HANDLING GRAY WATER SURPLUS TOMATOES AND YOUNG HENS

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Don't get a rooster. Their shrill crowing is designed to carry over long distances. Most neighbors within a quarter mile of your place will dislike a rooster crowing at break of day (unless it's their own bird). Also, build a stout henhouse with a roost and a nest box (even for a single bird) and keep the hen cooped up till mid-morning, when the neighbors are off at work. That way, you'll find fresh eggs in the nest, rather than scattered all over the yard. Except in rare gender-confusion circumstances, hens don't crow. But they do cluck contentedly as they scratch around for bugs and they make a surprisingly loud, shrill clucking/gobbling sound when laying an egg, finding a grasshopper on your cabbage ...or chasing off a cat.

Dear Mother,

What can you tell us about "laundry discs"?

Bob

We've seen the mail-order and catalog ads and the testimonials claiming that pumice (volcanic rock-like) or negative-ion-producing discs in the washing machine will clean laundry and won't dissolve. These ads don't claim their products will make "whiter whites," but do suggest that they'll keep bacteria at bay better than chemical detergents. It's difficult to speculate how they could clean laundry any better than several minutes agitation in plain hot water, which is an effective solvent and cleansing agent all by itself. Although we suppose a pair of inert, rough-surfaced, semi-buoyant discs in the wash could increase the mechanical agitation that does beat out dirt. Enough agitation can remove the offensive components in natural grease and oils (but not in non-water-soluble petroleum-based dirt). With soluble components gone, natural lipids serve to soften and preserve natural fabrics. It's super-clean sheep fat that gives wool cloth its body, warmth, longevity and water-repellency.

Mechanical agitation alone can and will clean cotton, wool and flax fabrics quite well without soap or detergents. After all, "beating on the rocks" is how preindustrial peoples cleaned their natural- fabrics for thousands of years before Mr. Procter met Mr. Gamble. And we know that the flax and wool cloth found in ancient burials is often soft and pliant, even after hundreds or thousands of years.

Dear Mother

Would you happen to know if it is okay to freeze fresh tomatoes, or the best way to preserve/can them?

Heather C.

If you have the tune, energy and freezer space, freezing is a wonderful way to put up your garden tomatoes. They retain much more of the fresh tomato flavor and texture than if cooked and canned or dried. Feel free to freeze cooked tomatoes, whole (peeled), chunked or pureed. But best is to freeze them raw in plastic pint-size freezer containers. Leave skin on or scald or singe skin and peel it off as your taste dictates. In either case, squeeze out the white core, seeds and water and keep only the firm outer pulp. You'll hardly realize they aren't fresh off the vine.

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