The problem with this thinking... which to me used to be fine, till I noticed, that all is fine and dandy till something goes wrong....then people scream... For example, you may want to take any drug you want, then your cousin dies of an ephedra problem.... then all of a sudden your thinking is changed. Personally, I generally agree. I think that the stupids who mess with something they don't understand.... just weeds out their genes from the gene pool. But apparently, others don't see it this way. I see this in almost all aspects of American life... ANOTHER example... You all want a freemarket system... till you pay $3 a gallon for gas... then you scream. People seem to want what they want with no concern for the consequences... I just do it... and unlike Cacye, I LISTEN when someone says there is a danger... some don't... that's why they try to beat trains in train crossings.... ANOTHER way to weed certain genes from the gene pool.

I finally made some last summer with Silver Queen cobs after stripping the kernels. Turned out tasting kind of like cornbread, pop corn, roasted corn, etc. And it was light brown in color, like chicken broth. Not sure I'll ever make it again, but I might try it with red cobs instead of sweet cobs and see if there is a difference. Now that I've been watching DD&D and seeing how some restaurateurs make soup bases by simmering cobs, shucks, and silks, I might have to add a lot more than just cobs to try next time. Young stalks are actually quite sweet and juicy in spots. About the time baby corn is ready, the stalks are edible. Or at least not too fibrous yet. I had Trucker's Favorite volunteers last fall that grew about a month when I was picking. Really interesting.

mecdave - are you putting water in a pan and setting oven to 180? Jars are not meant to withstand dry heat - could shatter. And to truly sterilize (not just warm before putting hot food in), you must boil for 10 minutes, lower heat won't do. But no need to sterilize unless processing for less than 10 minutes (as for a delicate jelly, 5 minutes). I just put the jars in the pot I'm BWBing in, fill to the rims, you have to preheat the water and jars anyway before processing. I pour the hot (simmer or so if not sterilizing) water over the lids in a Pyrex bowl, Ball says you don't even have to do that but I like to let them soak/soften while I fill the first jar. If when I take last empty jar out of canner the water is already over tops of filled jars, and I'm afraid pot will boil over, I dump the last jar (and the bowl) in the sink, else I dump them back into the canner. So no extra pot/burner required. Lemon juice is more acidic than vinegar, OJ varies and can be over 4.0 so I wouldn't rely on it to acidify peppers, pineapple juice (if that's what's in the can, as mecdave said, check it!) is more acidic though not as acidic as lemon - remember, pH is logarithmic so 1.0 decrease in pH (say from 3.6 pineapple juice to 2.6 lemon juice) is 10 times more acidic. The lemon pulp in the NMSU recipe also helps to acidify the marmalade. That table is from USDA, so safe to use (provided no typos), I don't generally rely on the pickyourown site. Here's the original (with some humorous misspellings but hopefully no typos in the numbers): Here is a link that might be useful: Official pH values

Thanks for the link Annie, I checked it out, and as of the date of that article, Seminis did sell to Territorial and Johnny's as well as Fedco. It could be that a couple of the brassicas I just bought from Fedco, as well as the Lollo Rosa lettuce from Burpee could have come from Seminis. I will have to call the companies and check. A short snippet from the article Annie posted: " Taking spinach into his own hands: Nash Huber doesnâÂÂt want to get stuck depending on a hybrid that might get dropped by a mega-company owner on a whim. He also doesnâÂÂt want to lose any of the vigor, disease resistance, etc. that hybrid has provided. So Nash is working on dehybridizing �" breeding an open-pollinated spinach that is well adapted to his needs. (pictured: Huber, left; Matthew Dillon, right) Posted February 22, 2005: The news of MonsantoâÂÂs agreement to purchase Seminis has received little attention from the media other than the financial pages and a few seed industry and anti-globalization web sites. But then again, why should it? How many consumers �" of food or seed �" have even heard of Seminis? And yet, as Seminis spinmeister Gary Koppenjan said, âÂÂIf you've had a salad, you've had a Seminis product." It is estimated that Seminis controls 40 percent of the U.S. vegetable seed market and 20 percent of the world market�"supplying the genetics for 55 percent of the lettuce on U.S. supermarket shelves, 75 percent of the tomatoes, and 85 percent of the peppers, with strong holdings in beans, cucumbers, squash, melons, broccoli, cabbage, spinach and peas. The companyâÂÂs biggest revenue source comes from tomato and peppers seeds, followed by cucumbers and beans. In large part, these numbers reflect usage of Seminis varieties within large industrial production geared towards supermarkets, but Seminis seeds are also widely used by regional conventional and organic farmers as well as market and home gardeners. JohnnyâÂÂs, Territorial, Fedco, NicholâÂÂs, Rupp, Osborne, Snow, and Stokes are among the dozens of commercial and garden seed catalogs that carry the more than 3,500 varieties that comprise Seminisâ offerings. This includes dozens of All-American Selections and an increasing number of varieties licensed to third parties for certified organic seed production. The brand-name companies under Seminis (such as Petoseed) have developed, released, produced and distributed varieties common to the market farmer and even home gardener. These include Big Beef, Sweet Baby Girl and Early Girl Tomatoes; Simpsons Elite and Red Sails Lettuces; Red Knight and King Arthur Peppers; Gold Rush and Blackjack Zucchinis; Stars & Stripes Melon; and Bush Delicata and Early Butternut squashes (see sidebar for other popular varieties)." So home gardeners DO have to check their seed, these are very popular varieties though the article is NOT saying that these...