Using sound judgment to be more self-reliant.
Today's featured Weekly Weeder plant is common ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia. Common ragweed is also known as ragweed, hayfever weed, bitterweed, bloodweed, crownweed, mayweed and bane of allergy sufferers everywhere. Some other common ragweed species include bur ragweed, giant ragweed and western ragweed.
In this post, we’ll explain what ragweed is, identify prime ragweed season, share some ragweed pictures, and talk about ragweed allergies and control.
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Tomatoes not ripening? Here are the four main reasons why your tomatoes aren't turning red, and what you can do (if anything) to help ripen your tomatoes.
Freezing fresh green beans is a quick and easy way to preserve them for later use. We'll walk you through how to freeze green beans, step by step, with or without blanching. Whether you're freezing pole beans, bush beans, yellow beans or other snap beans, the method is the same. You need about 1-1/2- to 2-1/2 pounds of green beans per quart of frozen beans.
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A good spaghetti sauce recipe for canning is a must in our house, because many commercial spaghetti sauces use ingredients like genetically modified high fructose corn syrup and soybean oil – not things we normally eat.
My husband came in from outside the first time I was canning spaghetti sauce, smiled and said the house smelled like an Italian restaurant – a good Italian restaurant. I had to agree. It takes a while to cook, but the end result is delicious! I start a batch in the morning, and slow cook while I'm working on other things in the kitchen, like prepping the rest of the ingredients and canning equipment. Paste tomatoes will yield a thicker sauce with less cooking, but you can use any tomatoes that you have available.
You can also cut this spaghetti sauce recipe in half or to a fourth. Just keep the processing time the same, or freeze the spaghetti sauce instead of canning.
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No one can tell you exactly how to pick a good watermelon, because so much of the flavor depends on growing and storage conditions. What I can give you are tips to teach you how to tell if a watermelon is ripe – PLUS – I’ll tell you how to store a watermelon for best flavor and nutrition.
