FOR RELEASE THE WEEK OF MARCH 29, 1999:
How long can we leave cooked Easter eggs in their baskets? Do they need to be refrigerated? What should we do with the ones that crack?
Easter eggs should not be left at room temperature for more than two hours, says Sandy McCurdy, University of Idaho food safety coordinator. Once refrigerated, they’ll keep for a week.
To minimize the risk of contamination during Easter handling, McCurdy advises clean hands and clean containers during cooking, cooling, dyeing and hiding.
If the colored, hard-cooked eggs develop cracks, refrigerate and eat them promptly, she says. And if they crack before you even have the chance to color them, skip the dye job and put them straight into the refrigerator.
Why is it important to give baby animals colostrum immediately after they’re born?
Baby animals are virtually unprotected against infectious disease, says Kathy Roy, University of Idaho extension educator. Colostrum–the first milk secreted by a mother animal after she has given birth–is rich in antibodies that provide newborns with natural disease protection for their first few months.
Because the antibodies in colostrum are very large molecules and because newborns’ guts quickly close off against absorbing anything but very small molecules, adequate amounts of colostrum must be administered within 4 to 12 hours of a baby animal’s birth.
"If you can’t provide natural colostrum, then previously frozen colostrum from another animal will work well," says Roy. Once an animal has received some natural colostrum, you can supplement with commercial colostrum. "Remember, these commercial products are meant to be supplements–not complete substitutes," Roy says.
What are the best potato varieties for Idaho gardens?
If you’re growing potatoes in the garden, you’re probably after early-summer or new potatoes that come on before the regular commercial crop, says Steve Love, University of Idaho potato variety development specialist. Because the most common way to prepare new potatoes is boiling, you’re probably also after varieties that boil well–usually red-skinned ones.
Love recommends Red Norland, along with a new University of Idaho variety called IdaRose. IdaRose stores so well that a fall harvest will provide gardeners with potatoes for a good part of the winter, he says. Two other commonly grown reds–Red Pontiac and Red LaSoda–are "good eating potatoes but often have some problems like hollow heart and very deep eyes that make peeling a chore."
If you’re determined to grow bakers, choose from among Frontier Russet, Nooksack and–in another year or two–a new University of Idaho release called Gem Russet. (Start asking your nursery managers for Gem Russet now so they’ll stock it in the future.)
Alas, says Love, "you’ll probably want to avoid growing Russet Burbank–that famous Idaho potato. It’s a good baker, but it requires more uniform growing conditions than most of us can provide. In the home garden, it usually ends up being too misshapen to be usable."
I love homegrown tomatoes but live in a climate with a very short growing season. How can I extend it so I can harvest a crop?
Choose a variety that will mature in 50-60 days, then start transplants indoors that you can set out a month before your final frost date, says University of Idaho extension educator JoAnn Robbins. During the five- to eight weeks that your transplants are growing indoors, prepare a raised bed and cover the soil with clear plastic to warm it. A week or so before planting, take the tomatoes outside each morning to harden them to the bright sun and bring them back inside each evening.
On planting day, cut an opening in the clear plastic, plant the tomato right through the hole, and surround it with a Wall O’ Water or similar protective cover. Fill the Wall O’ Water with warm water, or plant in the morning so the water in the tubes can warm before nightfall. To retain even more heat in your challenging environment, provide additional covering on particularly cold nights.
Be careful not to overwater within the plant covering or under the plastic soil mulch, Robbins says: keeping the plant too wet will foster root rots and foliage fungus diseases.
After all danger of frost has passed, lift off the protective cover. If your summers are very sunny and warm, remove the clear plastic from the plant base, or cover it with black plastic, to prevent overheating.