Jeff, thanks for the helpful earthworm tips! I read somewhere that the worm castings (poo) are the perfect fertilizer and totally bacteria free! I love earthworms! I will give your "worm-harvesting" method a try since we are going to have rain here tonight and tomorrow!

By this time next year I'll have one heck of a garden, I am going to plant my used coffee grounds, tea bags, and egg shells in the garden for the worms to eat too! My chickens will get the other table scraps, I love chickens too! It just seems they love to eat anything you feed them, and I love to see my food that we do not consume put to a good use!

Another thing I just remembered reading (that you may and may not know) is that earthworms will work your compost pile into lovely fertilizer as they eat it up. They make composting a cinch!

Cathy

If you really want to make it fun, do it with the kids. We used to have a riot doing it.

I got a flyer in my Sunday paper about a tomato plant that grows very tall and can produce 60 pounds of tomatoes. I ordered it to see if this will help me out. I could wait until the market and tomato season is in to buy a big bunch. But I have to try this plant. Don't know how delicous the tomatoes are but if this thing grows I will know soon enough. My problem is finding tomato products that are low in sodium. One store has a low sodium cream corn and another store had low sodium canned tomatoes. Well they don't anymore. Who knows how long I will have to wait to get a can of low sodium tomatoes again? So I saw this advertizement and thought I could dice up my tomatoes and freeze them for my recipes. I am hoping canned diced tomatoes come out the same as frozen diced tomatoes. But I know there are no stores selling frozen diced tomatoes. So I will live and learn. But here is the difference in the sodium content. Regular canned tomatoes have about 260 mg of sodium in it. The low salt brand had only 25 mg. Well they got my attention, now where's the product?
In case you want to take a peek at what I ordered it is at this address:
Giant Tree Tomato - V30010
I also bought some climbing zucchini plants. I really want to plant more things in my tiny yard this year. Cost me 21 dollars. I am smiling!

:)Lizgirl, you made me smile reading about your giant tomato plant! As long as it produces lots of tomatoes and is not all plant!

When I was a young homemaker I always canned my own homegrown tomatoes, they were delicious! Personally I think any veggie is better canned than frozen; except squash (taste wise).

CCCathy

I never learned to do canning. I might brave it one day and do so. I got the newspaper today and they had a little article in the paper about tomatoes. They say refrigeration reduces the tomato flavor. Now what is freezing them going to do? Ha! I will see and I might have time to do more planning by the time I get this plant. And I hope too I get lots of tomatoes and not just a pretty tomato looking plant full of leaves. lol! I never did any canning because I can't find anyone to show me how to do it personally. I am a bit afriad I might poision everyone. Well now my family is just me an my husband. That lowers the numbers. :-o