We’re having more typical fall weather.  Finally!  It only rains every other day now, but the temps are falling with the leaves.  And because it’s been cooler in the new greenhouse, the tomatoes slowed down in their ripening.  But now we’ve got the insulation in and most of the log siding, so it’s quickly warmed up out there.

And BANG!  Boy do I ever have ripe tomatoes.  Yesterday, I spent two hours peeling and quartering a five gallon bucket of ripe tomatoes.  My last batch of chili turned out so good I just had to make more.  It’s so handy to just dump out a jar and have a tasty lunch.  I know the chili was good because one jar didn’t seal and I had to refrigerate it.  So we just HAD to eat it up.  Gee whiz.

I simmered the tomatoes in my big roasting pan, plus another smaller one, all night in the oven to cook it down some.  Those tomatoes were really juicy for picked-green ones.

I also set five cups of red kidney beans on to soak for the night.

This morning, I dumped the tomatoes into my second largest stew kettle, diced some green peppers, onions and a couple medium hot chiles into the mix, drained the beans and added them, then some brown sugar to taste, a few more spices and let it simmer until it was just right.  I taste as I go; if it needs this or that, I just add it.  I am NOT a recipe cook.  It drives my mother nuts because everything she used to make was by the book.   I see her cringe every time I make something, dumping in this and that.  Oh well, I’ve always been her wild child.

When it was well cooked together and as tasty as it should be, I ladled it up into quart jars and canned it at 11 pounds (we’re at 1,400 feet above sea level and I need to increase my pressure to match the altitude) for 90 minutes.  I had a nice canner full and they all canned up nicely.

Tomorrow I’ll check the seals again, wash the jars (which usually get a little gooky during processing), remove the rings and store them down in my lovely getting-full pantry.  Wow!  it’s so good to have so many things down there to choose from.

Now, on to the apples!  Isn’t life great this time of the year????  We love the colors, the crisp wind and the FOOD!!

Readers’ questions: 

Goat milk lotion

Dear Jackie,
We make most of the soap we use for ourselves and laundry from goat’s milk. I was wondering if you had a recipe for goat milk lotion? Also, do you need to freeze the milk for that as you do for soap? Thanks.

Donna Leach

I don’t make lotion; it seems that there’s never enough time.  I do have a recipe for you to try.  Let me know how you like it.  No.  You don’t need to freeze the milk first.

1/8 tsp borax
1/4 cup cold goat’s milk
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 Tbsp beeswax
1/2 cup aloe vera gel
1 tsp vitamin E oil

Bring borax and milk to scalding.  Remove from heat.  Melt coconut oil and beeswax together and slowly add to the borax/milk and mix with a whisk.  Add vitamin E oil and cool to room temperature.  Add aloe vera to the cooled lotion and whiskll one final time. — Jackie

Clearing land 

Hi Jackie;
I recently paid off 50 acres of property in North East Itasca county MN. I am planning to move there. Im 53 and a pipefitter, so I work in different states frequently. Not being able to get there as often as i would like, its a never ending battle to try and get it cleared. Im using a chain saw and a bush axe. I dont really want Blandin paper coming in and tearing everything up. Was wondering if you thought a bulldozier would be best or if you know a way I could do this myself? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks,

Matt Treusch
Walkerton, IN

I hear you Matt; we want to do so much and sometimes it IS a struggle when we have so little time.  I think the thing that’s the most important is to realize that it’s going to be  process, not something that happens right away.  What we did was to first clear off a building site with enough room around it to make it easier to get equipment and supplies in.  We didn’t clear cut it but still made enough of a “hole” for ease of working.

We did this with a truck, chain, chainsaw and axe.  Later on, we used my son and his father in-law’s help with their bulldozers to grade and backfill the basement.

Yes, a bulldozer will be a lot of help, but there are a few disadvantages, too, as there is with anything.  First, they tend to leave heaps of roots/dirt/rock/logs if you aren’t real careful.  We work any clearing carefully, back and forth, knocking out the dirt, crushing the rotten wood into the ground and leaving only dry stumps, brush and rotten logs in smaller piles in the open to burn when it’s safe to do so.  A good operator will do this for you, but a poor one will only shove dirt and all into huge piles that will not burn entirely and you[’ll be left with “ugly” for a long time.

We pull a lot of smaller trees with the tractor, truck or the dozer we just bought.  Then there isn’t a stump to contend with or roots left to send up suckers later on.

What we have done is to clear small areas completely, then run trails here and there to make hauling logs and firewood easier as we can get in with the pickup then.  And from the trails, we gradually widen them and in the future, they’ll meet up.

I want toleave the big woods a big woods, only making a few small trails to get in and cut dead and down trees.  We are careful to leave a few dead standing trees as wildlife habitat; the small critters and birds need homes too.

My son, David, and I are in the process of clearing the small poppler out of our 10 acre horse pasture so the grass will fill in.  they need the grazing and the grass doesn’t do well in the shade.  As we pull/cut trees, we take out everything that can be used for firewood and cut that up.  When we work in the big woods, we cut first the sizeable saw logs, then make firewood of the rest of the tree.  The logs, we’ll be stacking up to cut for lumber later on; it’s amazing how much of your own lumber you can have in that small stand of woods!

We have a lot of blow-down that’s uprooted and is still very good for lumber, so that’s actually a bonus on our homestead with very few outbuildings (yet!).

It’ taken us 3 years to get a little bit cleared but we’re not working at it all the time; there are other priorities.  But it’s better all the time and I’m always amazed at how far we’ve come.

Keep pecking away at it; it’ll get better when you can spend some concentrated time on your land.  Good luck with your homestead! — Jackie

Because we were in drought all summer and had been since LAST summer, everyone I knew was wishing desperately for rain. “Oh, if it would JUST rain!!!” Last fall, we went into the winter with our creek bed dry and cracked. In fact, David and I had run the four wheeler and trailer up and
down, sawing up the downed trees across and in the creek, to clean it up for canoe travel and to let it flow with less plugging up.

A few weeks ago, it started raining. We rejoiced! And then it didn’t stop. Because winter’s just around the corner, we’ve got a whole lot of
pre-winter projects to get done; firewood split and hauled (dry!) onto the new porch, goat square bales hauled and stacked, manure hauled and tilled into the garden soil, lumber sorted and stacked, sand hauled onto our pot holes on the mile long drive. You get the picture. All of these require a few days of dry weather.

And we haven’t had it. Rain, rain, and more rain. This morning early it started raining again, and it rained hard all day. The rain gauge read
51/2 inches at five o’clock tonight, then it started raining very hard. We’re supposed to get another 5 inches tonight! Unbelievable. All the
rivers are over their banks, our little creek is big and the beaver ponds are running over the dams. The goats pout when they have to come outside to eat their grain in the yucky muck of their yard. The donkeys wrinkle their noses at the pouring rain and the horses have quit playing and rolling in the mud. It’s not fun any more. The only ones that are enjoying the rain are the ducks.

But the good thing is that I’m getting caught up on my canning. Our carpenter friend Tom has been over and our new greenhouse porch is now insulated and mostly paneled with log siding. So it’s warm in there and the tomatoes are ripening like gangbusters. A few have rotted, but that’s part of the game. Most are nicely red and not going bad, so I’ll make a few more big batches of tomato sauce and chili and that’ll be that for this year.

And by the weekend, I’ll start canning up the apples my sister brought from Michigan. All those apple pies, strudels, coffee cakes and other goodies make a few days’ work very worth it! Apples are so easy to can; you just peel, slice, pack and waterbath.

Yes, I appreciate the in-house time. But I’ve quit wishing it would rain!

Readers’ questions:

How do I harvest pine nuts?

James B Wright
Wyandotte, MI

I hope you are planning on a trip to the southwest.  The only pine nuts I’m familiar with are the ones from the pinyon pine, which only grows there and in California.  The pines you have in Michigan do not produce large seeds or “nuts”, nor do they taste good…..unless you are a bird or pine squirrel!

To harvest pine nuts or “pinyons”, most folks spread tarps or sheets under the tree when the cones are open, but still holding the nuts.  Then with poles, you whack the cones and shake the nuts out, which fall to the ground and land on your collection sheets.  Full cones usually cling to the tree, but if some fall you can toss them up and down in a wide basket, shaking out the nuts.

The nuts are cleaned of debris and roasted gently.  You can do this in your oven at a low temperature, spread out on a cookie sheet. — Jackie

Sulfur bug repellent and water purification 

I just read your column in the Nov/Dec 2007 issue, and have two comments in response to questions you addressed. First, I enjoy your column and it is the second I read in every issue. My wife reads it first, but I read Jeff Yago’s first, sorry. Regarding using sulphur, floured sulphur, as an insect repellent. When I was young we lived in Southern Arizona and Southern Texas, and were plagued by ticks and fleas. Our dogs were medium sized, about 50-65 lbs., and we gave them about 1`/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of floured sulphur THOROUGHLY mixed into their food once a day. Our dogs never had fleas nor ticks. Experiment to get right dose for your dog. Too much makes them and their droppings smell terrible, so reduce it enough that the ticks stay off, but they don’t smell too bad. I don’t know if just rubbing sulphur flour on would help or not, seems it would fall/wash off. Hope this helps. Secondly, regarding storage of water and food in vehicles in “72 hour kits”. In my experience milk jugs deteriorate very quickly, especially in high heat or wide temperature fluctuations. It is much better to use the two litre sodapop bottles, they are stronger and last much longer. But why have a “72 hour kit”? The experiences of recent events, such as Gulf coast hurricanes, our forest fires here and as highlighted in the “Lessons Learned in an Ice Storm” article, clearly show that 72 hours is just not enough. People should store at a minimum two weeks of emergency supplies, and one month is better. Water is going to be the bulkiest and heaviest item to store. Investing in a quality backpacker style water filter is cheap in a crises. Really, the difference between 72 hrs. and one month is not very much in terms of space taken up or expense, and becomes invaluable if/when it actually has to be relied upon in an emergency. Even if people evacuate to relatives or friends homes! during a crises, it’s so nice to be able to provide something toward your own support, it’s a huge morale boost at a time when it’s most needed.

Edward D. Dowdle
Show Low, AZ

Regarding the sulfer question; the reader wanted the repellent for himself, not his pets, so I don’t know about the dosage here.  But maybe he can figure it our from your amount for your dogs.  (what size dogs did you have?)

Yes, milk jugs do deteriorate, but I’ve kept them in my vehicles during the hottest summer (although not Arizona, but New Mexico’s high plains) and they’ve lasted a couple of years.  When they get beat up and flimsy I get new ones.  A couple of gallons of water will be better than a couple of liters because like I said, I’ve often had to use them for overheated radiators in a pinch, like when I’ve blown a hose, taped it up with duct tape and am limping to “civilization” and a garage.  I really haven’t had them go bad quickly, but maybe my jugs were “better”?

Yes, more emergency supplies are better, but most folks do well to have a 72 hour grab and git kit, just for “immediate” use.  Hopefully, they have more supplies at home.  I try to keep a two year supply on hand of most things and really, really hope that readers are still trying to keep at least a year’s worth on hand.  From these, you can run home, load up what you need and head out in a matter of a half an hour and get REALLY prepared for evacuation out of the area in case of fire, hurricane or whatever.

A 72 hour kit is meant to fit in a large backpack, and much more is just too heavy and bulky for most folks to lug over a great distance.

I totally agree on the water filter.  It is a very good addition to anyone’s emergency supplies.  But don’t forget that simply filtering water through a cloth and boiling it will render water drinkable too.  But a water filter is quicker and more handy. — Jackie

What to do with turnips? 

Jackie, I’m a long time fan. I’ve read your articles in BHM (and other publications) for years. I need some advice. I’ve got a BUMPER crop of purple top turnips and I have no idea what to do with them. Can you help? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank You,

John Vansant
Kansas City, Missouri

Lucky you!  It seems to be a good year for root crops.  Turnips are easily stored in a cool corner of a dark basement.  Just pull them, cut off all but an inch of the tops and bring them inside.  (If you have a root cellar, better yet!)  Pile them in shallow piles, not over a few layers deep.  If they are mounded high, the bottom and center ones may try to heat and spoil, something like your compost pile.  Don’t wash them or cut off the roots.  They usually will store all winter and then some.

You can also can or dehydrate them with good success if you want to keep them even longer.  Despite the advice to the contrary in canning manuals, which refer to them as “strong tasting” when canned, I’ve found that they are perfectly fine.  I just don’t use the canning water to reheat them for eating, but instead use fresh water.  Turnips are preboiled 3 minutes, then packed into pint or half pint jars to within an inch of the top.  Ladle the cooking liquid over them to within an inch of the top of the jar and process in a pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure for 30 minutes.  Check your canning manual if you live at an altitude over 1,000 feet for directions on adjusting your pressure.

Turnips are very versatile.  You can even grate them in salads; they taste kind of like cabbage.  You can eat them sliced or diced and boiled.  Or even mash them; think “potatoes”.  I use them in stews, pasties, soups, casseroles and other mixed dishes.  And I like them peeled, sliced raw.  They’re better than radishes!

Good luck with your bounty. — Jackie