This month's notes: February 2012: Winter is upon us, but don't despair! Strawberry and citrus picking actually begins in Florida, southern Texas and southern Californiaa in December. And for the rest of us; there are many delicious jams, jellies, and marmalades that you can make for yourself or as gifts, from frozen or fresh fruit.  See this page for hundreds of easy canning and freezing instructions/recipes, canning equipment guide! Also make your own ice cream - see How to make ice cream and ice cream making equipment and manuals. Then see each state's crop availability calendar for more specific dates of upcoming crops. Organic farms are identified in green!  See our guide to local fruit and vegetable festivals!. Please tell the farms you found them here - and ask them to update their information!!

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I'm always interested in your comments, suggestions, and ways to improve the web site! If you find a farm has closed, or some other information is wrong, please use the corrections form to let me know so I can promptly correct it! And if you want to recommend a farm to add; use our Suggest a farm  form or if you own/operate a farm,  add-my-farm form!  FYI, the state and County information helps me to locate farms near you! And look farther down this page, after the form, for answers to frequently asked questions. You'll find lots of canning Q&A's on this page.  Feel free to ask me any questions! If I can help, I will! Note: If you use a "allowed-sender request" spam-control service I cannot reply to you.  They always perceive responses as spam and will not allow my email through to you; plus there just isn't time, with the volume of emails I answer. If you want a response, please use an email account that does not require me to fill out a form to be approved. NOTE about ads: If you see any offensive political ads; email me the url on them so I can block them.  See this note about ads.  No spam - we do not give away your email address!

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  1. You have ads for [fill in the name the company, product, service or group]. They are evil and are destroying America!  Why do you let them advertise on your website???
    A. I don't. Or to put it another way, I have no way of knowing who will be advertising until the ads actually appear. With very few exceptions, the banner ads are supplied by an outside company (their name appears in the banner "Ads by ...")  I have NO advance control over what appears in these ads.  It is completely controlled by the outside company.  If you see an inappropriate or offensive ad - don't get mad at me; just email me  and be sure to give me the name of the advertiser in the ad and their url.  Then I can go back to the outside ad company and have the advertiser banned! For more information see:     http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdSense/thread?tid=3587e2900f968389&hl=en  and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdSense
  2. Q. I wrote to you, but never heard back.  Do you answer your email?
    A.     I reply to every single email I receive.  Unfortunately, about 10% of the people who write to me either don't know their own email address or type it incorrectly.  About one in 1 in 10 are returned to me "no such address or account". Some have spam-blocker services that block any response I send.  Others have spam controls that require the sender to fill out a form, just to reply.
  3. Q. Sometimes when I print a page, the words are cut off on the right side.  How can I print it so it all comes out correctly?
    A. After you click File-Print or Ctrl-P, but before you hit the "print" button, click on "properties" and change the orientation to "Landscape".
    Wherever a page has a "PDF print version", click that link for a better quality print!
    I've been converting all of the pages to a newer technology (CSS / stylesheets) that will fix that and remove unnecessary things like ads, so most pages should print well now.
  4. Q. I want to search for a specific fruit or vegetable in my area, without needing to look through a page with other listings!
    A. I'm working  on that, too, by converting all of the farm listings to a database, so you can search with greater flexibility and precision and see on the listings that apply to your request.  This should be implemented before Spring 2008.
  5. Q. Can you tell me where to find organic ________?
    A. The information about each farm that I found from government agriculture sources didn't include organic status.  I have requested it from the farms, but they are slow in responding.  As they reply I update their listings.  If it doesn't say "organic", it is safe to presume that it isn't.  For 2008, I am identifying organic farms with a green "ORGANIC", so they will stand out.  And in the improved search engine (see question 2) I will enable a "include only organic farms" option, too!.
  6. Q. Why can't you make these changes sooner?
    A. I actually make 99% of changes within 24 hours. I'm trying to keep this free for everyone. I don't charge either farmers or consumers (or anyone else). In order to keep it free, I do 100% of all the work myself, in my "spare" time, so it takes me a bit longer (the baby needs some time, too! :).  Keeping this resource free for all has been a priority of mine, along with ease of use and accuracy of the information!

Keep the suggestions coming!  If people want it, I'll do it!

 

Ball home canning kit water bath canner

Home Canning Kits

Features:

  • Everything you need to get started with waterbath canning (fruits,pickles, jams, jellies, salsa, sauces and tomatoes)
  • 21-1/2 qt. enamel water bath canner
  • Funnel, jar lifter, lid lifter, bubble freer spatula
  • Ball Blue Book

This is the same type of standard canner that my grandmother used to make everything from applesauce to jams and jellies to tomato and spaghetti sauce. This complete kit includes everything you need and lasts for years: the canner, jar rack, jar grabber tongs, lid lifting wand, a plastic funnel, labels, bubble freer, and the bible of canning, the Ball Blue Book. It's much cheaper than buying the items separately. You'll never need anything else except jars & lids (and the jars are reusable)! There is also s simple kit with just the canner and rack, and a pressure canner, if your want to do vegetables (other than tomatoes). To see more canners, of different styles, makes and prices, click here!
 


Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
 

This page was updated on 8-Jul-2011

 

Illustrated Canning, Freezing, Jam Instructions and Recipes

[ All About Home Canning, Freezing and Making Jams, Pickles, Sauces, etc. ] [FAQs - Answers to common questions and problems] [Recommended books about home canning, jam making, drying and preserving!] [Free canning publications to download and print]


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