DEAR SUN SPOTS: My two kayaks were situated a little too close to the rising Nezinscott River in Buckfield during the Labor Day weekend rain and got swept downstream.

We were able to retrieve one of the two, but the other is still AWOL. I have contacted both Turner and Buckfield town offices but otherwise am unsure how to let anyone know that the blue kayak they may have found miles down the river is mine.

I would be happy to provide a reward to anyone who has found it and contacts me. Thanks for this wonderful venue to get the word out. — Scott, 207-402-4111

ANSWER: Sun Spots nearly lost a canoe that way. Good luck in finding your kayak.

DEAR SUN SPOTS, MY FRIEND SUN SPOTS: In my heart I know the answer to my question, but I’m hoping I’m wrong.

Question: If you omit the salt from canning dill pickles, are they any good? Or should seven quarts of dill spears bite the dust?

I’ve made bread and butter pickles and piccalilli many times, but with those you set the pickles overnight with salt and ice. In the morning you drain it all thoroughly. I’m not sure what the salt does since you drain it off.

With the dill pickles you put the salt right in the liquid you put in the jar. So does it serve a different purpose?

While making the dill spears I got interrupted and forgot to add the salt to the water-vinegar mixture. I just finished seven pints of hamburger dills (with the salt!), and they do look different than the spears.

Let me down gently, please. And enlighten me as to the purpose of the salt.

I don’t know what I’d do without you every day. I truly do think of you as a faceless friend! — No Name, No Town

ANSWER: Sun Spots is pleased to be thought of as a friend, and as a friend she cannot let you eat those pickles. Along with being less than tasty, they could very well be unsafe, as salt also serves as a preservative in your pickles. Think of the days before refrigerators and how people preserved their meat with salt.

Salt also helps the cucumbers absorb the flavors of the spices by a process called brining, which is used not only by picklers but by avid barbecuers, who may have brined their chicken or pork to make it moister for grilling. You place the meat in a container filled with salt water, then leave it overnight. The next day your chops or chicken breasts are plumper, and the water is yucky, having drawn some of the blood and such from the meat.

You rinse the meat thoroughly before grilling, but it still retains some of the extra moisture it absorbed, so that when you grill it doesn’t end up all dried out.

The salt performs a similar function in pickles, transforming the cucumber juices, vinegar and spices in a tasty mix.

Experienced picklers may have more to offer on this subject. They certainly have responded in force to a request for a recipe for golden glow pickles. Sun Spots will run those answers on Saturday, when she has a few more inches available for the column.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: In response to the person who wrote about the pantry bugs, I had a similar problem a few years ago. I had purchased some barley at a small natural foods store where they bag their own grains and typically don’t use pesticides.

I did not notice anything immediately, but a few weeks later I noticed these very small black bugs similar to a caraway seed on my grain shelf. I used duct tape to clean them up — it worked very well, much like a lint roller.

Soon after I went to get some of that barley, I found nothing but dust and many more of those same bugs in the bag. Before long I found they had gotten into all my pastas, even the unopened boxes.

I had to dispose of every grain product I had, and scour and sanitize the cupboards. Now all my grains are kept in screw-top jars or zip-lock bags.

I looked the bugs up online, and it seems they fit the description of a grain beetle. It said they are harmless as far as spreading diseases but are a nuisance to deal with. They can do a lot of damage before they are even noticed. — No Name, No Town

ANSWER: Because of her food allergies, Sun Spots has to buy a lot of alternative grains. She has taken to keeping hers in the freezer. Eliminates the bug problem and helps preserve the flours and grains.

Speaking of unwanted bugs, for those of you currently harvesting your broccoli, you might want to soak the stalks in a salt water mixture overnight before preserving or eating. Those little worms you’ll find at the bottom of the bowl the next day are harmless and might even add some protein to your meal, but they are rather yucky. Sun Spots’ chickens like them, though!

This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Please include your phone number. Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can also be emailed to sunspots@sunjournal.com.

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