' I thought the purpose of using freshly pressed cider was not to have to add pectin' First off heat processing does not destroy pectin.......it releases it from the pulp. If you are using a cold process to extract apple juice (cider) a lot of the pectin will end up in the pomace instead of the liquid. If I don't want to add pectin to an apple jelly I make my jelly by simmering down apples and straining off the pectin rich juice. If I make it from cold pressed juice (cider) I just automatically add pectin. If you have loads and loads of apples like I do (my own little orchard) you have bushels sitting around and it's one way not to waste them. I did that this year by boiling and straining and also did the cold extraction. I bottled both up as juice/cider but there is a tremendous difference in taste and cold pressed cider wins hands down. The same can be said about the taste of apple versus cider jelly. If it's a carefully blended cider, and some are, it also wins for taste hands down over commercially obtained apple juice. Like comparing champagne to Ripple. My cider jelly compared to one off the market shelf.....there is no comparison so I'm taste driven when I make it. Cider jelly does not have to be cloudy, you can strain the cider. I do a crude strain but if I were making jelly with it, simply letting it sit undisturbed and decanting the clear liquid off the top leaves the residue settle on the bottom. I agree with Carol. Using apple's own pectin can indeed be tricky. Last year I produced one run of apple sirup instead of jelly, and I'm no novice at jelly making. It's all dependent on so many factors......how picky you are about taste, if you have huge amounts of apples (like we do) how much time you want to put into it. I have added spices on occasion to my apple jellies. Mostly not very exotic like cinammon. Never to my cider jelly.

After reading these horribly high prices for flour I went out this morning and purchased 50-pounds of wheat to add to my already sizable stash. Kansas wheat is not looking all that good, especially in the western part of the state where they have been in a drought. With rising fuel prices, we can only look forward to higher prices for wheat and flour - and everything they are used in. FYI - Wheat has a nearly indefinite shelf-life while commercial bleached and unbleached flour will keep 6-12 months at room temperature (double that if frozen). I use wheat for making wheat sprouts, wheatgrass, cooked wheat berries, farina, flakes, "wheat meat", bulgar and cracked wheat - and oh, yes, flour. I ran across a book recently - "No Wheat Grinder Wheat Recipes" by Cindi Van Bibber. A great little collection of recipes you can use whole wheat berries in even if you don't have a grain mill. Cooked wheat berries are mixed in the blender to use in recipes like: No Flour Muffins, Cornbread, Brownies, Meatloaf, Biscuits, Meatballs, and hubby's favorite - Peanut Butter Cookies. A great little book for anyone wanting to use whole wheat but who doesn't have a grain mill. I've included the link below for anyone interested. I like to "cook" a large batch of wheat in my Thermal Cooker and then bag it in 2-cup amounts and keep it in the freezer. Lots of uses for cooked wheat, as well as all the recipes in the little cookbook. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Cindi's Lifestyle Treasures

You may be able to get a bias tape at a fabric store that complements the colors of the room. I would iron out the "bumps" from it being folded around the card. They sell a glue called "Tacky" at Joanne's that may work to glue the tape to the sides of the shade. You could also glue the bias tape onto the shades where the cords are run down the length of the shade, making two stripes of the tape on the shade itself, then the two stripes of the tape at the edges will look like they belong. I once used the Tacky glue to tightly wrap the ribs of a lampshade frame. I spiral-wrapped the ribs with bias tape and let the glue dry for a day. That then gave me a fabric-covered surface to each rib. I cut out fabric pieces to fit in the spaces between the ribs and used the Tacky glue to glue the left-side of each fabric panel to its left rib. I let that dry a day and then glued the other three edges of the fabric panels to their fabric-covered ribs, pulling it taut. After some trimming I covered each rib with a ribbon of ric-rac. Ta Da! A lampshade with no sewing. It wasn't lined, but I did not care. It has lasted me at least 17 years so far.

Theparsley ha ha yeah we've already had a few salad meals and there's nothing like the taste of fresh grown greens. darth_veeder, I am keeping out the crazy insane rabbits, I first learned that I had rabbits when we first moved in, they showed me by chomping down and killing three of my young blueberry bushes. Then when I planted my bare root apple trees they went after the trunk. I put up tree guards quickly. Then when I set up the garden, I knew the trouble would come so I wanted to put up that chicken wire with no possibility of them jumping over it, might be over done with height but it's fine. Right now I have peach trees from seed growing they nipped them too, so I have clear plastic forks guarding those for now but will be fencing them soon. If you can't tell I hate these rabbits! I won't kill them unless they cross the line, the line is my garden, they cross it they will be dinner. Theses rabbits are not that fearful of people or dogs.