Easy home-made valentines with cardboard and file folders

Planning ahead has never been a strength in this family. Great ideas usually arrive a day late and a dollar short. But not so this year with valentines! We stumbled upon a cute and easy Reduce/Reuse idea for home-made valentines cards thanks to the Martha Steward Living magazine that mysteriously arrived in my mailbox a few weeks back (even thought I've not subscribed). Martha's February issue had many mouthwatering Valentines' Day inspirations, most of which we ignored (out waistlines will thank us later). But we did like an idea she had about making stamps with corrugated cardboard -- hers were little rosettes. We modified her idea and made hearts. Here's what the stamps look like:

We used washable Crayola kid paints to ink the stamps (because of course we ended up with paint on our noses to our toes). Once the valentines dried overnight, the kids addressed and signed their cards. Here are some finished cards:


Easy peasy. No glitter. No mess. One-of-a-kid valentines. Nothing new or store-bought with characters and smart-alecky sayings. We had plenty of corrugated cardboard in the recycling bin to make our stamps. It did turn out that I had no cardstock for the cards, but we found a wealth of old file folders that were willing to be down-cycled into valentines.

If you have any easy valentines ideas you'd like to share (especially those that Reduce / Reuse materials creatively), please send us a description and a photo. We'll feature them throughout the week. Let love with a spirit of Reduce / Reuse / Recycle fill the air for this year's Valentine's Day!

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Sink strainers! Preventing clogged drains to avoid using those nasty drain-clearing chemicals

My commitment to a life free of toxic chemicals is never more tested than when presented with a plumbing problem. Yesterday's test came by way of a stopped up sink in the kid's bathroom. I've lamented in the past that whole tubes of toothpaste have gone down this drain. And hair and soap. Thus my day of reckoning arrived. Sigh.

I spent about two hours trying to snake and plunger the clog free yesterday. I ended up cross and disgusted by the primordial ooze that emanated from the sink. Inexplicably I also retrieved a vast amount of pine needles. Yet the dang-blasted clog would not break up. Ooooh how that devil on my shoulder kept whispering in my ear: 'drano…. liquid plumr foaming pipe snake….' I googled all the natural enzymatic alternatives with nary a testament that promised that they really work. More along the lines of: use these to keep your drains running freely on a regular basis! Well, nuts to that. Google did of course bring up about 2 million instances of the vinegar and baking soda treatment which didn't appear worth my time given the beaver dam I seemed to be up against.

As a last ditch effort, I removed the drain trap and of course spilled murky water all over the bathroom floor and sadly, the clog was not there but beyond, deep in the pipes within the walls. Having arrived in DIY failure-ville, I called a plumber who brought his professional skills and snaked the clog out this morning. There really is nothing quite like a competent plumber to make you feel like everything is going to be alright. Or maybe that's just me.

Anyway, back to that 'ounce of prevention' wisdom. He recommended some mesh strainers to keep the hair and gunk out first and foremost. Why oh why haven't I done this before? They are $2 apiece. I went on a shopping spree. I got one for every sink in the house! Oh, and he did say that antibacterial soaps are especially good at gumming up pipes, so that gives me yet another reason to remain steadfast against using them.

TGIF! Wishing everyone a lovely weekend with free-flowing drains and no sewer problems in sight!

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How you can help reform the school lunch program

Last week we talked a bit about the problematic styrofoam lunch trays that many schools are sending to the landfill every day, but frankly I'm a bit more concerned about the stuff that's served on those trays. Here's the thing: the child nutrition programs, which include the nationwide school lunch program, will be coming up for renewal by Congress this spring. This only happens once every five years. According to Slow Food International's Time for Lunch program, the government reimburses schools $2.68 for every meal served to a child who qualifies for free lunch. After overhead expenses the schools really only have about $1 to spend on each lunch. Have you seen what $1 gets a kid for lunch? Blergh. However, now that President Obama has declared a freeze on domestic program funding, it seems really unclear whether necessary additional funding will be awarded, so maybe it's a moot point. (Or as Joey Tribbiani would say, a 'moo' point.) But among healthy school lunch advocates, hope remains that some additional funding will be granted. 

Here in Portland, I don't think it's as bad as in other school districts (but it is far from great, and I only let my kids eat it once a week). Portland's kids have a fresh fruit and veggie bar, and occasionally some locally-sourced food, in addition to the usual processed fare. But there is a fascinating blog by an anonymous teacher from Illinois that you must check out if you feel strongly about school lunch. It's called Fed Up with School Lunch, and this teacher is eating, photographing and blogging about the hot lunch served in her school every day in 2010 (or until she is outed and fired). The food is horrifying.

The sad thing is that 18 million children in the US qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and for many this is their only hot meal of the day. The typical hot lunch is massively over-processed and of dubious origin. It's the kind of food that is contributing to the rise of obesity and diabetes in the US. (FYI: Oprah is doing a show on this epidemic today.) In December, USA Today released a report claiming that school lunch meat doesn't even meet the standards of many fast food chains. Something is terribly wrong here.

What can you do? You aren't going to like it, but truly, contacting your congresspeople is the best way to make reform happen. They need to hear that their constituents demand more money for healthier school lunches. An additional $1 per child could have a huge impact on the quality and source of food served in the schools. Actually, Slow Food is pushing for three specific changes:

• Find the funding to give school lunch programs an additional $1 per child per day
• Protect kids from the junk food sold in vending machines located in schools
• Link schools to local farms to teach healthy eating. Guarantee $50 million for Farm to School programs.

I am sending a short, to-the-point message to my two US Senators and two Representatives because they need to hear from me. And you. You can find contact info at Congress.org by entering your zip code. If you're really motivated, talk your school principal and get her/his read on it, and see if you can organize a school-wide letter-writing campaign. THAT should send a message!

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Calling for a worldwide boycott of crap jewelry

Why do people keep buying crap jewelry for their kids? I don't understand it. Is there a parent or aunt or grandma in the developed world who hasn't seen a recall notice, or two or a thousand? Here's one of the latest recalls on a Tiny Tink charm with excessive levels of lead. Enough is enough on recalls due to lead or cadmium or whatever poison they can paint a product with to make it shiny and pretty but still only retail for $2.99?

I'm sorry. I'm ranting. But this drives me crazy! I appreciate the CPSC recalls that come out. I appreciate the efforts of manufacturers to try to test the products they sell. But the way I see it, the whole system is flawed, and the only way we as consumers can impact this is by refusing to buy this crap. I know I'm preaching to the choir. We're probably not the main purchasers of this crap jewelry.

Regardless, I ask you: Will you join me in making a vow?

I promise to never buy crap jewelry for any kid ever again.

See! That's wasn't hard, was it? Well, here's the hard part: Have the important conversations with family and friends who do buy this crap jewelry. Do your utmost to get them to stop buying it. OK. I'm finished (stepping off my soapbox now).

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Baby step: homemade deodorant

I've spent the past couple of weeks with my nose buried in my armpits. Anything? My husband still welcomes my hugs, and the children continue to vie for the morning snuggle spot under my right arm, so I think it's working. IT'S TOTALLY WORKING. I made deodorant, and I'm loving it.

This is not the first time we've lamented the state of our pits here on EnviroMom. We are motivated to try alternative odor control due to the sketchy ingredients in our Secret antiperspirant, like aluminum. Renee recently tried straight baking soda, which she abandoned after concerns over a developing rash. We've both tried out store-bought natural deodorants and discovered that the experience was akin to setting $20 on fire. Then there was the tea tree oil debacle of 2008. It started out with such promise! only to stop working after a few weeks. Woe to stinky tree-hugging mom! Now Renee is dabbing her pits with milk of magnesia (thank you People's Pharmacy) and is cautiously optimistic. I, however, am holding out hope for my latest concoction. 

This is not a new-fangled recipe. In fact, many of you are probably using it already! But for me, this has been a huge baby step. I've always believed that I required an antiperspirant to stop the sweat and the odor. Now I'm wondering whether the antiperspirant was causing me to feel a bit damp. Because, believe it or not, I actually sweat far less with this homemade deodorant. And when I do sweat, it doesn't stink. Go figure. I think that the 'invisible' sheen of residue left by Secret was making me feel sweaty, whereas this homemade stuff absorbs into my skin leaving me feel dry. Here's the recipe, which I got from Simple Mom:

In a small bowl combine 1/4 cup of baking soda with 1/4 cup of corn starch

Mash in 5-6 tablespoons of coconut oil with a fork, stirring until you get the desired consistency

I halved that recipe to fit it into my tiny jam jar, which I just apply with my fingers. But you can also scoop it into an empty roll-up antiperspirant container for easy application. Since the coconut oil is a solid, the final product is almost identical to the consistency of a solid antiperspirant. This recipe has a very mild, pleasing (to me) coconut scent, and I haven't experienced any rashes. I suspect this jam jar will last me until summer, at which point I may need to make some changes. Because the downside to using coconut oil is that it liquifies once the temperature rises over 76 degrees. Fine in the winter, not so good in the summer. I'm not sure keeping my deodorant in the fridge during warmer months will work for me, so I might experiment with milk of magnesia this summer.

So there it is, yet another chapter in the Armpit Chronicles. Stay tuned for our next installation! Will Renee backslide to Secret, or try a bold, new initiative like Listerine?! Will Heather be driven mad by the coconut odor and take to drinking pina coladas for breakfast?! Stay tuned...

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The necessity of learning to cook

Our Sunday paper ran a guest column from Jamie O'Neill about the dumbing down of cookbooks titled 'Knowledge shrinks as our waists expand'. I'm always into learning anything I can to keep my waist from expanding. The gist of the piece is that most Americans don't know how to cook due to our reliance on prepared foods. So that editors of cookbooks can assume very little comprehension of culinary terms by its users. Here's a telling excerpt:

Bonnie Slotnick, a woman who owns a rare cookbook shop in Greenwich Village, was quoted in an article about the uptick in culinary cluelessness, saying: "Thirty years ago, a recipe would say, 'Add two eggs.' In the '80s, that was changed to 'beat two eggs until lightly mixed.' By the '90s, you had to write 'in a small bowl, using a fork, beat two eggs.' We joke that the next step will be: 'Using your right hand, pick up a fork and…."

Sad to say. I think I am that reader. I never learned to cook. I think there was a short course in home ec in middle school in which we made muffins and sewed a pot-holder. Neither my muffins nor pot-holder turned out very good. My mom was a great cook in my younger years, then moved to convenience foods when she went back to work. I didn't learned to cook with her (or anyone else in my family), nor did I take initiative to learn it on my own -- until I had my own kids and became freaked out enough by the ingredients in processed foods. As much as I sigh and groan when my kids ask if they can 'help' when I cook, I usually agree even though it slows down the process immensely and threatens the end results. I hope that they will learn that cooking is fun, necessary and rewarding, and won't suffer from all the cooking insecurities that I have now.

How did you learn to cook? How are you teaching your kids the culinary arts?

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Is yours the Greenest School in America?

I've read some inspiring tales of parents and administrators working to lower the carbon footprint of their schools. (Check out this inspiring Oregonian article.) Is yours one of them? If so, you might look into this national competition for America's Greenest School:

"This contest encourages K-12 students to share what their school is doing to be green. Why should they participate? The prizes are amazing. The winning student receives a $3,000 scholarship, while his/her school receives a FREE hybrid school bus from IC bus (a $150,000 value), a green audit of their school from a LEED Accredited Professional and approximately $20,000 for their school to use toward green initiatives. Last year’s campaign attracted roughly 2,000 entrants and 20,000 voting registrants, and we’re hoping even more schools will reveal their best practices in 2010."

Entries are due March 8. For ideas and inspiration check out last year's winner, Irvington High School in Fremont, CA, which implemented food scrap recycling along with a host of energy efficiencies.

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Michael Pollan on Oprah: woo hoo!

Whoa. Did you watch the Oprah show yesterday? I thought the Michael Pollan and Food, Inc. parts were fantastic (naturally). They touched on all the important stuff: being aware of where your food is coming from and how it is produced; mostly eating food that your great-grandmother would recognize; eating mostly plants; the health consequences of eating a diet focused around convenience foods. It was a lot to pack into an hour. But it felt monumental -- like, was this the first time these issues have been discussed on such a huge platform that reaches such a diverse audience? Maybe I'm making more of it than it was. But maybe this gets the food reform ball rolling? Cutting corn subsidies? Making fresh produce more available and affordable?

I was a tad disappointed in the Alicia Silverstone segment, and I wondered what our vegetarian and vegan readers thought about it. I liked listening to her talk about her health transformation and her thoughts on the treatment of animals. But she kind of gushed about processed vegan foods, which are expensive and, well, processed. I've never been under the impression that non-meat eaters depended on processed foods much. And I just never really identify with the lifestyles of celebrities. Thoughts?

Anyhoo, I thought all-in-all it was pretty cool. You've got to see Food, Inc. if you haven't already. (If you have Netflix you can 'watch it instantly' online.) And pick up a Michael Pollan book from the public library (though you might want to make it part of your permanent home library)! 

Did you watch it, like it, learn anything new?

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Styrofoam lunch tray recycling challenge

When neighboring school Bridlemile threw down the gauntlet to our school and others in the area to wash and collect this week's styrofoam lunch trays and bring them to the recycling event they're hosting this Saturday, I was surprised that our school got the green light to participate, and shocked myself by volunteering to help wash (quickly followed by screaming inside my head: 'Holy cow! What's wrong with you? You just volunteering to do what??')

After the first two days of washing, pretty much everyone on our school's green team is convinced this isn't really sustainable. The hot water necessary to wash the dreaded greasy ranch dressing (give me ketchup any day!) off a stack of 150 foam trays a day. Woe to the first day's volunteers (count our Heather among them) who operated under the misunderstanding that they had to dry the trays too and used (cringe) paper towels because they didn't know where the cloth towels were. The back-straining valuable time of a volunteer army leaning over a sprayer-less sink to get the job done. I don't know how Bridlemile does it every week (but kudos to them). Likely our school will do our best on this week's experiment/challenge then go back to throwing them away as usual, thankyouverymuch. You gotta pick your battles, right?

Truth be told, the work wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I washed solo and brought my iPod and likely embarrassed myself thoroughly by singing out loud to Hope for Haiti Now had anyone near the kitchen overheard my caterwauling. I washed about 150 trays in 40 minutes. I've got them bagged and ready for the foam recycling event this Saturday. Would I volunteer to do it again? Um. Don't think so.

Don't get me wrong. I hate the disposable foam trays. It's one of those poster child issues. How can a green city like Portland and its biggest school district buy and throw away (hold onto your hat, here) 3.9 million of these trays a year? But all this effort (and water) to wash and recycle styrofoam seems fairly pointless when we should be higher up in the Reduce/Reuse/Recycle hierarchy. Let's find a way to invest in durable trays (my pick would be stainless steel, if anyone's interested) and use water/energy efficient dishwashing machines to clean them (not the tree-hugging parents who already volunteer in the classrooms, helping kids read and learn math). Or here's a crazy thought: kids who eat hot lunch would bring their own stainless steel tray each day, slip it in a waterproof envelope and wash at home. Bring back the next day: no clean tray, no lunch. Sorry. That's crazy talk. I got carried away.

When I did unplug from my iPod, I had an interesting chat with our school's custodian, who'd much rather save the money spent on garbage from the voluminous daily milk cartons (that we used to be able to recycle, but now can't because they have to be rinsed, which we don't have the manpower for). The foam trays are so light and stackable, that they seem like a non-issue to him.

In any case, Portland Public Schools district has recently announced the pilot of durable lunch trays may be expanding from 17 to 68 schools. I hope they pick our school!! But I'm not going to hold my breath since there seems to be issues about not having the water hookup necessary for a dishwasher onsite.

As for the foam tray challenge, the collection event is this Saturday. I'll let you know how that goes. Now what to do about these dishwater hands...

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Foodies on network TV: Michael Pollan & Jamie Oliver

Alert! Set your Tivo, your DVR, tie a string around your finger, whatever you need to remember that Michael Pollan will be on Oprah tomorrow (Wednesday)! Kudos to the media queen for bringing him and his food message to mainstream TV. It looks like they'll be quizzing the audience about eating habits, talking about what we should be eating and, most importantly, how it is produced. Plus Alicia Silverstone will be spreading her vegetarian gospel! Hooray! I've said it before, and I know that many of you have read his books, but Michael Pollan is my food hero. His books The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food rocked my world and set my family down the path of whole foods and healthier eating. He is an engaging, down-to-earth guy and I can't wait to see him tomorrow!

I have to admit that I am intrigued by the Naked Chef Jamie Oliver's new reality show, "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution," which I just heard about yesterday. As a general rule I avoid reality TV. But this 6-episode show has Jamie trying to revamp the eating habits of an entire town -- Huntington, West Virginia -- labeled 'The Unhealthiest City in America' by the Associated Press in 2008. Unhealthy due to high rates (50%) of obesity and its associated ailments, thought to be triggered by a high rate of poverty and lack of access to fresh produce in the area. I hope it's done well and not so over-dramatic and uncomfortable to make it unwatchable. I watched a preview on YouTube that shows Jamie taking on school lunches (yea), but then there was the bit with him crying (boo). The series is set to debut Friday, March 26 at 9pm on ABC.

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Baby step: air out your house!

It seems like cold, gray and rainy weather has hovered over our city for weeks (months, years!!), but now we're experiencing a few sunbreaks. And they are glorious! Can't you just feel the Vitamins D? It doesn't matter that's it's still dang cold out. That wee bit of sun is enough to get kids back outside playing, and fair-weather friends into their walking shoes and/or bike seats. Heck -- my dear husband got up on a ladder this past weekend and cleaned the gutters!

The sun has also prompted me to do something that might seem a tad bit crazy given that it's January. I've opened all the windows and doors. It helps if you work up a good head of steam by vigorously cleaning the house first. Let all that nasty indoor air out, and give your house a giant fresh cleansing breath. Namaste!

I'm far from expert on toxins and indoor air quality, but have learned that indoor air quality is often much worse that what's outside. This time of year, it's probably at it's worst, since we button our houses up tight to keep all the expensive heat inside. Granted, not everyone who reads this is having the sunbreaks like us right now. But keep your eyes to the sky. And give your house a nice airing out the first chance you can get. Let the sun shine in! Your family's lungs will thank you.

(Go figure, as I'm aiming the camera at my sunlit open door, the rechargeable batteries croak. By the time I recharge them, it's rainy and gray again. Sigh. So much for the picture, but hey, it makes me glad I aired out my house earlier!)

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Reuseable (baby) wipe love

My daughter has a really gunky cough and stuffed up nose. When she blows, it's like neon green jelly beans shooting out of her nostrils. Gross! TMI! Sorry! I know! (but hey, it's Friday...)

Here's the thing. I LOOOOOOVE my stash of old baby wipes. They are the perfect size for nose blowing. One big honk, and toss it in the hamper. There is always a stack of clean wipes ready and waiting for the next blow. I swear, I haven't bought a box of paper tissues in over a year! And to think that I originally purchased these with full intent to throw them away after one use! Now I shudder to think how many crates we bought over my kids' diaper years and tossed! Eeeeek.

The reuseable wipes are also perfect for face washing. I like that these don't get super soggy like wash rags, thus don't drip all over the place. And they dry fast! They are fantastic! I secretly used to love those makeup remover wipes (WAAAAAY before I became an EnviroMom), and now I use these reusable baby wipes instead. It's the best of both worlds. I use the wipe, then I deposit it in the hamper, with no guilt about throwing something away. I also use them for cleaning. Sometimes even as a napkin. There is no limit as to what can be done with these fantastic reusable wipes! With these wipes I shall rule the world! (cue the evil laugh...) Well, maybe that's getting carried away.

Mine are the old ones (which we've been washing and reusing now for at least 3 years with no sign of wearing out). The new baby wipes Kirkland makes have Tencel, so they are marketed as greener, and 'biodegradable' (Ooh, I really dislike that kind of claim. Is the average consumer going to biodegrade it? Really?) I swear I saw somewhere that they they are also pitching them as reusable now, but couldn't find that online. Chime in if you've seen that, and if so, is it the same product or more like wash cloths/microfiber cloths?

There they are. They don't look like much. They are a wipe only a mother could love. But love them I do.

Isn't it funny what going down the green path lets us fall in love with? I also have a major crush on lentils, but don't tell my husband. Please share if you have any quirky green love interests.

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How do you sweeten?

 
I never paid much attention to sweeteners because I never really baked much until a few months ago. We always had a sack of white sugar in our pantry that would last eons. (And I prefer my morning coffee strong and black, thankyouverymuch.) But now that I'm baking more I find that I'm drawn to recipes that call for sweeteners like honey, maple syrup and unsweetened applesauce. The less processed the better! Plus my tastebuds have become more sensitive to super-sweet treats. I prefer a mellower brand of sweet. And I've stopped buying white sugar in favor of the less-refined natural sugar cane crystals. (These crystals also give homemade hummingbird nectar a lovely golden hue.) I'm not sure there's a taste difference between the two, I just like the idea of less-refined foods in general.

But there are all of these other types of 'natural' sweeteners out there like agave, stevia, brown rice syrup and xylitol that I'm just not sure how to use or why I'd use them in the first place. I always look at them when I'm browsing the Azure Standard database but haven't felt motivated to try them.

Do you prefer different types of sweeteners beyond white sugar for baking or day-to-day uses? What about some of those mysterious (to me) types I mentioned above? Thanks for sharing! (And if you really want to share, feel free to drop by with some muffins. I'm kinda hungry.)

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Portland: how to properly recycle small scrap metals curbside

**** We try really hard not to overwhelm you guys with nit-picky stuff. This post is kind of nit-picky. But we also know that we have some hard-core recyclers from Portland checking in here, so this one goes out to you guys! In the grand scheme of things, this is probably not a biggie. But it's information that I think should be shared. Do what you can. ****

In Portland and the metro area, we can recycle pretty much any kind of metal object curbside as long as it's smaller than 30 inches in any direction and weighs less than 30 pounds. This includes the small stuff, like bent nails and screws, bottle caps and any type of miscellaneous metal parts and pieces. In the past we could just chuck these little pieces into the cart along with all the other stuff. However, it's been discovered that a lot of this little stuff gets lost in the process by either slipping through the cracks or getting tangled up with other recyclables. This is discouraging to a hard-core recycler! However, there are things we can do to improve the odds that these small precious metals are getting recycled. I warn you, though, it takes some effort and can be a tad confusing.

Ideally, we should be putting small scrap metal items -- items that are smaller than the lid of a soup can -- into a metal can and then crimping closed the top of the can so that the items can't fall out. Like this can, which is full of bottlecaps (made of steel) from our favorite microbrews:

What I do is establish a 'collection can.' I save an empty metal can, remove the lid and let it fall into the bottom. Then I put the can in my garage recycling center, and over several days we'll fill it halfway with small metals. At that point I'll press the top of the can together with a pliers so that nothing falls out and chuck it in the rollcart.

If you just want to recycle an empty metal can, try not to completely remove the lid with the can opener. Leave a small portion attached to the can, fold it down inside the can and this should be enough to get it all recycled.

Now, here's where it gets even stickier. The Materials Recovery Facilities (where the recyclables are sorted) prefer that aluminum is NOT mixed with other metals. (UPDATED TO ADD: This only applies to putting small aluminum scrap into, say, a steel can. You still toss aluminum cans and whatnot into the blue roll carts along with all the other stuff. The MRFs just don't want aluminum caps mixed in with steel caps crimped into a steel can, or vice versa. Sorry for the confusion.) Sigh. So you need to know the difference. Beverage cans, like soda and beer, are aluminum. Small cat food cans and some tuna cans are aluminum. How can you tell? Magnets don't stick to aluminum, so if you are really uncertain and need to know, you can do that test. Aluminum can lids and other small items, like screw-top wine caps, should only be contained within an aluminum can or wrapped up in a piece of aluminum foil.

Ugh. I'm sorry. This has been the least fun post to write ever. Just do your best. Thank you. I'll try to answer any questions you have.

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Growing and canning your own tomatoes for sauce

It's fascinating, some of the things you learn from your friends' Facebook statuses. One of my friends was perusing a seed catalog right after the holidays. I'm like: What? Already? Is this what real gardeners' do? Magically, a seed catalog arrived in my mail the next day. Thus, Heather and I have been talking. This is it. The year of the tomato. We are not going to wuss out. We are going to grow our own tomatoes. Can 'em. Sauce 'em. The works!

Of course, I'm thinking we'll probably need a good dose of advice from those of you who are experienced in this tomato business. Tell me dear readers:

• What's your favorite tomato to grow for making sauce? I've heard if you don't order early, you might not get the seeds you want.
• And how about food mills? I'd guess those are indispensable for making tomato sauce. The only time I made sauce was with cherry tomatoes, and I left the seeds in, and it was, er, um, crunchy. Not the best sauce ever. 

So please, without further ado. Bring it on. Your best tomato growing, canning, and saucing advice, if you will.

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