Christina Wilson

We have whitetail deer in Ohio. My mother-in-law taught me to cook them with onion to address any gaminess. We usually take the tenderloin out and cook it separately (pan fried cutlets to brown it, then turn the heat down low and cover the meat in sour cream and onions and mushrooms until done is my husband's favorite); even older bucks are good this way. The rest is either made into jerky or ground. We found an attachment to put on the grinder to make patties. I go ahead and add onions and seasonings to the ground meat as we are making the patties, so it is really easy to take a couple from the freezer and cook them later.

The best part is that you can eat almost the entire tomato. If you take the tomato for lunch and really like it, then you can easily save a few seeds and carry them home to dry. The labelling is really important, though.  I am growing some tomato plants this year which are either a really nice beefsteak for which I otherwise have no more seeds, or maybe they are an heirloom oxheart of which I have plenty of seeds.  I only saved two types of tomato seeds that year...shame I failed to label these seeds. Really hoping for the beefsteak...  

Funny story about the oxheart, though - the friends in West Virginia who grew them for many years gave us a tomato and we liked it so we saved seeds and started plants the following years, then we found out they had lost all their seeds, so we gave them some plants and seeds back. They didn't even know we had them when they told us how sad they were to lose their seeds.

My method is super simple. I take a spoon or a knife and use the tip to remove seeds from tasty tomatoes and smear them on a paper towel. I can avoid getting too much flesh this way, but if it seems too wet then I  transfer the seeds to a new paper towel.  You can use a ballpoint pen to label the sheet. Then I  set it in a warm corner in the kitchen for a few days to air dry. Done! I fold the towel and put it all in a storage bag. At planting time, if the seeds don't want to come loose,  then I just plant it with a bit of paper towel attached.

I tried the hammer method unsuccessfully.  Then I
tried deshelling some peach pits several years ago using a bench vise. Much easier! I just cranked really slowly at end and quit as soon as I heard the crack.

Nicole Alderman wrote:Hi Christina! The message about being at the $25 level was an accident. It was supposed to go out to just those at the $25, but accidentally went out to everyone.

If kickstarter says you're at the $65 level, then you are! If you want, you could post a screenshot of what you're seeing there, and we can verify for you that you're at the level you want to be.

We're really sorry about any and all confusion!

Thanks Nicole. I feel more confident now. Kickstarter clearly shows me at $65 level. The messages just worried me.

I did that when I changed from $5 to $65. I am still getting messages that I am not at the level I think I am. I even got one that said I  was still at $25 even though I  never was at $25. I followed those instructions,  though, and double checked and it looked like it was supposed to according to the instructions.  I have never used Kickstarter before and I am getting worried.

Oh, I want to try this! I have more started tomato plants than I should plant already, but direct-seeded tomato plants sounds awesome!

My machine hasn't been used for about 5 years. I thought if nobody had a reason why it wouldn't work, then I would ask the Surge dealer if he would try adjusting it for me. Tinkering like that is beyond my comfort zone, and I need to get some oil and new leathers, etc. anyway. When I bought it about 23 years ago, it was running a 4 bucket pipeline, and the Surge dealer converted it to just hook to one bucket for me to milk goats. He said he bought a box of manuals from a Surge dealer who retired and he has a manual for my machine. I think it is from the 1930s...it is a big cast iron vacuum pump.  I haven't looked online recently, but I couldn't find it before. I figure if it could create enough vacuum to milk 4 cows at the same time, then maybe it could become a chamber vacuum sealer.

Has anybody tried this? I have an older Surge cow milking machine that I used to milk goats. I sold the goats but nobody wanted to buy a large (very heavy) antique milking machine.  I could fit a lot of jars in the bucket (chamber). Do you think those vacuum pumps could be adjusted to work? I think milking is like 14 Hg and chamber vacuum sealers need 29-30 Hg (a little more then the more common type of vacuum sealer which sucks the air out of the bag, etc.) Chamber vacuum sealers are usually much more expensive and could be used with a variety of jars, which is useful, since they create a vacuum in a chamber which causes the jars inside the chamber to seal. Thanks for any suggestions.

If you have apple trees growing happily but their apples are not what you want, why not cut them back and graft them?  My husband and I are planting a large property that has a bunch of crabapples of all sizes. We have been cutting some back to several inches tall and grafting them with desirable apple scion wood. I have done small seedlings and full-grown trees.  The bigger ones I graft on both sides and hope one takes (if both take, choose just one to keep). The little ones I do one graft.  Our success rate is low because we are grafting in an established wooded area with lots of curious wildlife. But we do get some.  The grafts that take jump up quickly because there is an established large root system supporting just one little stick. You could also just cut off branches and graft them (so many grafts on each tree).