. It reached about 3/4 of the jar, leaving 2-3 inches of headroom, which I covered with an outer cabbage leaf. I tied a cloth down with a rubber band and pressed it down some times over the first day. The outer leaves had imperfections, so I stripped them off before coring & shredding. The cabbages, unfortunately, were not organic (thereâÂÂs lots of organic in Thailand now, so IâÂÂm still hunting) but were only briefly rinsed as whole cabbages. IâÂÂm wondering if the outer leaves I tossed might have been home to lots of friendly yeasts & bacteria. It looks good. Nice & sour after three days. Tastes too salty, though. The top of the cabbage is damp but not wet and definitely no liquid covering. Should I add brine, or water as itâÂÂs so salty? No real bubbles to speak of but it smells good. Not a BIG smell��"you have to get your nose right in the jar. But itâÂÂs crispy & squeaky, not soft at all. IâÂÂm fermenting at a way higher temp than you folks. Think itâÂÂs time to put it in the fridge? When will my âÂÂkraut be right to eat? Bangkok is a steady 85F day & night. Any ideas? Thanks!

Kay, It's the Ball Complete Book (2006), p. 292. Here's the recipe: 8 1/4 cups sliced trimmed pickling cukes 2 cups white vinegar 2 cups water 6 tbsp canning salt 1/4 cup granulated sugar 2 tbsp pickling spice 7 1/2 tsp dill seeds 5 tsp mustard seeds 1 1/4 tsp whole black peppercorns 5 cloves garlic, halved Set aside cucumber slices in large nonreactive bowl. In medium saucepan, combine vinegar, water, salt, sugar, and pickling spice. Bring to boil, stirring to dissolve sugar and salt. Reduce heat, cover and boil gently for 10 mins. Pour pickling liquid over cucumbers, cover with waxed paper and let cool to room temp, about 30 mins. In each jar, place 1 1/2 tsp dill seeds, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1/4 tsp peppercorns, and two garlic clove halves. Add cucumber slices to within a generous 1/2 inch head space of top of jar. Ladle pickling liquid into jar to cover cucumbers, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Apply lids. Allow to marinate in refrigerator for 2 weeks for best results, and use within 2 months. I used fresh dill heads from my garden instead of the dill seeds, so that may account for the salty overload - maybe the flavors were unbalanced as in ksrogers' comment above? I'm going to put up another batch tomorrow, but this time cut down on the salt and taste before adding to the cukes.