We’re planning our fall homesteading seminar and are ready to take deposits.This seminar should be a great one, covering such topics as bringing in the harvest, using a pressure canner, canning meats and vegetables, seed saving, long-term food storage, and much more.The seminar will be September 12-14th, 2014 here at our homestead. We’d love to have you come!
Wednesday, April 9th, 2014 by Jackie Clay | 12 Comments »
Well, it’s official, my new book is ready for pre-order at a great 25% reduced price. It’s titled Homesteading Simplified: Living the good life without losing your mind and it details all the different ways a person can make homesteading easier and more enjoyable whether they live in town or on a large acreage … or anywhere in between. I’ve written about livestock, watering systems, gardening, tools, and much more. Because I’ve fielded a lot of questions about how to avoid homesteader burnout, I wrote this book to help homesteaders, new and experienced, make their life easier while enjoying it more.
Thursday, July 31st, 2014 by Jackie Clay | No Comments »
We’ve finally been given a week’s worth of nice sunny weather so we’re making good use of it. Yesterday Will baled 14 big round bales and a wagonload plus a truckload of square bales of hay. God was with us! Our friend, Alan, was working at building a cabin for a fellow on the same road we were haying on, and knew we needed help unloading hay bales. So when I hauled the loads home, a young man followed me! His name is Joey and he’s a great worker and pleasant to have around. AND he’s looking for a little part-time work, working for Alan also part-time. Wow, we’re real happy about that! So today Will’s out cutting more hay to bale on Saturday. I’m hauling broken bales of hay to the cows, horses, and goats so they can enjoy our oopsies.
And I’ve been canning beans like mad. Our wonderful Provider beans gave me another five quarts plus four pints yesterday and there are tons of beans coming on like mad. They are SUCH a great bean!
Our squash have little baby squash set on them and are running like crazy. It’s unbelievable how big the vines are getting. (Good varieties, plenty of manure, mulch, and water all help!) It’s fun to see the different varieties we’re trialing this year. One, Giant Apache, even has yellow and green variegated leaves on one plant! That’s really pretty and I’ll be saving seeds from that plant for sure. It’d be great if I can stabilize that trait as it really adds pop to the squash patch!
In between haying, Will’s been repairing some equipment like our big offset disc that developed a crack on the frame. With homesteading and farming, it’s an ongoing process; it seems like every other day something breaks and has to be fixed. (We always say we hope it’s a cheap, easily fixed break!) — Jackie
Thursday, July 31st, 2014 by Jackie Clay | No Comments »
Pickles with alternative sweetener
I would love to try your pickle recipe, however I am allergic to processed sugar and need to know if I can use Splenda or other sweetener to make them?
Gretchen Richmond
Nampa, Idaho
Yes, you can use artificial sweeteners such as Splenda or natural sweeteners like Stevia powder in your pickles. I would boil the pickling solution and spices first, then stir in the sweetener just before adding the cucumbers/vegetables for peak flavor and sweetness then pack as usual. — Jackie
Canning teriyaki sauce
Back in February or March I wrote you about canning my teriyaki sauce. You could not answer me as I didn’t have the exact amounts of the ingredient and I couldn’t find my recipe. I have found it now and hope you can help me! I also have a few more of my favorite sauces I’m hoping you can help me with to see if I can, can them up? I need to know which canning method to use on which sauces and processing times for each one? I realize the sweet chilli sauce and the lemon sauce have cornstarch, I will be taking that out and doing some experimenting with my pectin. Teriyaki sauce: 2 cups soy sauce 2 cups sugar. 4 cloves garlic (chopped fine). 2 tsp. ginger (grated).
Combine soy sauce and sugar in saucepan on medium heat cook until sugar is dissolved. Add garlic and ginger, remove from heat. Use on meat or vegetable. Sweet and sour sauce: 16 oz. tomato sauce 1 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup vinegar 1 tsp. garlic (chopped fine) Add all ingredients to pan and heat till sugar is dissolved. Sweet chilli sauce: 3 large garlic cloves 2 red jalapeño or Serrano peppers, deseeded. ½ cup sugar ¾ cup water ¼ cup white vinegar ½ tablespoon salt 1 tablespoon cornstarch 2 tablespoon water
In blender, puree together all the ingredients, except the last two. Transfer the mixture into a sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Lower heat to medium and simmer until the mixture thickens up a bit and the garlic and pepper bits soften, about 3 minutes. Combine the cornstarch and water to make a slurry. Whisk in the cornstarch mixture and continue to simmer another minute. Lemon sauce: ½ cup sugar 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 cup boiling water 2 tablespoons butter 1½ tablespoons lemon juice ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
In a saucepan stir sugar and cornstarch. Add water gradually. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 2 minutes and remove from heat. Add butter and stir until melted. Add lemon juice and nutmeg.
Dawn Sedlacek Dallas, Oregon
You can process your teriyaki sauce in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes. The sweet and sour sauce is fine processed in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes (pints or half pints). I don’t feel that the sweet chili sauce has enough vinegar/sugar in it to offset the amount of water and vegetables in it to be safe to water bath process. You could pressure can it for 35 minutes (pints or half pints) at 10 pounds pressure. The lemon sauce is safe to can but I would substitute Clear Jel for the cornstarch — just to be safest. That would process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes (pints or half pints). Remember to increase your processing time (boiling water bath) or pressure (pressure canning) if you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet. Consult your canning book for directions on this. — Jackie
Canning baked beans
I made a recipe of baked beans cooked in a crock-pot. It was for a party. We ended up with a lot of left-overs. I’m wondering if I could can them, so they are not wasted? How long should I pressure can them? If they seem a little dry is it safe to add some water?
Nicole Bramm Narvon, Pennsylvania
You sure can can up those beans. I’d stir in enough water to make them slightly soupy (they’ll absorb water as they can), heat them thoroughly, then ladle out into clean jars, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Process them as if you’d just made them (65 minutes for pints and 75 minutes for quarts) at 10 pounds pressure. As always, if you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet consult your canning book for instructions on increasing your pressure to suit your altitude. — Jackie
Wednesday, July 30th, 2014 by Jackie Clay | No Comments »
Corn relish
I just made my first batch ever of corn relish, but ran short on pickling brine toward the end. I went ahead and processed it, but wondered later if the last few jars will be ok since the brine may not cover all the corn?
Lucy Boyer Carlisle, Ohio
Although it’s best if the brine does cover the corn, the relish usually does fine even when some of the corn is not covered. This is because during the processing in the boiling water bath the vinegar brine boils vigorously throughout the jar and the corn absorbs some of the brine. As always, when you go to use these jars, look to see that they are sealed and appear normal, then sniff the opened jar to see if there is any off smell. With these precautions, you’re good to go. — Jackie
Dry milk for emergency use
Thank you for the time you take to answer all the questions we beginners have. I would like to ask you, if the SHIFT hit the fan, whether or not you could possible use Purina calf milk replacer for human consumption? I love reading about your farm. I pray for ya’ll too! I hope your gallbladder surgery goes well when you finally get to have the procedure.
Lynne White Lacombe, Louisiana
No, calf milk replacer has additives that you wouldn’t want to consume. And it’s sure not cheap. Better to store some “people” dry milk instead. I always have time for everyone’s questions. Most are quite intelligent and good questions. Thanks for your prayers. I’ve got to get back on the surgery schedule soon. (I wanted to make SURE my cold was gone.) — Jackie
Tuesday, July 29th, 2014 by Jackie Clay | 6 Comments »
We’re so happy. Not only is our haying under full swing but I’m starting to can like mad! I’ve already put up two nice batches of pin cherry jelly with a lot more on the trees (if I can foil the sneaky robins and cedar waxwings). And three days ago I harvested 3/4 of a basket of very nice Provider bush beans that yielded 9 pints of canned beans. How nice it is to sit in the shade on our front porch and cut beans! Talk about your old-time comforts — can’t be beat! I watch the birds and look out on the flowers in our front flower beds. The hummingbirds even come right up on the porch to sip out of the petunias.
We’ve got hay down in two fields but it showered this morning so we won’t be baling today. The hay will be fine waiting to dry, as it hasn’t been raked yet. Boy, are we having trouble finding anyone to “buck bales.” We pay $10 an hour and can’t find a soul who wants to work! What the heck is wrong with people today? Way back when, when I farmed down by Sturgeon Lake, teens would drive around looking for farmers haying and ask if they needed any help on the wagon or in the hayloft. And the going rate then was $2.50 an hour! Now you can’t drag them off the video games. We really miss having David. He’s working overtime for our farming neighbor, Jerry, also haying. Yesterday, he hit the field at 7 a.m. and got done just before dark.
He did have time to “sneak away” for an hour as his brother, Bill, and his family came to visit us. We sure had a great time. The grandkids, Mason and Ava, were introduced to raspberries and had a wonderful experience picking raspberries out of our berry patch and wild blueberries out in the woods. It was exciting showing them the “good” wild berries and the “bad” ones. They caught on VERY quickly!
We also picked berries so their mom, Kelly, could take a bucket full to turn into jam. It was frustrating for me as my knee still won’t take kneeling down to pick and sitting on a bucket was way too slow. I can pick the pin cherries and the swamp blueberries just fine standing, as they are taller. But ours are only about eight inches high. Oh well, everyone else picked like mad and I was able to bend to pick for about an hour before my back quit.
We don’t take the dogs berry picking because they pick and eat more than we do! — Jackie
Friday, July 25th, 2014 by Jackie Clay | 1 Comment »
Canning spaghetti sauce
Why is it okay to water bath can salsa but not spaghetti sauce?
Katie Gilbert Milo, Iowa
You can certainly can spaghetti sauce without meat in a boiling water bath canner but many experts are now advising us to use a pressure canner for both that and even tomatoes. I think because of the possibility of recipes not containing lemon juice or vinegar and having low-acid tomatoes added to the recipe. — Jackie
Canning potatoes
I have been canning for years and have had very little trouble with loss. But this year I have had 7 jars of potatoes come open not good (have you ever smelled that? Omgosh!) My question is with following the same method for years. I wash new potatoes peel and blanch then place in hot jars, pour boiling water over, place new lids and pressure for 40 minutes. Help please, I am about to give up.
Jo Collins Morehead, Kentucky
NEVER GIVE UP! It’s my motto. Yep, I have smelled bad potatoes and sweet corn. Yuck! But, hey, it can happen. You may have just gotten a bad batch of lids or perhaps you did like I did on that bad batch of my sweet corn. I was in a huge hurry and left the last batch in the canner to cool as I’d been up for three days and two nights with no sleep. Well, in the morning, I opened the canner and they seemed to have sealed. I washed them and put them in the basement. A couple of weeks later … Peeewww! Something smelled pretty rotten. Yep, it was the corn and I ended up throwing away nine quarts and fourteen pints. That’s a record for me. I doubt that I’ve thrown out that many jars in more than fifty years of canning! (And that includes ones the cat pushed off the shelf to break on the floor.) You did everything right so I’d just gird your loins and get busy and put up more potatoes this year. — Jackie
Cucumber and potato beetles
For the first time ever my squash, cucumber, and pumpkin blossoms are overrun with cucumber and/or potato beetles. I am looking for a non-chemical answer to getting rid of them. I went out with a bucket of soapy water and picked by hand as many as I could but of course several flew away in the process. I read to paint cardboard squares yellow, apply Vaseline, and mount next to plants to draw them to the cardboard where they get stuck. I’m going to give that a shot. Is there anything I can spray directly on the blossoms to make them unattractive to the beetles but not the pollinators? I have these beetles by the dozens this year would appreciate any guidance in handling this infestation.
Teresa Liechti Milbank, South Dakota
Hand picking works wonders if you keep at it. Will and I worked over our potatoes last year twice a day, hand picking both blister beetles and potato bugs. This year we don’t have any — hooray! You can spray your vines and blossoms with Bt, which is a natural spray that only kills bugs that eat your crops, not those that pollinate it. But even if you spray I would still keep picking as it usually takes a couple of days before the beetles quit eating and begin to sicken. One common, easily found brand is DiPel, often sold at big box stores. — Jackie
Thursday, July 24th, 2014 by Jackie Clay | 10 Comments »
It’s been very hot and muggy and I told Will we were primed for a bad storm. So when the weather radio called for thunderstorms Monday night we weren’t surprised. In fact, we were pretty happy to see lightning on the Western horizon that night as it was 85 degrees with extreme humidity (and being off grid we sure don’t have an air conditioner). Well, it finally rained around 11:30 p.m. and it did cool off.
But it wasn’t until yesterday that we heard how severe the storm front was to the North and South of us, with straight line winds more than 75 mph and inches of rain. Campers in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness had been pinned under big fallen pines, others injured. And many folks on the Iron Range, just south of us had trees blown down on their houses and garages or roofs torn off, etc. We feel very grateful we escaped this part of the storm and are praying for those affected. More than 15,000 people were without power as well but, of course, we never noticed.
The garden continues to astound us. I’ll be canning green beans in a couple days and have hundreds of inch-long Homemade Pickle cucumbers set on rampant vines. And this year, our dill is amazing. (I’ve even had to buy wilted, old store-bought dill on some other years — for $3.49 a bunch.)
But the star of our gardens this year is the Glass Gem popcorn. We planted it for its beauty but the plants are stupendous. They are near shoulder-high to Will and me and each plant has stooled out, having more than five lusty stalks per plant. We can’t wait to see how it turns out and how many ears we get per plant. Usually popcorn has shorter plants but Glass Gem hasn’t even thought of tasseling out at shoulder-height! Our Espresso sweet corn is tasseling out down in our main garden but not our Glass Gem. Wow!
We are still working at mulching our main garden; it takes a lot of work and hay to mulch an acre! But we work on it every day and it is looking good. My cold seems to have left me but I am still waiting awhile before I call my surgeon’s office to reschedule my gallbladder surgery. I do not want to have to postpone it again! — Jackie
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014 by Jackie Clay | 1 Comment »
Fruit trees and watermelon dying
We planted fruit trees this spring. We have had a very dry summer, nevertheless we have watered the trees three times a week. Now the leaves of all the fruit trees are curling up, turning brown and falling off. I am not so sure that some are not already dead. The trunks of the trees look different. Some spots are green and look healthy, while other spots are a very dark brown. Do you have any idea what this could be? I realize it is difficult to say exactly without seeing, thought you might have some idea.
This is the first year after five tries that I was able to grow watermelon. Now the vine is wilted and the stem is brown. Could this be a fungus? There are two small fruits set and lots of bloom, still open. Can I save this? Thanks for all your time and information that you provide to all of us.
Mary Ann Nelson Franklin, West Virginia
Newly-planted fruit trees should receive at least a five-gallon bucket of water at a watering twice a week, provided that they are mulched. Often folks don’t realize this and use sprinklers in the orchard which don’t wet the soil deep enough to keep the baby tree roots from drying out and dying. I’d keep watering them and severely prune the trees, removing most of the branches and cutting the ones you leave off at half-length. Maybe they’ll either start leafing out again or send new shoots from lower down and above the grafts.
While it could be a fungus on your watermelon, it is also possible that it just didn’t get enough water. Your garden should receive at least 1 inch of water every week, more during very hot weather. You can make sure they are getting this by sitting a few cups out in the garden while you water. After you finish, measure the amount of water in the cups. There should be at least 1 inch in each one. Sometimes our sprinklers just don’t reach certain spots very well, leaving them pretty dry. Mulch is also very important in the garden to keep the plants’ roots evenly moist. — Jackie
Red cabbage for Amish coleslaw
I’m really sorry you had to postpone the surgery; what a letdown. Your garden looks great — too bad you can’t send some of that rain our way. We are dry. The Provider beans are just getting into full swing and the single Hopi plant I grew has at least 17 squash on it! Wow, those are powerful seeds you grew! Would it help the plant if I took some of them off? Also, I grew red cabbage and green, this year, and the red are heading way before the others. Have you found that the red cabbages work as well for Amish Slaw and other cabbage recipes? I hope you’ll have good hay making season. I’ll bet the animals are counting every bale.
Carol Bandy Hightown, Virginia
I think I’m finally getting over that darned cold. I think… Wow, 17 squash on one plant! If you want really big squash, you can pick off some of the littlest ones and use as you would summer squash. Otherwise, Hopi Pale Grey is a very strong-growing squash and can handle that big a load as long as it gets plenty of water.
Yes, you can sure use your red cabbages in Amish coleslaw. The color would really pop.
The haying is going well so far and we pray it continues the same. We stock up the haymow with the same feelings we do our pantry. What a great feeling when it’s full to bulging! — Jackie
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014 by Jackie Clay | No Comments »
Yesterday was my last day on antibiotics (again) and today, I feel a lot better. I hope this tenacious thing is finally on the run. It’s in the nineties today with 100% humidity so we’re really panting! Will’s over at one of our hayfields with the tractor and disc, getting ready to plant oats and clover on a small, previously rough spot. It’s late because of all of the rain earlier this spring and summer, but it’s supposed to rain this evening and it would be good to get the seed in ahead of it. He planted our little new hayfield yesterday on our new forty, so for a change we’re waiting anxiously for rain. Hopefully not 12 inches though!
The garden is great, with the corn starting to tassel out and tons of tomatoes already set. We are having to water as it’s pretty darned dry. But that’s okay as the hayfields are still kind of wet in spots and they need to dry out so we can continue haying.
Mamba, our new milk cow, is doing great! The calf runs with her and she still gives us two and a half gallons of milk a day with no kicking or swatting of her tail. I do spray her for flies before I milk as I don’t hold still myself when they are biting me. I just put her feed in a bucket, wash her udder, and milk away. She isn’t tied or even in a stanchion. Pretty good for a half Angus when that breed is known as kickers!
Our orchard sure took a hit from the past record cold winter. Many of our trees have dying branches, but the wild pin cherries on the edge of the orchard are producing fantastically. The branches are weighted down with larger than usual cherries. This morning Will went out and picked a bucket full and when I get done blogging I’ll pick as many as I can. Then the Mehu Liisa will get busy, extracting juice from them. They sure make great jelly! Our favorite is pin cherry/jalapeño jelly (with just a little almond extract added at the last minute).
I checked our Provider beans and many are about two inches long already so I’ll be canning beans pretty soon, too. The plants look astounding and are full of blooms. Those beans are our favorite bush beans and have never disappointed us yet. — Jackie
