I have actually told vendors at the fair that "This isn't canned properly. You shouldn't be selling this to the public when canned this way because...." I don't care if they get upset. They are the ones who went public with their wares. They are the ones who should have made the effort to learn. They are the ones putting the public at risk. If they ask for more info I give it to them and do it nicely. If they get huffy and indignant maybe they will think about it and investigate more later. Meanwhile at least the other people around have heard me. Then I contact the local extension office rep there since it is their responsibility to make sure this doesn't happen in the first place. That's the bad red devil that sits on one of my shoulders. He figures we should just pick up the jars and then make sure the owner and everyone else there sees you open and dump them in the trash as you explain why. What can I say, he's old and evil. But the angel sitting on the other shoulder (yes, I do have one despite what others may think) always reminds me that there are a lot of folks that don't know enough to even consider the possibility that they don't know enough. You aren't old and evil like me :-) so do what Carol suggested, contact the county extension office (if this was a county fair) or the state extension office and provide them with the necessary info. It is their responsibility and who knows, maybe it will at least make someone down the line think twice. Dave

Carol, I don't like to use much of anything in my garden either. This year, when I sprayed the entire garden with Bt during the massive cutworm outbreak, it was the first time I'd sprayed the whole garden with anything since we moved here. If I "have to" treat something, I usually only spray that specific crop, and not the whole garden. I also used neem once or twice in the spring, but only on specific plants. I've found cabbage worms and cabbage loopers on cole crops this past week. I was going to spray all the cole crops with Bt 'kurstaki', but instead, I've just been hand-picking them. I hate spraying anything. Like you, I do drown a lot of pests in a bowl of soapy water--usually it is either cabbage loopers or imported cabbage worms, or sometimes it is Colorado potato beetles. The cold has finally shut down the grasshoppers for the most part, and I haven't seen a scorpion in about 2 weeks now, but the garden is full of butterflies, bees in all sizes, yellow jackets, predatory wasps, green lacewings, lady bugs and several kinds of flies (like tachnid flies and Southern robber flies, both beneficials) but also a few cucumber beetles and stink bugs, which I just ignore. There's been a little bean beetle damage on some of the remaining beans, but I just ignore them. It isn't enough damage to warrant action. We also have oodles of butterflies. I am glad I took the time to cover up a few zinnias and verbena bonariensis along with the southern peas and beans because everything else froze and the little flying critters fight over the few remaining flowers all day long. I left some henbit in the bean bed when it sprouted there in early October, and now it is just starting to bloom. That's a relief because once the beans are finished, the bees and little winged insects and butterflies at least will have the blooms of the henbit. There's also some chamomile that sprouted about the same time and it is about to start blooming, so that will be a few more flowers for the wild things. I don't get too concerned about fall pests because the cold weather pretty much takes care of them anyway. I have dug up a surprising number of cutworms in the fall garden, and have killed every one. Maybe I'll have fewer of those suckers this spring than last spring, which was epic in its horrible-ness (I know that likely is not a word) but it is appropriate. There's still tons of spiders too, so at least all the beneficial critters are hanging in there, and there's both toads and frogs lurking in the garden every day. With the salt issue in self-rising flour, it is a much bigger problem for those of us who have certain kinds of alkaline soils that are more sodic in nature, so I never would use flour in my clay for that reason. I used flour in about 2002 or 2003 when the grasshoppers were so bad, and it just ruint all the foliage of my beautiful tomato plants. They looked crappy the rest of the summer, long after I'd hosed off the flour....and we still had tons of grasshoppers too. A friend of mine doesn't have chickens, but she has an old mother coyote who has raised many dens of pups in an area near her pond, and she always puts out the stale bread and stale crackers for that coyote. I also have used an organic fungicide (Greencure) and once or twice have used insecticidal soap, but I'd rather flick the pests into the soapy water in a bowl than spray the soapy water on my plants. I don't think I've sprayed a lot of garden plants with a soap spray in about 10 years, though I have sprayed an occasional single plant in a pot. Our chickens are having garden withdrawal because the fall garden is doing so well that I haven't let them into the garden yet to dig and scratch and hunt for bugs. At the rate its going, the chickens may not make it into the garden until January. This evening we came back from a fire (it has been a very busy fire week since about Tuesday) and had some unhappy chickens in the chicken coop. They were up roosting but were chattering even though it was dark. Usually that means a snake is in there, but this time it was a little possum curled up in the corner of the coop. Tim showed him or her the way out and then closed the door. I guess the little possum thought he'd found a nice place to spend the winter. Hawks have been trying hard to get the chickens so they haven't been out free-ranging much, but I planted 5 rows of winter greens in the big garden for them, so every day I cut them a bunch of greens and toss them into the chicken coop. The greens might make being cooped up a little more bearable. When I let them out to chase bugs around the yard, I stay with them as much as possible to keep the hawks away. In this drought, the hawks are having trouble finding enough food and it is going to be a long winter for the chickens with those hawks hovering over the yard. Dawn

This may be MORE than a challenge because the flours don't substitute in equal amounts. The coconut flour rule-of-thumb is use 1 whole egg per ounce of coconut flour or 6-eggs per 1/2 c. coconut flour. I'd suggest doing a search on-line for cake recipes using coconut flour or you may end up with a lot of wasted ingredients and time. I realize this recipe has little in common with the recipe you are trying to make, but it will give you an idea of the ratio of eggs to coconut flour for a 9" square cake. I've never made it (due to the number of eggs needed). WILLIAMSBURG ORANGE CAKE (source: Cooking with Coconut Flour by Bruce Fife, N.D.) 1/2 c. butter, melted 12 eggs 3/4 c. sugar 1 t. salt 1 t. vanilla 1 c. SIFTED coconut flour 1 t. baking powder 1/2 c. golden raisins, cut up 1/2 c. nuts, finely chopped 1 T. grated orange peel Blend together butter, eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps. Fold in raisins, nuts, and orange peel. Pour batter equally into 2 greased 8 or 9x1-1/2-inch layer cake pans or one 9x9x2-inch pan. Bake at 350-degrees for 30-35 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cool. Cover with Williamsburg Butter Frosting. WILLIAMSBURG BUTTER FROSTING 1/2 c. butter, softened 4-1/2 c. powdered sugar 4-5 T. orange flavored liqueur or orange juice 1 T. grated orange peel Combine all ingredients and beat with an electric beater until smooth. REDUCED SUGAR WILLIAMSBURG BUTTER CAKE Make Williamsburg Butter Cake as directed but reduce sugar to 1/4 to 1/2 c. depending on desired sweetness, add 3 T. powdered or liquid stevia, and 1/3 c. coconut milk. If using liquid stevia, add it to the wet ingredients. If using powdered stevia, combine it with the coconut flour before mixing into the wet ingredients. Bake at 350-degrees F for 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean.

Make bread with the occident flour. From the label, the occident flour is bromated (potassium bromate). Years ago it was common for flour to contain bromates and iodates, which are dough conditioners, and they gave bread dough more extensibility. That's when "double" was the common standard to allow dough to rise. Now, without bromates in flour, it's best to only allow dough to rise to just UNDER double or you chance over-proofing the dough. There was an anti-bromate movement and California banned bromates in flour and it has been removed from most commercial flour products. It has been replaced with ascorbic acid. The malted barley flour in the occident flour will add a bit of a nutty flavor. If it was diastatic barley malt, that contributes enzymes that break down the big molecules of starch into the simple sugars that yeast can use. As for the 10-grain flour, check out recipes at Bob's Red Mill (scroll down the page - just before the reviews): Vegan 10-Grain Pancakes Banana Pecan Coffee Cake 10-Grain Yogurt Quick Bread Craig's World Famous Natural Granola (or Bars) Because there are a number of low-gluten and gluten-free grains/seeds/beans in the 10-grain mixture, you need to be mindful of that for making a yeast bread with it. Use it in combination with a high-gluten bread flour for bread so you have enough gluten available (start by substituting 20-25% of the bread flour with 10-grain flour). It will work for quick breads and cookies because of the lower gluten level. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: 10-Grain Flour - Bob's Red Mill