Ask Mavis – Laptops, Composting Mushrooms, Hemlock, and MORE

It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers. As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:

A while back you posted a recipe I was really interested in trying that called for clear gel. I ordered the clear gel and it came and now I can’t find the recipe and my failing memory is preventing from even being able to recall whether it was sweet or savory. Can you help?

~Julie

I know I recently posted a delicious recipe for Jalapeno Pepper Jelly that uses clear gel, do you think that could be it? If not, you can find all my canning recipes in my canning index . Maybe seeing all the photos will help you remember.

Thought I’d tell you about the book I picked up at the library today. It is called A Fine Romance: Falling in love with the English Countryside by Susan Branch. I usually read history and mystery but needed something light during my husband’s recovery from a stroke.

I’ve only read a little bit so far, but the book is about how when she and her husband first met they found they both wanted to sail to England and explore the place and they finally went for their twenty-fifth (I think that one) anniversary and spent two months traveling about.

~Gail

Thanks Gail, the book looks like it’s right up my alley. I’ll take a look.

Hi Mavis. I am in need of a new laptop for basic use and I looked for your post about the laptop you have an I cannot find it. Would you re-post? Thank you……stay cool today.

~Mona

This is the one I have.  I LOVE it.

Mavis, I live in a very arid region of high desert in the USA’s Great Basin. Due to a wetter-than-usual springtime, we have mushrooms popping up in the garden (and everywhere). I don’t assume they are edible but my question is — if they are indeed toxic, should I avoid putting them in my compost pile? I want to be able to use my compost pile on my veggie garden, and I don’t know whether the toxic aspect of mushrooms remains after it’s composted or not. Obviously lots of inedible things compost just fine (grass, leaves, etc) but my lack of knowledge about the toxicity of mushrooms scares me just a bit. And of course if I leave the mushrooms where they have appeared, they’re in the garden, in soil that I grow veggies in, so maybe the same question applies to leaving them in place. Any advice? Thank you for all your helpful hints!

~Sue

It is fine to toss them into the compost pile.  The fungus will naturally die off with the heat of the compost as it is cooking, so toxic or not, you’re safe.  That being said, when you remove them, know that  you are taking some of the spores with you, and there is a possibility they will grow in your compost {if the conditions are right}, as the pile heats up, though, they will die back and eventually die off.

As a general rule of thumb, it’s a good practice to wash ALL of your fruits and veggies that you have grown in compost, simply as an added safety precaution.  It’s a good practice whether you are composting chicken manure or wild mushrooms.

Hi Mavis, I have a plot in a community garden and we are having a problem this year with poison hemlock! It has taken over a plot and is spreading throughout the garden paths between everyone’s plots. Aside from using herbicide do we have any options? There are too many to dig up. I read about using boiling water or vinegar but this just kills the plant top.

Thanks, Laura

Honestly, this is one of those situations I would probably recommend skipping the home remedy and going straight for the store-bought organic herbicide.  I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but that stuff is poisonous and incredibly invasive, so I would nip the problem stat.  Start by getting a pair of HEAVY work gloves and long sleeve shirt.  Pull up what you can {some peeps recommend wearing something to cover your mouth and nose too}.  In the pathways, you could potentially lay ground cover, but my concern is that given its invasive nature, you would just force it into your garden.

Thanks for sending in your questions…keep ’em coming.

~Mavis