Lazy Gardener's Little Town Farm

Lazy Gardener

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I would love to have a little farm pond populated with catfish. There are a number of cold water species that would survive pond life, if the pond were deep enough.
 

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There are weeks on end, where an ice cube would be considered warm! When I was raising my kids, any time the temp got up to 20* outside, I'd bundle them up and get them out into the "heat of the day" for some fresh air! I'd lash a clothes basket to one of those plastic kid's sleds, line it with blankets for the baby, then let my toddler son run on ahead of us. I consider 20* to be MY break even point for being outside for anything other than the necessities
 

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Garden is one short month from being finished for the season. Yet, I am planning ahead for the "winter garden". Need to start some spinach, kale, and other cold weather crops in flats so they can get some size on and be transplanted into greenhouse and cold frame.
 

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Around here it's so humid in the mountains that when it gets below zero it often feels more comfortable outside working than when it's in the 20s and 30s. Even the house feels warmer at those colder temps...I think it's because it's not a damp cold when it gets that low.

Mom and I often comment on how much warmer the house feels when it hits single digits and goes to teens below. I can work outside longer when it's that cold. It's that damp cold in the 20s that works into the bones and can shorten my outside work time from having to come in and warm up more often.

LG, my garden is so done you can stick a fork in it. Have some tomatoes that need to ripen but everything else is pretty much done. I'm cleaning it out this weekend, once I use some of the green tomatoes for canning corn.
 

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Explain again, your green tomatoes for canning corn... please?

We don't can corn in a pressure canner as it turns it tough and brown looking...which is likely why folks freeze their corn instead of canning. My grandma taught us how to get around that issue and have much fresher, more crisp corn straight from the jar...taste like you just cut it off the cob!

We place a thick slice of green tomato in each jar and we do BWB instead of pressure canning. The tomato adds enough acid to the corn to help preserve it safely. Doesn't quite work with a red tomato, must be green and a nice, thick slice. Been doing it that way for the past 40 odd years now, thousands of jars canned over all those years and never an issue.

Nowadays I use the steam canner for all things we used to do in a BWB.
 

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How many minutes for pints? Do you CP or HP? I assume you pack loosely, with plenty of water? Head space?

You know, the canning police would be having a total conniption about such shenanigans????
 
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