You will also enjoy a book by Carol Deppe on how to Breed your own Vegetable Varieties. This has many editions. It is fascinating reading. If you are interested in horticulture you will love this book. It will definitely help you in your studies. It is one of my favorite reads. Very easy to understand a fascinating topic. Carol has her PhD in genetics and explains everything in such easy to understand ways. Great Book in my library. The seed saving book that I have is Seed to Seed. Another must have book. widely available. I also recommend that you get a copy of the new Baker Creek Heirloom seed catalog for free. It has very valuable information. You might want to save up other seed catalogs for even more information. When you get your Baker Creek catalog go toward the end and look over their long list of books. I am sure you will find something there to read. They carry the seed to seed book. Good to support the seed companies like Baker Creek that are trying to preserve our genetics. So I recommend buying books from seed companies more then from book stores. You will probably enjoy reading the book Giant Tomatoes for its content. You might try to get the library to loan that one to you for a fast read.

tracydr - Glad I tuned in - have been really busy with "extras" at home, so between getting my fall/spring garden planted and kitchen work, haven't had much time for my favorite hobby. Anyway, the fermented juice, etc., sounds interesting. I have recently finished 2 batches of plum wine, which actually turned out pretty good. I sometimes add "other" wines to it, to simulate other brews, so it seems to be giving a "buzz" and isn't all that bad. The plum were frozen from the surplus I had last summer. After making the wine, I used the squeezings to make a nice plum bread using my zucchini recipe - and added a bit of wine flavoring to spruce it up a bit - and adding a lot of the dried fruit that I had available. Quite good. I have been working a lot with sour doughs and yesterday went to the Cooking Forum frantically looking for a dinner roll recipe. Some time ago, Annie posted a recipe for her grandma's dinner rolls - I thought I had it somewhere, but had to settle for Cindy's Dinner Rolls - posted by becky ca. They were good but a bit softish - maybe a bit more cooking - as I pulled them early. You know how frantic last minute Thanksgiving serving can be. All-in-all, the dinner was quite good - especially my pumpkin (i.e. Hubbard squash) pie - that I baked via the "Boston Cooking School" book. kayskats - thanks for the tip on turnips. Actually, that is one veggie I don't grow. They are not too well received by my family - tho I like them in stews - but garden space is limited so don't grow em. Must remember to thank becky ca for posting the recipe, that was so timely. Bejay

We seem to push the less healthy and less safe methods of vinegar flavoring pickles instead of fermenting them. WOW! Quite an accusation there! I can only hope you didn't intend it to sound so critical. We don't "push" anything here except safety. And we try to answer the questions posted. If they are about vinegar pickles then that is what gets discussed. If they are about fermenting then that is discussed. And there are many discussions here and in the past on fermenting. But there is no conspiracy on this forum to intentionally deprive others of the information. Many folks simply don't care for either the taste of or the work involved in fermenting and I would strongly dispute the claim that it is easier for beginners to do as it is a more complex process. And despite the claims made above, safety is of a much greater concern when it comes to fermentation than it is with vinegar simply because it is easy to do incorrectly; it isn't done "properly" as the author. He may not be aware of any current "documented cases of food-borne illness" from fermented foods but history is full of them. He might want to review some of the historical documents published on NCHFP about the historical practices of fermenting. Pressurized canning creates an anaerobic environment that increases the risk of deadly botulism, particularly with low-acid foods. Not if it too is done "properly". Don't get me wrong, I enjoy fermenting some things as do many others here but I sure would not go so far as to claim it is the "BEST" way to preserve food. This article, this author, has an agenda to push, one he has apparently devoted his life too studying. So much of what he says needs to be taken with at least a tsp. of salt. JMO Dave

Just my experience - I tried fermenting pole beans recently, without blanching, and they remained quite hard and seemingly did not absorb the flavors well. My second try - I steam blanched the beans and they absorbed the brining well - and were much more edible. Some past discussions on this seemed indecisive. Definitely, I would say better to do a short blanching before fermenting. Just my 2 c's. Bejay