And it's a good time to find or purchase a soil thermometer, as soil temperature is the best indicator of when to plant each type of vegetable, no matter what climate zone you live in. When the soil warms to 60 degrees, warm season and many cool season vegetables can be sown, including beans, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots and cauliflower. Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are slow-growing and take many weeks to grow to the stage where you can plant them out in the...

As entertainment goes its pretty tough to beat watching kids bury their faces into slices of pumpkin pie with their hands behind their back, trying to spit pumpkin seeds, rolling pumpkins or any of the Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn type of games that are all free. Theyll be a bit more frost on the pumpkins this year when Mantecas biggest two-day party of the year gets underway celebrating the Manteca crop that dominates the West Coast markets. As entertainment goes its pretty tough to beat...

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Why go to all the effort? Because the rewards of gardening with your children will trump the frustrations, say horticulture professionals and teachers: Gardening gets kids off the sofa and outside, teaches them to care for the Earth and presents a golden opportunity for spending quality time together. How does a child's garden grow? With lessons about science, hard work and the discovery that vegetables aren't so yucky after all. Why go to all the effort? Because the rewards of gardening...

Prizes were given to every student, but eight students were picked for their unique creativity and pumpkin design. The best pumpkins around: Contest sparks 5th grade creativity. Alex Lakin, 10, found an idea completely different from the rest of the students and received third place and best fairy-tale pumpkin. Each student in three fifth grade classes at Cottonwood got a free pumpkin to take home. They could do whatever they wished with it - keep it or decorate it and bring it back for...

The churches sell the pumpkins on consignment, meaning they only pay for what they sell; they aren't charged for damaged or unsold pumpkins. were looking for a pumpkin to carve, one that was free of spots and would last through Halloween. The LaMarks were focused on finding a great pumpkin, not necessarily on performing any kind of social good deed. The groups keep a portion of the proceeds, usually about 30 percent, of each pumpkin sold. were looking for a pumpkin to carve, one that was...

Turns out she was referring to a haredi ruling, also promulgated over the Internet, that "cluster" vegetables, notably cauliflower and broccoli, are not kosher owing to the very tiny bugs that may have taken up abode among their tightly-packed florets - not even if you soak them in various substances beforehand. Turns out she was referring to a haredi ruling, also promulgated over the Internet, that "cluster" vegetables, notably cauliflower and broccoli, are not kosher owing to the very...

Your food can be as simple as chips with dip, a vegetable platter and an assortment of cheeses, all from the local grocery store. Remember, presentation is everything, so display your food artfully on spider web platters or embellish the area with decorative spider webs from your local craft store. If you'd like to offer guests something more substantial, consider a soup or stew served in hollowed out miniature pumpkins instead of bowls. Once at the door, the wreath, crafted of natural...

The arctic blast that came through the Tennessee Valley over the weekend left a trail of damage that will cost area growers and the local economy millions of dollars. Two successive mornings of below-freezing temperatures made it virtually impossible for area fruit growers to do anything but hope for the best, Morgan County extension agent Mike Reeves said. Isom said he spoke with some older farmers Monday who told him the last time a freeze completely killed apples was in 1955, before his...