Dave Lenweaver's Page

"My peas have been in for two weeks now. Just starting to see a few poke out of the ground. Spinach will go in this week...maybe. I still don't trust the weather and the cold frame is out of commission due to a rambunctious cat! The cat is…"

"Thanks Roxy! I hope they make it as well as yours. At what point and how did you transplant?  "

"My plants generally look similar.  It makes them a pain to plant but I've always had good survival rates and plenty of celery.  I kept the seedlings cooler this year and the lights closer - they are still dainty but less spindly...…"

"I also bought from Baker Creek (rareseeds.com), Comstock Ferre and Seed Savers. Pics and descriptions are very important to me and I'll be taking photos to send to these folks for their use in catalogs. I'll also be posting to my blog adn…"

"I am having good success keeping dry toms in pantry in regular jars. Conditioning before packing helps. Conditioning is making sure all the moisture is out. To condition, leave the just-dried produce loosely covered for 4 or more days, & stir or…"

"Thanks for the heads up. I kept them in the fridge in two ziplocks. One went moldy but the other was fine. I'm still new at this dehydrator thing and want to be careful thus the question. I have to think that the Italians who dry tomatoes all…"

"We keep ours in oil in the fridge because that's what we heard would keep away botulism. So far so good. Just ate a bunch from the summer batch last night. That said, I'm going to read the research that Katie suggested. We have also kept…"

"Thanks to all. Katie, that was an excellent resource. I keep the tom's refrigerated (not in oil though) now and they seem to be staying fine. I'll experiment with the tom's/oil and see what happens."

"I concur-- partly because I have found that the best dried tomatoes in oil are those that are slightly rehydrated in hot water prior to going into the olive oil. BTW- if the slightly-solid olive oil straight from the fridge seems a problem to you,…"

"Great question, Dave. Packing foods in oil does not prevent botulism. In fact in 1989, there was a rash of botulism cases in Kingston, NY from people storing commercially prepared garlic in oil in their refrigerators. Remember botulism spores can…"

"i havne't done it but if you mean storing in a bottle of olive oil, i think you can. i've seen other things stored in oils and then given the oil flavor. i stored mine vaccume sealed on the basement shelf."