Jar sizes in canner
I have a question concerning jars. Today I was putting up potatoes in qt. wide mouth jars. Ran short by one jar and used a regular size mouth jar in with the rest. Was this ok? Also had a pint & half size wide mouth one in there too. I processed as though all were wide mouth quarts. Was this ok?
Judith Almand
Brandon, Florida
You can certainly mix wide-mouth and regular-mouth quarts. And you can also add pints, pint and a half, or even-half pints in with your batch, if you want. I often stack quarts on the bottom and add pints or half-pints above the second rack. You must still process for the time required for the quarts which slightly overcooks the smaller jars. But I’ve never found that a problem and it sure lets me get a whole lot more done faster! — Jackie
Harvesting asparagus
I have an asparagus bed that is 4 years old. Last year was the first year that I harvested from it and I did that very sparingly. My question is now that it is growing well, should I be harvesting all of the spears that come up and how long should I do this? There are a few that are very spindly while most of them are pretty thick.
Amy Blattner
Fulton, Missouri
It’s normal for all asparagus to put out some thin spears. You can harvest spears this year without worrying. Harvest all of those over a pencil size. Leave the thin ones. As time goes on, you’ll see that you get fewer and fewer big spears — usually after about a month’s time. This signals the time to stop harvesting and let the ferns go on and grow all summer. At this point the plant is building up roots for next year. In the fall, you can add rotted manure along your rows, right up to the plants. This will protect the plants over winter and give them a good start next spring. Enjoy one of Spring’s best treats! I can hardly wait for ours to pop up. Only a day or two longer! — Jackie
