thot I would add- this is the info I came up with and also how to make a nettle infusion: Dosages: Stinging nettle - 250 mg. freeze-dried extract every 2-4 hours or until symptoms subside Ephedra: 12.5 - 25 mg. 3x day Quercetin - 400 mg. 2x day between meals Echinacea - 350 mg 3x day Garlic - tablet equivalent of 10 cloves of garlic Honey- 2 tbs daily == Nettle infusion A couple of months before your allergies usually begin, start drinking nettles infusions. Nettles Infusion 1 quart room temperature water 4 tablespoons dried nettles Let the nettles and water sit over night in a quart glass mason jar. In the morning strain the herb out and drink the quart of nettles infusion over the next two days. Especially in warm weather the infusion can go bad so it is important to keep it refrigerated. When you are ready to drink it take it out of the fridge and warm it up. Normally a nettles infusion is good for two days if not left out in the heat. You can drink 1 to 3 cups of nettles infusion a day for several months. Over the years I have watched many of my clients eliminate their spring allergies following the above protocols along with drinking nettles for about two months prior to allergy season and then continuing to drink it throughout the time they would normally have allergies.

Well - I am looking at plum sauces, BBQ sauces, different kinds of ketchup (that is a big one - it is the stepping off point for alot of sauces on the fly) - mainly marinades and condiment type things. So many pickle recipes are out - I have resorted to refrigerator pickles with pretty good results - they are usually gone before I have to worry about spoilage. I use many of my jellies and jams in the beginnings of sauces (imagine here - reading every condiment jar in the grocery store and coming home with two different bottles that do not have vinegar). With the need to make everything from scratch - the opportunity to make my own for long term storage during the canning season is something I would like to conquer. I love shopping from my storage closet - rows and rows of canned jellies, jams, butters, fruits, veggies, juices, tomato sauce... I would like to add soups, sauces and condiments to that closet this year. I found an old post - "your greatest hit recipes" - the recipes look devine - but many of them have vinegar. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/harvest/msg0718273429658.html So, I guess my question is this - is there any recipe in canning that I can substitute bottled lemon juice or citric acid for and get similar results? I have read that you can substitute bottled lemon juice for vinegar - it is more acidic - but you can't substitute vinegar for lemon juice. And you can boost the acid levels of low acid salsas with 2T lemon juice or 1/2 t of citric acid per quart of sauce if you BWB instead of pressure canning. But reading that doesn't make it so - so here I am. It's alot of questions - knowing how many gallons (yes, gallons - tennagers and all of their friends for dinner often) of condiments of all kinds I have made over the past 6 months... I need to see if there is a way for me to mass produce sauces, salsas, etc - instead of a quart or two at a time to keep in the refrigerator. Thank you for any information you can help me with - I am anxious to get started, tomatoes are everywhere and I am up to my eyeballs in sauce already. Tiffany

Do you ever have a brief sense of clouding over or like there is a film in your eye or like you have an eyelash in your eye.Those are also symptoms of dry eyes. No, that doesn't happen to me. Again, I think that it is allergies, because I will be fine until I go outside, and the nursery experience really made me realize it was some sort of tree or shrub. It is quite obvious that I am having a reaction to something. Recently my DH and I were out to dinner, and dining in the restaurant's patio area and I experienced the same sypmtoms. I was fine when we left the house, but started tearing up when we sat down on the patio.

Yes the reaction hightens after every exposure and becomes more violent that´s why it´s important to take the dog to the vet quickly. Hystamine blockers don´t work well on dogs and are very short lived ( only good for 6-8 hours ), but cortisone does wonders, if you are having the problem and can´t locate the cause you can ask your vet to give your dog a shot of a long term deposit cortisone compound, those last up to 15 days, 15 days free of worries. Yes I´ve heard the horror stories about cortisone, in my experience, those horror stories are extremely rare, they can happen but it´s like penicilin, there are people and animals allergic to penicilin but that doesn´t mean that penicilin isn´t a good antibiotic for the remaining 99% of the population that are not allergic to penicilin. Same thing happens with cortisone, some animals may develop cortisone related health issues, that´s why it is important that the therapy is performed and under supervision by your vet. For what you are saying I think that what´s causing the problem is in that particular tree, you may not have fire ants ( Ohio is too cold for them ) but you have carpenter ants and those also sting, and they survive in cold climates protected by the bark and wood. Check that tree for carpenter ants. You have no idea how many cases I see every year, hot climates have hot bugs, the list is long and distinguished where I live: fire ants, bumble bees, those nasty 1 1/2 inch red wasps that carry more fire power than an Apache helicopter with an attitude, those black & yellow spotted wasps ( also very nasty ), black widow spiders, scorpions, wooly buggers ( butterfly caterpillars with "hair" ) and to round up the mix, rattlesnakes and poisonous toad. You gotta love the South !