{"id":3887,"date":"2014-03-29T03:00:09","date_gmt":"2014-03-29T07:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=3887"},"modified":"2014-03-29T03:00:09","modified_gmt":"2014-03-29T07:00:09","slug":"q-and-a-protecting-fruit-trees-from-frost-cloudy-jelly-and-canning-collard-greens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2014\/03\/29\/q-and-a-protecting-fruit-trees-from-frost-cloudy-jelly-and-canning-collard-greens\/","title":{"rendered":"Q and A: protecting fruit trees from frost, cloudy jelly, and canning collard greens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protecting fruit trees from frost<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m thinking about putting in a couple of apple trees and was wondering how you protect your fruit trees from the spring frosts. Here in eastern Washington, the orchardists use huge turbine fans to keep the air moving. Before that, they all used smudge pots.<\/em><\/p>\n

Julie Fluaitte<\/em>
\nSunnyside, Washington<\/em><\/p>\n

We don’t protect our trees from frost. However, we do plant fruit trees that are mid-to-late bloomers, when possible. Otherwise, we’ve just learned to accept nature. And yes, we DO sometimes get those killing late spring frosts and have little fruit. One more reason to can, can, can! — Jackie<\/p>\n

Cloudy jelly<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a Mehu-Liisa 11 liter stainless steel steam juicer. We have several crabapple trees on our property and last fall had bushels of nice, big, worm free crabapples. I made one batch of juice\/jelly using the old cheesecloth drain method and the juice was clear as was the jelly. When I used the juicer the juice was cloudy. Of course I stirred the crabapples while they were steaming to get as much juice as possible so I assume that is why the juice is cloudy. I didn’t have time to make the jelly so I canned the juice so I can make the jelly now. I know it will be cloudy but will taste great. Do I let the juicer do its thing and not stir the crabapples? I prefer clear juice\/jelly.<\/em><\/p>\n

Phyllis Buys<\/em>
\nSioux City, Iowa<\/em><\/p>\n

What I do is let the juicer alone until I have drawn off much of the juice. THEN I mash the fruit around and let it steam more. That juice is a little cloudy. Most of my jelly is clear as a bell but some ends up cloudy. What the heck, it sure tastes great. I just use the cloudy jelly at home for everyday use and use the clear stuff for company or gifts until the cloudy jelly is gone. Then we eat the clear jelly. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Canning collard greens<\/strong><\/p>\n

I pressure canned my collard greens and they successfully sealed. There is a white substance around the top and on top of some of the greens. Is this mineral deposits? Are they safe to eat? Did I not add enough liquid?<\/em><\/p>\n

Ruth Huling<\/em>
\nOlympia, Washington<\/em><\/p>\n

This is probably either a mineral reaction or oxalic acid crystals. Neither will harm you although foods containing oxalic acid should be avoided if you have kidney stones. It won’t cause them, however. Many healthy greens, including collards and spinach, contain oxalic acid so don’t worry about it. — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protecting fruit trees from frost I’m thinking about putting in a couple of apple trees and was wondering how you protect your fruit trees from the spring frosts. Here in eastern Washington, the orchardists use huge turbine fans to keep the air moving. Before that, they all used smudge pots. Julie Fluaitte Sunnyside, Washington We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}