Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 by Jackie Clay | 13 Comments »
Okay I’m a bum, but, hey, I had knee surgery on Thursday. I overdid it on Friday, moving tomatoes and peppers out onto our enclosed porch. So Friday was a pain (literally!). And I did follow Doctor’s orders; he gave me no restrictions, just do what my knee would let me. I had two tears in my meniscus, so I guess the repair took a bit more than we talked about prior to the surgery. Luckily we castrated baby pigs and disbudded the goats before the surgery! At any rate, I’m real lucky to have a homesteader husband who took over all the chores with no grousing. So he’s been extra busy! Today, my knee feels some better so I have hopes that in a few days I can get back at it again. I don’t do “sitting around” real well!
All of a sudden, everything is turning green. Our garlic and chives are up and pretty. Even the yard looks green again. Our flower bulbs are popping up and some are even blooming. Boy, does that cheer us up after all that snow.
We’re starting to get trees and shrubs that we ordered this spring: Evans Bali pie cherries, Crimson Jewel bush cherries, Hansen bush cherries, two plums, and a pear to start off with. Our orchard looks great and the trees are swelling with buds. I can hardly wait for blooms. But last night it was 22 degrees so I hope they wait awhile so we get fruit this year! — Jackie
Thursday, May 9th, 2013 by Jackie Clay | 13 Comments »
And a few days after arrival, we face the not-so-nice job of disbudding all of those cute kids. As horns are SO dangerous to both the goats and people (due to accidental bumps), we never leave horns on any of our goats. And it’s really paid off. Yes, it’s a stinky job with burning hair and not fun as the babies holler. But in minutes, they are nursing and in an hour they are playing like nothing unusual ever happened.
I’m always glad that job’s over. But we still have another unpleasant one — castrating the baby pigs. If it doesn’t rain, we’ll be doing that in a few minutes. Again, unpleasant but necessary. (Boar meat often has a nasty smell on cooking as well as a bad taste called “boar taint.”) Buyers don’t want to buy baby boar pigs.
I’m running around today doing all those odd jobs I won’t be able to do once I have my surgery tomorrow. Whew! — Jackie
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 by Jackie Clay | No Comments »
Canning casseroles
Can I pressure can a casserole into pint jars for individual servings? I’ve searched BHM archives, as well as the Internet, and there is precious little regarding casseroles. Any advice or sources would be greatly appreciated. Also interested in pressure canning desserts… any advice?
Michelle Howard Mission Viejo, California
Unfortunately, most casseroles contain noodles, macaroni, or rice and when you can recipes with these as ain ingredients, they clump up and swell when pressure canned (which is necessary). When canned this way, they become one of those dense foods which are not recommended for canning due to the fact that sufficient heat may not reach the center of the jar long enough to kill possible bacteria. The casserole would also become pasty and not pretty. So we skip canning them; freezing is a better option.
Same with most desserts; sorry.
I can up the main ingredients of both and then quickly combine them and bake. It doesn’t take all that long and makes a much nicer food on the table. — Jackie
Hopi Pale Grey seeds
I got some of the Hopi Pale Grey Squash seeds and I have taken only 3 of them to try to get them to sprout, using the wet paper towel method — all they are doing is molding. What in the world am I doing wrong? Perhaps I should have just straight away planted them in dirt — I’m hoarding the others until I get it right.
By the way, tell Will — great going on the rock backing behind the stove/heater. Looks wonderful.
Wanda Laurel, Maryland
When seeds mold in the wet paper towels, you have the towel too wet. You just want it damp, not wet. I’d just wait until it’s time and plant the seeds outside. I’ve done germination tests on my seeds before I sent them out and they all germinated well. All the best of luck with your squash!
Will says “thanks.” It’s been a job but it should be done soon. — Jackie
Treated lumber for raised beds
My mother made a raised flower bed many years ago, probably 25-35 years ago. She used treated lumber to line the bed. This lumber is very old and falling apart and the garden bed needs some nitrogen. In your opinion would it be safe to plant tomatoes and peppers in that spot? Have enough years gone by to get rid of any bad chemicals in the soil? We plan on using cedar posts where the lumber was.
Becky Ankeny, Iowa
I’ve studied this problem a lot over the years. And most scientific studies show that the arsenic that was found in treated lumber does leach into the soil…mostly in the first year following installation. But it doesn’t move far from the lumber. And, over the years, the natural leaching due to summer rains and snow melt further lessens the amounts found in the soil. Even when freshly installed, only root crops have been found to take up the arsenic present in the beds. Because of the POSSIBLE toxicity, manufacturers have stopped using arsenic in treated lumber. (It was initially used as an insecticide.) The other chemicals, copper and chromium, are not toxic when ingested in small amounts.
Personally, I wouldn’t worry a bit, although I would remove all of the rotted lumber and the soil right near the edge of the beds that was in contact with the treated lumber. Non-root crops, such as tomatoes and peppers, will do fine and should pose no health risk. — Jackie
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 by Jackie Clay | 1 Comment »
Cleaning eggs
I have a small chicken tractor with just two hens. The roost nest is in the back furthest from the open “run” area. My hens like to get back in there and sleep in the roost box which creates a problem with chicken poop building up if its not changed every other day. My questions are, when would you throw away an egg due to it having manure on it (Say a hen messes once or twice directly on the egg) and the other question is how do I keep them from using the nest box as a sleeping location? They do have a board that they used to roost on until the rooster died that I had in there with them.
Matt Burks McMinnville, Tennessee
No, don’t throw away eggs with manure on them. This is common and eggs are easily washed with plain old warm water. Hens using nesting boxes in a chicken tractor is a very common happening. Usually the only remedy is to make the coop larger and put higher roosts as chickens usually prefer to roost high and will then quit using the nest boxes to sleep in. — Jackie
Canning on a rocket stove
So, I’m getting ready to make my move back home to Canada. Starting to pack up the boxes, etc. The finances are going to be pretty tight until I find a job up home. With finances in mind, I was wondering about alternative heating methods for pressure canning i.e.) wood stove, open fire, etc.; Searching the internet, I found this video on test canning with a rocket stove: http://youtu.be/17tKFDo97Fc
Would using a rocket stove (I’ve built one before) be a do-able source of heat for pressure canning? Along with the question of course, safety and prudence come into play as well — constant monitoring to make sure the correct pressure is maintained, etc. Reading over the comments to the video there were some questions on safety, ruining your pressure canner, etc.
Cheryll Carter Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts
While you can home can on a rocket stove, as seen in the video, I’d rather not. It’d be real hard to adjust the heat to vary the temperature when you are canning. You can certainly can on a wood stove with a flat top. I canned on my kitchen range for decades. On a kitchen range you can slide your canner a bit to the side to slow down the rising pressure or slip it back over the heat when you need to give it a boost upward. With the rocket stove, the heat needs to be regulated by the amount and kind of wood you have burning — very difficult. Also there’s the stability issue. A heavy canner can be dangerous on top of a rocket stove. I’d skip it. Or go with a table-top propane two or three burner and just use your small tanks to fire it and re-fill between canning operations. — Jackie
Monday, May 6th, 2013 by Jackie Clay | 8 Comments »
All our snow is gone and the ground is drying up nicely. What a relief. We breed our goats to freshen in late April since by then the snow is gone and the weather is nice. Luckily, the “girls” didn’t have their kids until last week so they were born in pleasant weather. Now it’s mid-sixties and they’re out running with their mammas and enjoying the sunshine. One small twin buckling was born weak so I brought him in and put him into the wood box. (The wood box sees more baby animals this time of the year than it does wood!) He’s doing well on the bottle and is starting to run around outdoors. He’s pretty much potty trained; I feed him then take him outdoors where he does his “business.” Our friend and neighbor, Jerry, came over at feeding time (about every 3 hours) and asked to be able to give baby his bottle. Both of them enjoyed it a lot! Jerry used to raise goats and has a soft spot in his heart for them.
Meanwhile, Will’s been working daily on the rock wall behind the wood stove. He’s finally got all the rock up and is starting to grout in between them with mortar. It’s slow and fussy work, but it’s coming together very nicely. He jokes that after reading a stonework book that “he did everything wrong” because he placed the stones too far apart, but we both like the way it looks so we’re still happy with it.
I go in on Thursday for my knee surgery (torn meniscus) and hope it goes as well as the surgeon says it will, complete with quick recovery of the total use of it again. Right now it sure is a pain (pun not intended!). I went to sit down on a plastic bucket to milk a goat and OMG did it hurt! And our cow, Lace, is making a beautiful bag. All I could think of is “how am I ever going to milk a COW?” Hopefully, I’ll be all healed up by the time she freshens. — Jackie
Monday, May 6th, 2013 by Jackie Clay | No Comments »
Canning in the oven
In the May/June issue of Countryside mag, there is an article on canning in an oven at 200 degrees. I know you have warned readers in the past about this, but will you comment on this.
Clovis Steelman Gilmer, Texas
This is a difference in terms! Oven canning means canning fruits or vegetables in the oven — a real bad idea. This article on “oven canning” refers to sealing dry foods in canning jars in the oven. It isn’t really oven canning but oven sealing. I agree with the article; these foods do seal well and store well when processed in the oven. The one plus is that if there should be any insect eggs in the food, the heat will kill them. Remember, though, that just putting dry foods in a sealed airtight container that is insect and moisture proof will allow you to store them for very long periods of time, nearly indefinitely. I don’t oven can. I use my canning jars for canning. I store my dry foods in other sealed, moisture-proof containers such as gallon glass jars and popcorn tins. It also saves time and energy used to heat up the oven. — Jackie
Canning meatloaf
I saw a video on the Tattler Lids website on canning meat loaf. The person doing it canned the meat loaf raw and processed it at 90 minutes. Have you ever tried this? Do you recommend it? Other thoughts about it?
Lynda
There’s a big debate on this among the “experts.” Some say that it’s fine as the ground meat allows juices to boil within it as it processes. Others say that it’s dangerous because meatloaf is a dense food like pureed squash and the center of the jar may not heat up enough for long enough for safe processing.
I used to can meatloaf all the time. It’s in my All American instruction manual but several other “experts” recommend NOT canning meatloaf. Are they just trying to keep us safe from ourselves by being overly cautious? Or is there a real concern? I’m not sure so I now can meatloaf shaped into larger meatballs. Then when I want to have a meatloaf dinner, I dump out a quart into a shallow baking dish, top with green peppers and ketchup, and pop into the oven for about half an hour. The texture and taste is like meatloaf without any possible danger. — Jackie
Sunday, May 5th, 2013 by Jackie Clay | No Comments »
Waxed cheese
Seeking information from you again since you are considered the “ONE.” We have waxed several blocks of cheese which we had cut into smaller blocks. Now I find that some of the edges have cracked open. Did I use too much wax or too little? Also, after sealing with wax does the cheese need to be kept in the refrigerator or is there any way to keep it in the pantry?
Claudine Norwood Wagoner, Oklahoma
It sounds like you used plain old paraffin instead of cheese wax. Light coats of paraffin crack which is why you shouldn’t use it on cheeses. Cheese wax is much more pliable during long-term storage. Cheeses that are waxed probably should be kept in the refrigerator because few pantries have conditions that cheese likes for longer term storage. — Jackie
Canning bean soup
Thank you for your instructions for canning butter and cheese. Have put up 12 of each this week. Yea! Today I made a 15-bean soup, adding about 1½ cups cooked ham to it. It is very good, but lots of it. Am I able to can the remaining cooked soup? From archive info I think the beans need to be uncooked. If so, how long in pressure canner? Can freeze it, but would prefer to can it for emergency use.
Judith Almand Brandon Florida
Sure you can can up your leftover soup. In fact, I’m doing bean soup with ham today! You can either can up uncooked or cooked beans, but either way, with the ham, you need to process your soup at 10 pounds pressure for 75 minutes for pints or 90 minutes for quarts. It’ll turn out great.
Congratulations on your canned butter and cheese. I just opened a half pint of butter that is 3 years old and it tastes as good as fresh! — Jackie
Saturday, May 4th, 2013 by Jackie Clay | 1 Comment »
Shelf life of commercially canned food
Do commercially canned (in glass jars) food have the same shelf life as home canned foods?
Barbara Nemitz Pearland, Texas
Yes, commercially canned foods in glass jars do have the same shelf life as home canned foods — nearly indefinite given decent storage conditions (cool, dark, dry). All too often folks read the “freshness date” on the container and toss perfectly good food because it’s “too old.” What a waste! — Jackie
Canned salsa
I canned salsa last summer. We opened up a pint to use this past October and it was too “vinegary.” I hate to throw out all the jars from that batch. The seals have held. Just wondering how to get the vinegar taste out. Can I dilute it with a fresh batch of salsa and re-can? I didn’t own your book last summer, but have since bought it and plan to use your recipes this summer.
Betsy Pitchford Scottsboro, Alabama
Gee, that’s too bad. But all is not lost. Yes, you can mix fresh salsa with that vinegary salsa and either eat fresh or else re-can it. You can also try adding a little brown sugar to a jar after you open it and see if that cuts the vinegar taste; that often works. Or add white sugar and use it as a salad ingredient. I often use my salsa on salads in the winter anyway. The tomatoes sure taste better than store tomatoes in the winter! — Jackie
