Kaleb Claxton

Hello all,
Looking for some advice from anyone who has saved seed from spinach. I am going to be attempting it this year and was looking for anyone who might offer advice.
I am not looking for seed purity as I want as much cross breeding as possible. Anyone got any advice or tips/tricks to it?

Potatoes when they are first planted do not want to be in water logged environment for long periods of time. The only thing I would worry about is all of that organic matter in that pile will hold on to water for a long period of time. If you plant them and have a wet period of time, the potatoes might rot before they have a chance to sprout.
Also if there is to much fresh manure in that pile it could to hot for your plants as well.


Just some things to look out for I am sure other more knowledgeable than I will chime in.

Well I can give you several that I use but be warned, once they know the signs of a treat coming they can be somewhat dangerous trying to get to said treat!

1. Once I pick my sweetcorn, I will cut the stalks down with a machete and feed the stalks to the cattle slowly. You do not want to feed them large amounts of it at one time.
2. Cattle also love to eat the leftovers from my thinning process of spring turnips, radishes, etc. If I don't compost all of them I will feed them to the cattle.
3. As has been said before cattle will love carrots and feeding them whole large turnips is quite a treat as well. Make sure to cut large turnips in several smaller pieces so the animal won't choke.
4. I will feed some of the bolted lettuce in my garden to the cattle as well.

There are a lot of things deemed undesirable in the garden that cattle will make great use of. So if you don't find yourself composting things feed them to the cattle. A word of caution though make sure you look to see if you can feed the leaves of some plants to them. One in particular I know can't be feed to cattle or livestock in general is Rhubarb leaves; it is toxic to the animals.

Once again, please exercise caution when feeding cattle "treats". Once my cattle know they have corn stalks coming them will literally run after me and pull them from the vehicle. So please be careful as to not let yourself get run over by the animals. Otherwise enjoy it, cattle are quite entertaining!

Please think long and hard before planting. They can be difficult to control and they are extremely fast growing. They are hard to eradicate and will be hard on equipment/people. Their thorns are no joke!
Having said that, if you do wish to get some seeds look no further than ebay and you can cheaply get some desired seeds or maybe a helpful member on this website can help you out.
I eradicated all of mine or I would send you some.  Good luck in you endeavor!

Larisa Walk wrote:I've found that small mouth jars are easier to seal as there is less circumference to seal. We used to can sauerkraut but have switched to doing smaller batches through the year and keeping it refrigerated so as to maintain a live culture. For that we prefer using wide mouth jars, usually half gallon size.

How long will the sauerkraut last in the fridge? I find that interesting for we make a lot of sauerkraut.

Jain Anderson wrote:I use the small mouth canning jars that work fine using a canning funnel -

https://smile.amazon.com/Stainless-Funnel-Wide-Mouth-Kitchen-Canning/dp/B07P81DNM5/ref=sr_1_9?crid=2HE1UZCKOM1HU&keywords=canning+funnel&qid=1581026961&sprefix=canning+funnel%2Caps%2C977&sr=8-9

I pick up jars at rift stores just checking the jar rim for smooth surface. I rly like finding the little 10oz. jars that can just the right amount for people. The little standard 'half pint' jars may be good for jam, but they don't hold 8 oz., more like 6 oz.which isn't good for most recipe uses like tomato sauce etc.

Thanks for the tip I will look into that!

wayne fajkus wrote:I can't speak for brands but size and mouth size is worthy of consideration. I tend to go wide mouth for ease of filling, emptying, and cleaning.

I hear ya wayne. We have a few dozen of the small mouth jars still hanging around but I have big hands and they make things much harder. We only buy wide mouth jars!

Hello all!

Every year we can all sorts of things and have an extensive collection of jars; mostly ball jars. Lately we have been needing to buy some more to add to the collection and figured I would ask opinions on here about jars. We pressure can and water bath can so i need a jar that can do both.  I looked up the ball website and boy there are tons of options I didn't know about. I also believe some of them are only meant for decoration and not canning purposes.  I know I am WAY overthinking this but wanted to take some time to have a discussion nonetheless.

Does anyone know anything about the ball collection elite jars i.e the amber ones? Are they thicker glass than regular?
Does anyone know if the aqua and amber jars can be pressure canned or just water bath?
Lastly, is there a better brand out there of mason jars than ball (not Weck jars)?

Anyway, thought I would get some opinions on this before purchasing several dozen.
Thank you for your time.

To add to your observation about Honey Locust, I believe the Sunburst variety of Honey Locust are thorn-less AND pod-less. Could work for you!

P.S. Be careful with Honey Locust, just because the parent tree is thorn-less doesn't mean the seeds that grow from it will be thorn-less!

We always had New Zealand does with a California buck. They stayed in a building with no heat/cooling and they always did fine. We live in the Midwest where summer temps are routinely 85+ F everyday with humidity. We just keep a fan on them in the summer.