Newer version of Annie's Salsa - BWB only Annie's Salsa 8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained 2 1/2 cups chopped onion 1 1/2 cups chopped green pepper 3 to 5 chopped jalapenos (for milder leave out seeds and ribs) 6 cloves minced garlic 2 tsp cumin (optional) 2 tsp pepper 1/8 cup canning salt 1/4 c fresh cilantro (optional) 1/3 c sugar (optional) 1 cup cider vinegar (see note on subbing lemon or lime juice option) 16 oz canned tomato sauce (to adjust density) 8-16 oz canned tomato paste (to adjust density) Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil 10 minutes. Pour into hot jars, process pints for 15 minutes in BWB. Makes 6 pints. _________ A lot of changes have been made to this recipe over the years. Some people like lemon or lime juice in place of some or all of the vinegar, that's fine. (Note from Sheila - I like half lemon half lime.) Some people leave out the cilantro, that's fine too. Do not increase! Some people add more hot peppers or fewer onions, fine as long as you keep the same total measurements. (Note this is what NCHFP does in their new Choice Salsa recipe.) Some people leave out the sugar, that's fine. You can scoop out the goo in the middle of the tomatoes with your thumbs when I'm peeling and chopping for a less seedy version, so it's 8 cups of chopped tomatoes without the seeds and goo. Most who make it regularly as well as Annie recommend using a variety of different slicing tomatoes, not paste types, for best flavor and consistency. (Note: use the tomato sauce and paste to adjust the consistency of the final product to a "sloshy" consistency.) According to Annie "My salsa is not as thick as Heinz catsup but it's thicker than taco sauce. If you don't like it quite as thick or sweet, cut down the amount of paste. I would add some, then taste. Reducing that ingredient shouldn't affect the safety of the recipe. I use equal amounts of sauce and paste. You can pull it off the heat at any point and adjust for flavor. Before I cook it I check for salt, sugar, check the consistency. Add more pepper or cumin if I want. When I first started making this salsa, tomato sauce and paste came in 8 and 16 ounce cans. Like everything else, they've now been downsized, so now I have to use partial cans." Does anybody have good versions of the other recipes that have weird symbols in them for measurements?

Hi Molly.. You could absolutely have a compact mini-garden in your spot. The GOOD thing is, since it's such a small space, taking care of it won't be so much work! I would suggest the following: Either: 1) As the other said, do a raised bed, and fill it with good store-bought dirt (probably your simplest solution...) or lasagna garden (disadvantages would be all the material you'll have to buy & haul in for the 'lasagna layers')... OR 2) Your best option, in my opinion: no raised bed,, just get the weeds, weed-roots, & rocks out with a fork, loosen it up REALLY good, and buy as much good dirt as you can (from Natural Gardener or Great Outdoors, or another garden store with a conscience).. something with lots of compost, hummus, etc.. already in it.. and once you put your plants in, put as much of the GOOD dirt under & around the plants as you can. Then you can till the leftover stuff in the rest of the bed. If you do this every year (& keep adding your own compost), your soil will get better & better, and you will have to do much less work every season. Then cover everything with a good layer of pine bark mulch. The mulch will also decompose into your soil and further improve it. THEN start a compost pile! This is the best way to start making your own soil. A vermicompost bin is another great way to do the same thing, but more concentrated. Leaves (from your autumn raking), kitchen scraps, b&w newspaper, chicken/cow/rabbit manure, hay, etc.. all go in both of these. And eventually it goes into your garden soil, improving it even more. This takes time though.. which is why you need to buy the good stuff, at first. By next year you can start adding the 'black gold' to your garden.. and that's a great feeling. Some reasons why your tomatoes probably failed before: 1) Soil not ready (see above) 2) Did you get healthy plants, from a good organic garden store or local farmers market? or, from a big box store (some folks might do fine with these, I would never risk it)..? 3) Did you get varieties that do well in our area? The good stores/farm mkts will sell these. 4) Did you get them in EARLY enough? Preferably mid-March to early-April. The main reason is that they need to get established before the brutal TX heat, and b/c if the nighttime temps are too high by the time they are just getting blossoms, the pollen gets too sticky/heavy in the heat and they might not fruit. So you need to get plants in the ground when nighttime temps are still cool (someone here might know the exact cut-off temp.. high 70's, I think?). 5) Did you feed them?? Tomatoes are heavy feeders, especially in our poor soil...unless you live on the east side, or somewhere with better dirt. 6) Was the soil well loosened/aerated around the plants? If not, the roots struggle too hard to get through our rocky-clay soil and cannot breathe, can't grow, & water can't get to them. 7) Did you give them enough room? How about support- a sturdy tomato cage? The small flimsy cone ones are worthless, IMO... get the biggest cones you can find, or the large folding non-cone ones if you are really serious. But if you have compact bush plants, this isn't as much of an issue.. 8) Stink bugs and other pests will likely take over around July, but that's kind of a given.. you can try sucking them up with a hand-vacuum... but usually by then I've gotten a good crop and I just give up (the mosquitoes are too bad to be outside much, and to hot anyway...) 9) How about water? It's best to water in the morning or evening, and just water the soil around the plants, try to keep the plants dry. Make sure they get a good deep watering, about once a week, or more often if it's really hot/dry. They will start to wilt a bit when they need more water. The longer you water them at one time, then leave them alone for as long as they can stand it, the deeper the roots will go. If you give them only shallow, frequent waterings, the roots will stay closer to the surface. 10) Toms need at the very least 4 hrs of direct light a day.. Soooooooooo... Here's what you need to get started (if you choose option #2): 1) a big garden fork/ spading fork-- which is an investment.. absolutely essential for loosening up our soil. You wiggle it into the soil by putting ALL your weight on it til it goes in- then start pulling up & flipping over the soil, & get all those pesky weeds out (make sure you get all the roots). Rocks too. This will also break up the clumps. Keep pushing the fork down as deep as it can go & scooping it up. Just think of those nice healthy roots going way down in there= healthier plants. It's hard work, but great exercise, and it gets easier.. just do a section each day & you'll be done in no time. Watering the soil a bit helps too. 2) shovel (of course) 3) at least a couple bags of good soil.. and remember soil is everything... it will feed your plants, which will feed you. So don't get cheap junk at walmart or wherever.. Ladybug brand is great, or something similar.. 4) a few bags of mulch, either pine bark or pine needle.. if you want a short cut, you can use a thick layer of leaves if you have a leaf pile handy. Mulch will help keep the soil moist after a rain/watering, & help keep soil from getting too hot and dry. Also helps delay weeds somewhat. 5) a bag of Rabbit Hill farms tomato & pepper food (my personal favorite). Put a handful of this into each hole as you put the toms in. Then work another handful in around each plant as they start to fruit, and every few weeks after. 6) a bottle of seaweed-fish solution & a regular sprayer bottle. Mix a half-capful or so with water (fill it up)- and mist the leaves every couple weeks (in the morning, before 9 am, when the leaf 'pores' are still open)... this helps heat/drought tolerance and also feeds your plants. I hope this doesn't sound complicated,, it really is simple! You will get into a rhythm and it will just become a natural part of your day. I would also suggest volunteering for the green Corn Project and planting a garden with them at least once, they use the biointensive double-digging method, which is basically kind of what I do (a simpler version). Or, visit other peoples' gardens (like at the Natural Gardener- theirs is amazing!) to get inspiration & ask for advice. You could probably do about 3 tomato plants (compact/bush varities might be easier to manage in that small space)... and maybe a few bush cukes and non-vining squash, a pepper or 2. Realistically that's probably all you're going to fit in there, so make sure you are putting in what you really want. But the biointensive method says.. the healthier your soil (and therefore, your plants), the more you can crowd them together. So keep that in mind. And don't forget about Austin's great opportunity for a fall/winter/into spring garden: spinach, broccoli, beets, carrots, asian greens, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts, onions, potatoes,, leeks, peas, etc...! Good luck.. hope that helps!

Old versions of AOL if it helps.

I've been using Firefox since longer than I can remember, and a beta version has never been pushed to me. Auto-updates to release versions, yes. Beta versions, no (I am not subscribed to the beta channel and have never been forced to it). Regards to browser security, there's a newly discovered vulnerability in the SSLv3 protocol -- POODLE is the acronym. It's a combination of browser and server. SSLv3 was superseded some while ago by TLS, but many servers are still running SSLv3 (along with TLS). A secure browser connection that starts on TLS can be tricked into downgrading to SSL 3.0 (if the connecting server still supports it), and a hacker can intercept bits of the data flow when that happens. The expectation is that SSL 3.0 will not be patched since it's considered outdated. Servers that are running it will (should) soon be reconfigured to no longer support it. Users who are running old browsers that don't support TLS will no longer be able to connect to secure sites such as online banking or shopping after servers no longer support SSLv3. The recommended defense until servers are fixed to to eliminate SSLv3 is for users to set their browser to not allow SSL 3.0 connections (minimum TLSv1). If your old browser of choice (or requirement) doesn't support TLS then you're stuck being susceptible, and will be out-of-luck when SSLv3 is fully redacted. IE6 , for example, supports TLSv1 but the option is not enabled by default, it must be manually turned on. (TLS is currently up to v3, which IE6 does not support past TLSv1.) Test your browser