The peck that I picked and froze earlier this week diced down to about seven fat quart bags. I added fresh-picked and dried basil (I have a large screen on sawhorses up in the unfinished attic, where it gets really hot and dry) to all of them, and to three of those bags, I added chopped bell and hot peppers.

Today, I picked and froze up another four quarts with basil and to two of them, I added some red wine. We'll see how that works out.

Today's batch is especially pretty, as I used a lot of little, yellow pear tomatoes.

I've got enough Roma Tomatoes left over to make a lasagna for this evening. Read more…

I've got a peck of beautiful Roma Tomatoes from the garden tonight, and I am going to dice and freeze them.

Here's The Safe And Easy Way To Do It.

It's really simple-- you don't even need to skin them.

There is a post down page, discussing ways to stay warm and fed this winter, as heating oil, natgas and electricity costs are all on a wild rise. Here's one small way to help lower your heating bills on the cheap.

via Mother Earth News

Some of the climatologists are predicting that the coming winter could well be colder than the last one. But even if that forecast comes true, you'll be a lot warmer during the clear-but-below-zero sieges ahead than you were during the frigid weather of last January and February, if your house or apartment has one or more unshaded southfacing windows and if you outfit those windows with the Heat Grabber. (See the bottom of the article and the Image Gallery to the right for Heat Grabber construction details and an explanation of the unit's operation.)

Believe it or not, this simple and effective "window box" solar collector can be fabricated in just under an hour by an experienced home craftsman (or in less than two hours by the more fumble-fingered among us) for the astonishingly low price of $32.18 (see materials breakdown on next page, prices are from 1977). And once constructed, this sturdy unit should give years of dependable service.

The secret of the Heat Grabber's quick assembly and low cost is a new rigid foam insulation board manufactured by Celotex. This board, trade-named "Thermax TF-610," is impregnated with glass fibers for strength, faced on both sides with heavy aluminum foil, and available in thicknesses ranging from 3/8" to 1-7/8". Celotex actually markets the material as a replacement for the pressed fiber sheathing or "blackboard" now used by contractors in the construction of wood framed houses and does not recommend it for any other purpose. Mother Earth News researchers, however, have run heat and other tests on the insulation board and found it near-ideal for use in quick, easy and low-cost solar collectors such as the Heat Grabber.

HOW IT WORKS... Read more…