What are you doing?

[dragnlaw]

Anywho, I had a bag about the size of a standard large paper grocery bag...full (stuffed) of eggshells. Needed to make room in the bag.

When I kept chickens, I also collected their shells to feed back to them. I would keep a large plastic (yogurt or margarine) container under the sink and squish them into it (wait til they are dry). Then every once in a while I would take the pestle (from the mortar) and really crunch them. Then sprinkle it on the hens feed.

Never thought about using them in the garden. Thanks for the tip! Of course, don't have as many shells now as I have developed a sensitivity to eggs... gads I miss them! But still use them in cooking.

 

[GotGarlic]

Sorry, ladies, but blossom-end rot is not caused by calcium deficiency in the soil, and adding eggshells will not help. Most soils have plenty of calcium. The problem occurs when calcium cannot be moved through the plant to the fruit because of some kind of stress on the plant. Eggshells do not break down sufficiently in soil to release the calcium.

Here's more information:

http://www.gardenmyths.com/blossom-end-rot/

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304423814002830

 

[dragnlaw]

GG haven't gone to those sites yet but will. I met someone in the UK that suggested using the shells around plants to deter slugs??

 

[Katie H]

Sorry, ladies, but blossom-end rot is not caused by calcium deficiency in the soil, and adding eggshells will not help. Most soils have plenty of calcium. The problem occurs when calcium cannot be moved through the plant to the fruit because of some kind of stress on the plant. Eggshells do not break down sufficiently in soil to release the calcium.

Here's more information:

Blossom End Rot - Garden Myths

Why calcium deficiency is not the cause of blossom-end rot in tomato and pepper fruit ? a reappraisal

I haven't gone to the sites either but, from personal experience, I can attest that eggshells help to prevent blossom end rot.

My tomatoes displayed the beginnings of said malady early in the season. I worked some eggshells into the soil a couple of times and had no problem from then on. Same with the green peppers.

Plus, folks who have farmed here for generations endorse, and use, the technique with similar results.

Just to be open-minded and fair I will read the information from the links you have posted.

 

[dragnlaw]

My philosophy is ... if it seems to work, use it, scientific or not.

 

[GotGarlic]

My philosophy is ... if it seems to work, use it, scientific or not.

Yeah. People have a strong tendency to make associations where there is no real connection, but correlation does not equal causation. That's why the scientific method was developed

This is a fun site: https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/sc...t-causation/DZw011FDUmsuqYX9edg02H/story.html

It is a throwaway line in stories about science and health research results: Correlation is not causation. Just because things look like they follow a similar pattern, does not mean they are related.

A new website,*Spurious Correlations, the work of a first-year student at Harvard Law School, draws into comical and obvious relief how easily we can get trapped into seeing relationships where there are none. Say cheese consumption increases year over year. So does another variable — the number of people who die from becoming tangled in bedsheets. Even though, when*plotted side by side, the two trends look mysteriously similar, there is almost certainly no connection there.

 

[GotGarlic]

I haven't gone to the sites either but, from personal experience, I can attest that eggshells help to prevent blossom end rot.

My tomatoes displayed the beginnings of said malady early in the season. I worked some eggshells into the soil a couple of times and had no problem from then on. Same with the green peppers.

Plus, folks who have farmed here for generations endorse, and use, the technique with similar results.

Just to be open-minded and fair I will read the information from the links you have posted.

It's usually a temporary problem, so it will often improve later in the season no matter what you do.

 

[dragnlaw]

and one of the biggest dangers is just reading the Headlines and not Between the lines.

My MIL warned us against eating the popcorn in a bag done in the micro. Why? It can cause blindness in children. WHA???

It turns out a child opened, put his face over and peered into a bag directly from the micro. The escaping steam seriously burned his eyes, so severe I believe he was actually blinded in one eye.

All she connected to was the popcorn from a micro caused a child blindness.
Ergo micro popcorn danger blindness DON'T LET THE KIDS HAVE IT!

 

[Cooking Goddess]

I hate those danged click-bait headlines, dragnlaw. Most times I resist, but on occasion they manage to suck me in.

"...A new website,*Spurious Correlations, the work of a first-year student at Harvard Law School, draws into comical and obvious relief how easily we can get trapped into seeing relationships where there are none..."

Our son the numbers geek must follow Tyler Vigen on Twitter. Or Facebook. All I know is that every once in a while he'll share something to Facebook, and then I laugh and laugh...

***********************

Right now I'm doing what I do best - stalling to avoid work. My bathroom has two free-standing cabinets. Well, it did have two. After hauling one of those toilet tank surrounds with the cabinet on top from my bathroom yesterday, I keep thinking it's about time I got around to getting its companion piece emptied and moved out, too. The tall one is in the garage right now waiting for its trip to Salvation Army. It's pretty much in my way. I really want to take the pair at one time, and I could drop it off tomorrow when I do my grocery shopping in that direction. However, it's so nice to sit and relax...

 

[Andy M.]

...My MIL warned us against eating the popcorn in a bag done in the micro. Why? It can cause blindness in children...

If you keep doing that, you'll go blind...

Where have I heard that before???

 

[dragnlaw]

Don't eat the watermelon seeds, they will grow in your tummy and you will have vines growing out your ears!

 

[Cheryl J]

I hate those danged click-bait headlines, dragnlaw. Most times I resist, but on occasion they manage to suck me in. ............

Same here. Every now and then FB has some "sponsored" (sure sign of multiple pages of clickbait right there) article with pics that I'd like to read through. I refuse to go to page after page to do it, with one pic per danged page, though.

A tip I learned from reading a few disgruntled comments:
If you click on the link you want to read, then go up to the address bar at the top of your screen and erase everything back to and including the 'question mark' and then hit enter again, it saves scrolling through page after page of ads. It doesn't ALWAYS work, but most often it does.

 

[dragnlaw]

Made my 'starter' for some French Country bread last night. Trying to decide whether to continue by hand or use the bread setting on the fp.

I don't have a bread hook or paddle on my ancient stand mixer and I think the dough would just tangle nasty with the regular beaters.

ohhh what to do - what to do - what to do ...

 

[Addie]

Made my 'starter' for some French Country bread last night. Trying to decide whether to continue by hand or use the bread setting on the fp.

I don't have a bread hook or paddle on my ancient stand mixer and I think the dough would just tangle nasty with the regular beaters.

ohhh what to do - what to do - what to do ...

Any time I make bread, even though I do have a dough hook for my KA, I still like to knead it by hand. But with the severe arthritis, I now have to do it more slowly. I don't mind. I just daydream as I turn the dough again and again. There is something very earthy feeling when you are handling raw bread dough.

 

[dragnlaw]

I hear you Addie! I knead all my bread by hand. I did two separate loaves yesterday for a friend. Should have known better and taken a magic pill last night but didn't. My shoulder kept me tossing and turning all night, quelle miserable!

It is only to mix the new wet with the old wet that I'm trying to decide. The actual kneading I will do by hand as always.

People are astounded when I say I don't have a bread machine. But never say never, like you there will come the day perhaps when I will have to.

 

[bethzaring]

If you keep doing that, you'll go blind...

Where have I heard that before???

:

 

[Addie]

I hear you Addie! I knead all my bread by hand. I did two separate loaves yesterday for a friend. Should have known better1 and taken a magic pill last night but didn't. My shoulder kept me tossing and turning all night, quelle miserable!

It is only to mix the new wet with the old wet that I'm trying to decide. The actual kneading I will do by hand as always.

People are astounded when I say I don't have a bread machine. But never say never, like you there will come the day 2 perhaps when I will have to.

That has been on my wish list for eons. I have one in mind, but I am waiting for the price to come down or I see it on sale.2

We all have the big "ouch" day sooner or later.1

 

[Dawgluver]

Out pruning unwanted baby trees in the asparagus/milkweed/herb garden. Then I noticed hundreds of yellowjackets in the little garden that I missed seeing when I started pruning. Not bees, yellowjackets! The nastiest, meanest, most vindictive insects ever! I suspect there might be a nest somewhere in there, but I'm not going to look for it!

Put the pruners back in the garage.

 

[dragnlaw]

Wow Dawglover, my sister in Northern Ontario was telling me that there seems to be a huge influx of ground nests. Both she and her neighbour have been stung multiple times. And she just found two more nests this week.

Be careful guys - they are nasty, nasty!

 

[Dawgluver]

Yep. Once when I was mowing, a bunch flew up my shorts legs! Extremely painful! Truly evil.

And I sat on one the other day. It was on the toilet seat, and stung me good! Neither one of us enjoyed it, but I smashed and flushed her.