Okay, someone opened my freezer door and failed to shut it while I was gone. It pretty nearly defrosted completely. Of course it was full. Things were at approximately 40•. Is there any chance the veggies will be salvageable? How? There is no way I can eat it all in a day or two. The meat will be cooked for the dogs.

Second thing, my largest shade tree has these bizarre black spots on the tips of the newer growth. They are clustered and approximately the size of lady bugs. When you break them open there is a very light slightly orange/light brown powder inside. I have never seen this before and couldn't find it in my books here. My books tend to be more vegetables that trees. Ideas? As always, many thanks!!!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), April 21, 2002

Answers

How long were you gone? 40 degrees is refridgerator temperature. If you weren't gone too long and were sure of the temperature, I would be tempted to simmer the veggies for a long time, then re-freeze as soup, or whatever. On the other hand, isn't it about time for fresh veggies?

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), April 21, 2002.

Doreen, some years back I was working as a cook for a "half way house" for juvenile delinquents in North Pole Alaska. One of the darlings was mad about something and unplugged 3 deep freezes full of moose meat. As soon as we discovered it, I began cooking the meat. If it was warm when discovered it went to the dogs, but if it was still cold, I cooked it and refroze it and it was ok. It was a lot of work, tho! The vegies can be refrozen if they were cold when you found them. They won't be as good tho. Soup sounds like a good idea to me. kim

-- kim in CO (kimk61252@hotmail.com), April 21, 2002.

what type of tree is it? Oak,Elm,Pine,etc.

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), April 21, 2002.

he pods on the shade tree MIGHT be seed pods- I need to know what kind of tree it is ? Are they attached to a growth cluster or are they foriegn to the tree ?

After the salvage operation, in order to avoid stomach ulcers, you will need to distribute some blame. I happen to be a world class expert in blame distribution as I have never suffered from ulcers. So if you can locate the person who cannot shut the freezer than you have successfully found a free garden weeder for this year. If you find that person in a mirror than sell all mirrors immediately so you don't have to associate with such a person for sometime. Good Luck !!

-- Joel Rosen (JoelnBecky@webtv.net), April 21, 2002.

you can save the meat,, just can it

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), April 21, 2002.

Thanks for all the answers! The most likely person to have opened the freezer is 4 years old, so I won't be getting much labor with the blame distribution game. I'll just be sure to put a latch on the thing so it won't happen again. The meat was actually for my dogs anyway, but I didn' want to give them e coli or anything.

The tree is a Slippery Elm, it sure is something strange. I could lop off several of the branches that have the crusty pod stuff, but there are a few that are a bit too high for me. I found a many spiked large caterpillar with gray and black coloring. I would say it was a tic over 2". Does that help?

Thanks again!!!

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), April 21, 2002.

Hey sis! The slippery little door opener, once convicted, should be held accountable to the highest degree of accountablility! Demand hugs for a year!!!! old hoot. Gen. 1:29

-- old hoot gibson (hoot@pcinetwork.com), April 21, 2002.

E.coli for a dog....? Would this be the same species of animal that I have that drags any dead carcass from the road to our front porch? (and then has to sit on the porch furniture with it to eat it properly) The same species that sucks rotten eggs, has small dead things stashed for later snacks in my flower bed, and drinks from the hog barn lagoon instead of their water bowl? Then are offended when I won't let them kiss me or the baby.....If so, E.coli must be a growth stimulant because they both weigh in at 120 lbs a piece.....I tried to slip the poor things a de-wormer medication in a hot dog and they wouldn't touch it....

-- tana mc (mcfarm@totelcsi.net), April 21, 2002.

I cannot find that Caterpillar in my moth book-North American Wildlife but I have seen him. I did find one but it says it is only found in the southeast. The egg sacks on your leaves remind me of early tent worms. If they spin webs and gather inside a cocoon than they are a possibility. They are skinny and the one I'm thinking of is a big fat boy (1/2 inch in diameter) with 1/4 inch spines all over. I'll keep looking.

-- Joel Rosen (JoelnBecky@webtv.net), April 21, 2002.

Cut a small twig w/ some of the offending leaves and put it in a zip lock bag. See if the Extension agent can help. That's what they get paid for.

Sorry about the freezer.

-- John in S. IN (jdoofus@hotmail.com), April 22, 2002.

Yeah, I know. I just wouldn't want to be the one to cause my dogs to get sick. If they cause it to themselves, then that's their perogative!They do have amazing intestinal fortitude.

The caterpillar I saw is a biggee! Not giant, but large. I'll see if I can get the agent to tell me something.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), April 22, 2002.

Doreen, I feel for you. Last year our huge freezer died. Of course it was during the summer, and during a week when I was super busy and not doing any major cooking so I didn't go to the big freezer for anything that week. When I finally went out there to get something, I nearly cried. We had just butchered so had nearly 900 lbs of beef in there, a considerable amount of hams, etc. and a lot of chicken. The vegies, freezer jams, etc. were the least of my worries. The freezer had been off about 4 days as far as we could tell, and almost all of the meat was history. To add insult to injury, we had a repairman out for the freezer and he charged us an arm and a leg to tell us the freezer was not repairable. We had to buy a new freezer AND pay to haul the old one to the dump. Not a good day.

Actually, we ended up buying 2 smaller freezers, at least if one quits we won't lose EVERYTHING.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@nospam.com), April 22, 2002.

Well at least I didn't have it chock full of very expensive stuff. it's mostly just a time thing for me with freezing. There are many veggies I prefer frozen as opposed to canned, but I prefer to have them preserved more than anything!

My next question is on all these berries I had in there- do you folks think I may be able tto salvage them through drying?

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), April 22, 2002.

Yes! Dehydrating the berries is a good plan if you can't can them. Even with the veggies, I prefer to freeze them before putting them in the dehydrator.

-- Laura (Ladybugwrangler@hotmail.com), April 22, 2002.

I hope your electric bill is not too high because of this...you might want to start setting aside some extra money for it.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), April 23, 2002.

Doreen.......how about fruit leather?? We love it and so do the grandkids. Put your fruit in the blender and then pour out on lined trays to dry in the oven on low or in your dehydrator.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), April 23, 2002.

yes. The electric bill......augh. At least I had the hot water heater off. It will probably be like running the ac- in other words, sky high. I'm drying stuff now. I will try some of the fruit leather tomorrow- that may be just the ticket:).

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), April 23, 2002.