Salmonella has no smell or taste
Question: It is possible to smell salmonella on foods?
Answer: Salmonella is a type of bacteria that can lead sickness or even death. You cannot see, smell or taste whether a food is contaminated with salmonella. That applies for other pathogens in general, not just salmonella. That is why it is important to always follow food safety guidelines when handling and preparing foods.
Q: Someone gave me a potted shrub. He said it has been outdoors all summer. I am wondering about whether I should plant it now with the temperatures reaching the upper 90s. I was thinking of setting it on top of my fridge in the kitchen, which gets a lot of daylight and just keeping it, watered inside until the temperatures start to cool off at least down into the 80s. What do you think?
A: Go ahead and plant it outside; just keep it watered. It has been outside in the pot all summer and should be able to take the heat and will do much better in the ground than in a container. Whether you can take the heat when planting it is another story! However, keeping the shrub inside in a cooler and much darker (few spots indoors get as much light as those outdoors) would probably be more disruptive than the continuing high temperatures.
Q: I recently harvested two watermelons from my garden and was told to cool them as quickly as possible. Why? I was only planning to chill them right before eating.
A: Think of a watermelon and other melons as water balloons with a thicker skin. It is easy to understand how hot a melon-balloon gets when it has been in the sun all day when temperatures are very high. The heat it absorbs and that builds up in it is called “field heat.” Depending on their crop and marketing plan, farmers will work to improve the shelf life of their melons and other produce and prevent deterioration caused by high temperatures by removing this field heat after harvest, especially before the melons are packaged together in large cartons or crates. Removing field heat is not critical for a home gardener, but it can extend the storage life of your melons if you don’t eat them immediately.
Q: What are some lateblooming daylilies?
A: A few later varieties to consider are August Flame, August Pi o neer, Autumn Daffodil, Autumn King, Autumn Minaret, Carol Sing, Challenger, Clementella, Late Cream, Late Adagio, Olallie Mack, Princess Irene and Scentual Sundance. Two popular re-blooming varieties are Stella de Oro and Black-eyed Stella.