I’m madly trying to wrap things up on my end as I prepare to fly out Thursday to Colorado Springs for the Preparedness Expo where I’ll be speaking and hanging out at the BHM booth with all the rest of the crew who will be there. Unfortunately, this trip is only a few days before our seminar. It’s amazing all the things we have to think of ahead of time. Today we ordered porta-potties and two of my friends, Jeri and Linda, are coming over to discuss meals. They’ll be helping out readying food while Will and I are busy teaching our guests. Whew!

Meanwhile, spring is here and we have to keep moving forward with our homestead so we don’t get behind. I tilled a good strip in the garden and picked rocks (again!), planted onion sets and Copra onion plants I’d raised from seed. Then Will set out to till another big strip and ended up tilling the rest of the garden! Now all I have to do is to pick rocks and keep on planting.

We had another baby goat born — a buckling this time from our best milker. She’s getting old so we had hoped for a doe to carry on her bloodlines. It never works out that way, does it? We do have a yearling doe from her though and maybe Trieste will produce kids yet another year.

Will has been working on our new porch as well as the barn. Today he’s out in the woods cutting blow-down trees which will be used as porch posts and rafters. We don’t waste much around here!

Mother’s Day was nice. Bill, my oldest son, and his kids, Mason and Ava, came up, dropping off Kelly at work on the way. I can’t believe how big little Ava is getting. And what big eyes! David didn’t have to work so he was there for dinner. Later on my son, Javid, from Montana called and we talked a long time. How nice!

Well, I’ve got to go now. If any of you are attending the Preparedness Expo, be sure to stop by the BHM booth and visit.

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Jumping lids

I have been canning for 30 plus years. Recently a strange thing happened while canning chicken. I had sufficient water, timing and waited for the pressure to go down to zero so I could open the lid safely on the canner. When I removed the top, the lids of all six or seven pint jars began flexing up and down rapidly about 6 or 8 times each. I backed up as I thought they were going to explode. After a few minutes it stopped. I let them sit on a towel for 24 hours, washed and dried, then put back in their box. I checked them about 2 weeks later and found about half of all the jars had become unsealed. I tossed all of them not wanting to take a chance (not the jars just the chicken).

What did I do wrong? Was the canner at too high a temp? It was a new one and I noticed the metal was thinner than my old one. I have not used it since then. Help!

Glenda Holcomb
Indiantown, Florida

This startling thing happens on occasion when we immediately remove the lid of the canner when the pressure reaches zero. It’s usually when we have a full canner, often full of a food with lots of broth in it, like chicken. Let your canner sit a few minutes at zero. Not half an hour, but ten minutes or so. Then remove the lid and take your jars out. Jumping the gun on removing the lid will also sometimes cause liquid to blow out of the jars between the lid and jar rim. Sorry to hear you lost all that chicken. That really hurts. — Jackie

Potatoes starting to sprout

We had a bumper crop of potatoes last year. Gave away a bunch. We still have 75-100 pounds left and they have sprouted about foot long shoots and the most potatoes have gone soft, no green spots on them. I know, not the ideal storage area! We stored them in the basement cool dark corner and covered.  Question is what can we do/salvage those potatoes if possible? We tried a meal with some soft ones and no ill affects so far, but have read and hear conflicting info. We were thinking making mashed and freezing and possible canning as options.

Norbert Freitel
Marshall, Michigan

I often can up some of my spring-sprouted potatoes so as not to lose them. But it’s really best to do that before they start to get soft for the best canned potatoes, possible. If you have to, don’t feel horrible composting a lot of those potatoes. Then, if you have a good potato crop this year, why not dehydrate and can up some of them so you won’t lose many come next spring? As you’ve said, you can freeze mashed potatoes, but if you do a whole lot, your freezer space will be cramped. — Jackie

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Collecting rainwater

We have been collecting rain water trying to be conservative. The rainwater falls off the roof into big black vats. Question is, how to keep mosquitoes from laying eggs in it? Don’t use additives to the water but keep covered like old cisterns once were?

Danetta Cates
Dexter, Missouri

If you keep your vats covered, you’ll find few mosquitoes find their way into the water. The old-time way of keeping mosquito populations down in the water was to put a couple of goldfish in the cistern to eat any wigglers or bugs that did happen to end up in the water. (Yep, I know…fish poop…. Oh well, I guess folks just didn’t think about that much when using the water.)

You can buy mosquito “dunks” which are floating discs that slowly release bT into the water, eliminating mosquitoe larva in the water. It is a natural bacteria, lethal to only mosquitoes; it won’t harm fish, birds, plants, or you. — Jackie

Canning cantaloupe

I have been told my whole life that you cannot can cantaloupe. However, my aunt used to can it every year and it was WONDERFUL! Do you know of any way to do this? Unfortunately, my aunt passed before I could think to discuss this with her and now I have nowhere else to turn. Thanks for any input you have.

Sandi C.
Missouri

Your aunt probably canned “pickled” cantaloupe balls. They really aren’t sour as you’d think and turn out quite nicely. Here’s the recipe:

CANTALOUPE BALL PICKLES

14 cantaloupe balls (1 inch)
3 cups white vinegar
2 cups water
4½ cups sugar

Spice bag:
2 sticks cinnamon
1 Tbsp. whole cloves
1 Tbsp. whole allspice
¼ tsp. mustard seed

Combine vinegar and water in a large pot. Add spice bag and bring to a boil. Simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add cantaloupe balls and let stand for 1½ hours. Add sugar and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat and simmer until melon balls start becoming transparent. Pack hot melon balls in hot jars, leaving ¼ inch of headspace. Ladle hot syrup over melon balls, leaving ¼ inch of headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim of jar clean; place hot, previously simmered lid on jar and screw down ring firmly tight. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.

I hope you like them. This recipe and a whole lot more “different” as well as regular recipes are found in my book Growing and Canning Your Own Food, available right here through BHM! — Jackie

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Cream cheese

I looked up the ‘Cream Cheese Frosting’ recipe in your Pantry Cookbook. It called for either packages of cream cheese or fresh cream cheese softened. How do you make your own cream cheese? Can you make it from goat’s milk? Does it get firmer with refrigeration? How long will it keep? How do you wrap it?
J from Missouri

Unless you have a cream separator it is hard to get enough cream to make cream cheese from goat’s milk. But the good news is that you can make chevre, or fresh soft cheese, from goat milk that can be used just like cream cheese. And, yes, it is firm yet not hard. It will keep 2 weeks or more in the fridge and will freeze although it does tend to get granular like cream cheese when frozen. I just put mine in plastic snap-top refrigerator containers.

Here’s the recipe:

5 quarts whole fresh milk
1/2 cup cultured buttermilk
2 Tbsp. diluted rennet — to make this, add 3 drops liquid rennet to 1/3 cup cool water.

Warm milk to 80 degrees by setting pot in sinkful of hot water. Stir in buttermilk; mix well. Add 2 Tbsp. of diluted rennet. Stir well and cover. Let set at room temperature for 24 hours or a little longer. It should look like thick yogurt.

Drain curd through a clean old pillowcase or piece of clean sheet; cheesecloth won’t work; you’ll lose a lot of cheese. Line a colander with this and pour curds slowly into center. Hang to drain 6-8 hours or until dripping stops.

Your chevre should resemble cream cheese. Add salt to taste and refrigerate in a covered container. You can also add herbs, bacon bits, olives, canned sweet or hot peppers, fruit, etc. to make a killer spread! — Jackie

Canning pork loin

I have been canning some pork loin by raw packing using the instructions in your book Growing and Canning Your Own Food and wondered what you do with the scraps that you trim off? I’m sure you have a great way to use them! I put some in a crock pot with soup beans for supper but I was curious as to if there was another use for them.

Marlana Ward
Mountain City, Tennessee

I can up most of them, too! I add them to such things as omelets, barbecue pork sandwiches, soups and stews, refried beans, and casseroles. — Jackie

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Making cottage cheese

I think a while back you gave your recipe for cottage cheese. I’ve checked the archives and your two books but can’t seem to find it. Would you share this recipe again?

Brad Barrie
Strong, Maine

Sure thing, Brad. It’s so easy and we use a lot of cottage cheese.

1 gallon fresh whole milk
1 cup cultured buttermilk
1/4 tsp. liquid rennet or equivalent
1/4 cup cool water

Warm milk to 90 degrees. (I put mine in a large pot, set in the kitchen sink full of hot water.) Mix liquid rennet into cool water. Stir the rennet mixture into milk and let sit for 4-5 hours. Cut the curds in 1/2 inch cubes each way. Let rest for half an hour.

Put the pot on the stove and slowly bring the temperature up to 115 degrees. Hold curds at 115 degrees for 30 minutes. Stir often to keep curds from matting together. After that time, check to see if curds are done by breaking some to see if the center is set or is still custard-like. You may have to cook a little longer if this is the case.

Drain curds into a cheesecloth-lined colander. When drained well, dip bag into warm water to rinse. Drain a few minutes, then rinse with cold water. Drain until it stops dripping — about half an hour.

Add salt to taste. If you want creamed cottage cheese, add cream or milk to achieve the desired consistency. Uncreamed cottage cheese is quite dry. Add chives or fruit for more flavor. — Jackie

Canning bacon

I have read Enola Gay’s article on canned bacon but I have no pressure cooker. I use the old fashion canner when I can so what would be the time for cooking the bacon in the canner? I used it when I can vegetables. Would it be the same timing frame with meats?

Tracey Jones

The article on canned bacon was not mine, but I sure do can bacon. But, sorry, you can’t safely can bacon or any other meat or vegetable in a boiling water bath canner. I know that folks did in the past, and some still do, but it isn’t safe and I can’t recommend it. — Jackie

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This morning I went out to the goat pasture to check our new baby goat and couldn’t find her! I looked in the barn and around the pasture. She wasn’t with her mother. I even looked in the water tank. No goat. Had she gotten carried off by an eagle? A wolf? I was getting scared. Then I looked in the turkey hutches. The first was empty except for shavings. The second held a surprise. There was our baby goat, snuggled down in the shavings, enjoying the sunshine! She looked up at me with that “Who, ME?” look. She thinks Will made those nice little houses just for her. We are hoping she won’t break turkey eggs, though!

Meanwhile, Will has been fencing our new pasture, digging post holes to install a gate where we’ve been driving through with the equipment. It’s such a convenient spot that we decided to keep it. He also went down this morning with the tractor to the spring basin where he’s grading the area around the pond. We’re still hoping to be able to bring in a big track excavator this summer to deepen the pond and enlarge it just a little. But for now it looks much nicer and we still have tons of rock and gravel to use for useful projects around the homestead.

I’m getting ready to do some planting in the garden. We picked rocks yesterday and Will tilled another big strip next to what I had already tilled. Before I plant I wanted to pick the rocks that had turned up after tilling. Now that’s done so I’ve got to get out and plant onions and peas. My, how the spring is flying! In just a week I’ll be off to Colorado for the Self Reliance Expo in Colorado Springs, where I’ll be on a panel entitled “Women of Prepping” (Boy, how I hate that word “prepping!”). I’ll also be speaking on self-reliant living on two days. Then the very next weekend, we’ll be hosting our homesteading seminar, here at home. We’ve had a couple of cancellations, so if you’d like to come, there are still spots for you.

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A few days ago, Will and our friend Eric poured concrete into forms lined with rocks toward the front, to make our decorative walls under the new porch. Not only do they look great (a wonderful backdrop to my new flower bed-to-be) but they also will keep the wind from blowing under the house and thus keep it warmer in the winter. They poured two sections first, then yesterday, Will took the forms off and moved them on down to where the next two pours will be, finishing the job. Eventually, Will is going to go all the way around the house with this type of wall, using the slip-form method when the walls get taller on the downhill side of the house where we have a walk-out basement. The walls won’t support anything, they’ll just look nice and block the wind. This type of construction is great for those of us who have an overabundance of rock as it sure makes the concrete go further!

Our rhubarb is growing huge, so with tons of eggs from our chickens, I’ve been making rhubarb pies lately, using extra egg whites for a mountain-high meringue. Okay, maybe I overdid it, but it sure makes a tasty pie!

The asparagus is also doing great and we’ve been enjoying that, as well. Spring sure is a wonderful time on the homestead!

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Canning peanut butter

Can I can homemade peanut butter? If so and how?

Ann Hazelett
Litchfield Park, Arizona

Sorry, but this is one of those very dense foods that is not safe to home can. You can’t be sure sufficient heat reaches the center of the jar for long enough to safely process. — Jackie

Debarking logs

So my husband and I ever since getting married (3 years ago) have been planning on homesteading. We’ve bought our land close to family and will not be living too far from where you and Will are (we’ll be in Gilbert, Minnesota). My question arose from one of your recent blogs where you showed the progress of your barn. You mentioned that Will ended up debarking the logs by hand. I’ve looked for information about doing this since the round house we intend to build will be using debarked logs from our property. I’ve heard contradicting information from various sources about the debarking process. We intend to use Jack pine, but I can’t find any information online about using Jack pine either. So what did you guys (Will) do to debark the logs? Our plans are to (hopefully) start not this summer but next summer- assuming the military doesn’t deploy my husband right away. My husband and I really enjoy BHM and all the articles. We have lots of future plans based on the information!

Kristy Keller
Daleville, Alabama

Will and I use a drawknife to peel logs, followed by a flap-disc on the angle grinder to smooth off the knots and take the rest of the bark layer off. Jack pine is pretty knotty but then so is spruce, which Will has peeled. Sometimes you can use a bark spud which is kind of like a hoe handle with a small, flat blade on the end. A lot of folks have made peeling spuds from an old car or truck spring, sharpened on the end.

Congratulations on your new homestead! Maybe we’ll meet sometime. Enjoy your exciting future! — Jackie

Making lard

I’m sorry if you’ve already answered this question. I did a search and couldn’t find anything. I rendered lard from our pigs for the first time this week. The leaf lard turned out beautiful and the first batch of the back fat also seemed good. Then I tried to do the last 2/3 of back fat, approximately 7 lbs, in a large cast iron dutch oven. I cut it into ½ inch chunks. It took several hours for the cracklins to get “crackly.” The lard in the quart jars, once cooled, separated. There is a layer on top that looks like dark golden oil, 1-1¼ inches deep. And then the layer that looks like the lard I expected on the bottom.

I’d like to know:
1. Can I still use this? Do I mix it up and use as if it hadn’t separated?

2. What did I do wrong that caused this to happen, so I can avoid a repeat in the future?

Kristine
Conneautville, Pennsylvania

No, I haven’t answered this before. In fact, I’ve never had lard do this before! Are any readers smarter than I am? (I’m sure a lot are!) Perhaps the lard got a little too hot during rendering. I usually grind my pork fat then put it in a turkey roaster in the oven at 250 degrees and just bake until the lard is melted and the cracklin’s are left but not crunchy. Then I pour off the lard and continue baking the cracklin’s until they are crunchy.

How does the odd lard smell? If it smells okay, I’d use that first and use it only in frying, not baking. I think I’d stir up the lard/oil before using. I hope this helps some. — Jackie

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