Hi Jackie-
My question: We had a low water period this summer, & I took to watering the garden (usually watered manually via rain barrels) with “horse spit”- my euphemism for old horse water that Deb changes each time she feeds the critters. With the low rainfall & not wanting to tax the well, I figured, hey, free water!

After using the “HS” water for a few weeks, my cukes went belly up. Now this was in August, & as I haven’t had a real cuke crop in about 10 years, I’m not sure if they were just “done”, or I killed them w/HS. BTW, the rest of the garden fared very well through the HS episode.

Thoughts? & Thanks! You guys have a GREAT mag…
Jack Horan
Mason, NH

You’re safe.  It wasn’t the horse spit in the water that did in your cukes.  Cucumbers produce very well in July, but are about done in August, especially with heat.  To make them last longer, keep them severely picked; if you let a few “yellow boats” mature, the vines think they’re all done.  Also, when it’s very hot and dry, be sure to mulch those cukes.  It cools the roots as well as keeps more moisture on them.  Some varieties produce longer, as well.  I’ve found that pickling cukes seem to quit and go yellow sooner than say the Japanese climbing cucumbers.  But then, I usually make all my whole pickle pickles from picklers and save my long slim cukes for bread and butter type sliced pickels and salad cukes, so it really doesn’t matter in the long run.

The only plants I wouldn’t use “horse spit” on would be greens or others that you eat the plant directly.  There could be bacteria in that water you might not want on the lettuce, for instance.  Probably not, but it is a possibility.  My kids all licked off the horse pasture salt blocks when they were little and they’re all still alive! — Jackie

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Today I canned up more apples from the bags that my sister, Deb, brought us from Michigan when she was up for a visit.  Then I got started on doing up the very last of our tomatoes from the garden.  We’d carefully picked them green, very green, and hauled them in to the new greenhouse in boxes, baskets and buckets.

I’ve been canning them up since late September, when we picked them, using them in spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce for pizza, chili, salsas, etc.  But these last ones, I just canned up as plain old tomatoes because sometimes we just like to have a jar of tomatoes with dinner or I need them for a recipe.

David is still deer hunting; he hasn’t seen a live deer when he’s been hunting, since opening morning.  He has a few days and a long weekend coming up, so I’m trying to finish up my canning, IN CASE he gets lucky and brings home a deer.  Canning up a whole deer is quite a job and you need plenty of space, time and room to work.  So I’m making myself a little window for the “possibility”.

It’s funny because I see deer every day here on our place, including bucks and he’s driving all the way to Bill’s place to hunt with the “big guys”.  With the gas money, we could have bought a side of prime Angus beef!!!!  Oh well, it’s male bonding and fun besides.  And maybe, just maybe, he will see a deer.  Shooting it isn’t so much the problem; David usually hits what he aim at.  He’s been shooting since he was five.

So here I am canning away and all of a sudden it’s chore time and getting dark already.  I grab my jacket and head for the goat barn/chicken coop.  I threw grain to the poultry and goats, then took a can in to the donkeys.  They don’t need any and don’t get much; just a treat so I get to handle them some twice a day as part of their taming process.

I was coming out of the donkey pen when I saw a pure white chubby face pop through the door by my foot.  Then a foot of white with a black tipped tail followed.  WEASEL!!!  I grabbed a hammer and threw it at it.  Missed.  Then a 2″x6″.  Big miss.  It ignored me and ran up the wall like a squirrel, popped into the chicken coop.

Now long ago I had a weasel squeeze through a knothole in my chicken coop and slaughter 33 fancy chickens and pheasants, along with 12 pairs of pedigreed rabbits.  So I’m a LITTLE prejudiced against weasels, who sometimes kill, then go amock, slaughtering everything in reach when they could in no way eat it.

I ran (and I do mean RAN) to the house for the .22.  At first I couldn’t remember where it was, then I did.  Was it loaded?  David had it out target shooting last….  I quickly pulled the clip.  Yep.  Bullets.  When I walked quickly out the door, I could hear chickens squawking and thought the worst.  I took the safety off at the chicken coop door and looked around, hurridly figuring where I could safely shoot; donkeys? goats?……

And there he was, on the floor in the far corner.  He’d taken an egg out of the nest box and was rolling it around, trying to break it.  I didn’t even know weasels ATE eggs!  He won’t be eating any more.  Whew!

My hens sure looked around when they went to roost half an hour later.  They did not like having that weasel in their coop.  They knew it was dangerous.  A tiny animal, for sure, weighing maybe 6 ounces, but I have had first hand experience on just how dangerous they are to small animals and poultry.  Just another day in the northern backwoods.

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Hi Jackie, could you possibly pass on your favorite deer meat recipe for chili and stew??? I’m going to attempt to work on my frozen leg of deer this weekend, and I’d love to try your recipes. I’d like to can it as well, so processing times would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for always answering my many questions.

Andrea Del Gardo
Myrtle Beach, SC

Sure Andrea, I’ll give you a recipe but I’ll warn you that I’m NOT a recipe cook; I add this and that and taste it along the way until it’s right. But these recipes will put you in the ball park. Unless you have a meat grinder made for grinding fresh meat (NOT the little “meat grinders” people have in their kitchen drawer), your chili will be chunky chili and that’s pretty good. If you do have a larger meat grinder and want to make burger chili, here’s a hint: meat grinds and cuts much better when it is still partly frozen; not hard but with ice crystals still in it.

CHILI

5 pounds ground or diced venison
2 C chopped onions
1 clove garlic, minced
12 C canned tomatoes with juice
3 C dry or canned kidney beans
1/2 C chili powder (as hot as you like it)
1 1/2Tbsp salt]
1 hot red pepper, chopped or ground fine (I like chipotle because of the smoky rich taste)

If using dry beans, rinse beans, put in twice as much water as beans in a large stock pot and bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes, then let stand, covered for 2 hours. If using canned beans, proceed at once.

Brown meat in a large heavy pot. Drain off excess fat, if any. Add onions and garlic and stir while cooking until they are tender. Add remaining ingredients, including drained beans. (Note: if you like less acidic chili, add brown sugar to taste.) Ladle hot chili into hot jars leaving 1 inch headroom. Wipe rim clean, place previously simmered lid on jar and screw down ring firmly tight. Process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. If you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet, consult your canning manual for directions in increasing your pressure to suit your altitude, if necessary.

VENISON STEW

5 pounds cubed stew meat, cut into 1″ pieces
1 Tbsp oil
3 quarts cubed peeled potatoes
2 quarts sliced or chunk carrots
3C chopped celery
3 C chopped onions
2 quarts tomato sauce (optional)
1 1/2 Tbp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
spices to taste

Brown meat in oil. Combine meat, vegetables and seasonings in a large saucepot and cover with either water or tomato sauce. Bring to a boil; do not boil further. Ladle hot stew into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headroom. Remove any air bubbles. Wipe rim of jar clean, place hot, previously simmered lid on jar and screw down ring firmly tight. Process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. (See altitude information above.)

If the “deer leg” you have is a shoulder, it should give you enough for either one of these recipes. Not quite enough? Just use less meat or round out the amount with beef. If it is a hind quarter, you’ll have much more meat; enough to make a batch of each, or either doubled. The best of luck! — Jackie

Jackie,
Just letting you know we took your advice and canned meat with GREAT success. Easy, just like you said it would be and we had great results. Thanks for the encouragment.

katherine carter
coeur d alene, ID 83814

I’m so glad you had good luck with your first attempt at canning meat.  I wish everyone knew what we know!  Everyone loves my canned meat, especially venison! — Jackie

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I’ve been a little busier than usual these last three days. David went down to hunt with his brother, Bill, and his friends near Oak Lake. And he came back Monday with 180 pounds of venison, in quarters, in the trunk of his new-to-him car. Luckily, Bill has huge, heavy duty contractors’ bags, so the trunk didn’t get all nasty.

No. It wasn’t David’s buck this time. Bill’s friend, Andy, had shot a big nine pointer. Of course he wanted the antlers, but they had just butchered a steer and are hunting an area where you are allowed 5 deer. Five deer! Mostly, Andy wants to continue to hunt and doesn’t need the meat, so he sent his deer up to me. Thanks Andy!!!

And not one to look a gift deer in the mouth, I set about cutting it up the day after I got it. I’m a little slow and a lot picky. So I can only do about a quarter of a deer a day, including canning it up. The first day I did a hind quarter and the back straps. I made a big batch of jerky out of that batch so that I could get it dehydrated in time to send some back to Andy and the “boys” at hunting camp this weekend. (All Andy wanted from his deer was a “quart jar full of jerky”.) I made terriyaki jerky this time. And I used a backstrap and some nice rump meat, sliced across the grain to make it tender. I don’t use poor cuts for my jerky!

I had three pans in front of me when I cut; one for stew meat and roasting chunks, one for jerky slices and one for yucky parts.

To make my jerky, I used 1 c soy sauce, 1 Tsp garlic powder, 1 Tsp onion powder, 1 Tbsp sesame seeds, 1/2 c brown sugar, mixed well. I poured this over my meat, which I had sliced about 1/4″ thick. Then I mixed it well and covered it and let it sit in the fridge all afternoon. You can leave it overnight, but my generator only runs at night so I needed to use my dehydrator then.

I lifted one piece at a time out of the bowl when I was ready, letting it drip well. Then I spread them in a single layer on the dehydrator trays, stacking the trays until it was all ready. I plugged in the dehydrator and let it dry all evening. It was almost ready that night, but I took the whole works out on our unheated porch for the night and next day and brought it in the next night to finish up. Of course when it was done I let David be my taste tester. He gave it a 2 thumbs up, then I tried a piece. Not bad. If I get to eat any more!

I did the third leg, a front shoulder tonight and canned that all up as stew meat, which is what I use most. David has a karate tournament tomorrow morning and we will be driving down to meet him. He went down tonight so he can hunt with the “big boys” tomorrow morning. So we’re having a full weekend! But with an inch or two of snow on the ground, we know that winter is just around the corner and are getting in as much as we can. Things are kind of seasonal here; I don’t like driving far with my 91 year old mother in the car.

I’ll finish up the rest of the deer tomorrow night. It looks so nice lined up on my pantry shelves in the basement. Now if David could just get his deer…… With Mom, me hunting this year is out of the question; she can’t be left alone that long. But like all things, we’ve learned to adjust.

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My Christmas/Birthday present to me is something I’ve wanted for a very long time.  A Friesian.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with breeds of horses, a Friesian is a big, exciting black horse with a huge long mane and tail, prancing gait and beautiful feathers (long hair) on it’s feet.  Friesians are a Dutch breed, going back to medieval times and even before that.  They are a powerful breed, but also very nimble and light on their feet.  Perhaps you’ve seen one in the movies and didn’t realize it.  A Friesian was the hero’s mount in Ladyhawke and The Mask of Zorro.

I’ll be making payments on my baby Friesian filly all winter and get her home in the early spring, after she’s weaned.

All of my horses are aged geldings, the youngest 18 in the spring, so I was hoping for a baby to raise.  And I found her on the Internet of all places!!!

Purebred Friesians are very expensive, often $10,000 or more.  I can’t afford that.  But the filly I fell in love with is a Frieisan Sport Horse; a nice term for a crossbred.  She looks Friesian, with a coal black coat, big eye and dainty muzzle.  And she’ll find an appreciative home here in the Minnesota northwoods.

So now I’m thinking baby horse thoughts and have gotten out my good old planning notebooks and am sketching a training ring, small one-horse horse barn and a tack storage room.  I can hardly wait to start.  David has already got the area over half cleared.  It’s all nice sand, so it’ll be perfect.  No mud puddles or rocks.

Not only will I be training Ladyhawk to ride but also to drive and pull.  If the price of gas keeps going up, we may need a good driving horse!!!

Readers’ questions:

Moldy spaghetti sauce

I have a question for you about canning. I canned homemade spaghetti sauce and used the hot water bath method for 20 minutes. All the jars sealed and were stored in the basement. A few weeks later, I went to get a jar and found white mold inside some of the jars and they were still sealed. Can you tell me what causes this? A friend had the same thing happen once, too.

Tom Doering

Sorry Tom.  I hate to have home canners have failures.  It’s really so sad.  Your spaghetti sauce got moldy because you didn’t process it long enough to kill mold spores.  You did process it long enough for the jars to seal, but each food has a certain time length necessary for safe storage.  In this case, you need to process your spaghetti sauce (provided you did not add meat!) for 40 minutes for quarts (which most spaghetti sauce is canned in), or 35 minutes for pints.  Unfortunately, you processed it for only 20 minutes.  Such a hard lesson.  I’ve had ‘em myself.

Also, always count your time from when your canner returns to a full rolling boil.  That gets a lot of new home canners; they just start counting time from when they put the jars into the boiling water bath.  No matter how hot the sauce is when you ladle it into the jars, it quickly loses heat and when you put the jars into the canner it takes awhile for it to return to a full rolling boil again. — Jackie

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There was so much frost on the vehicles this morning when David left for school that he came in and grabbed the digital camera to take a picture. It was in the teens and felt very frosty indeed. We’ve been keeping a fire in our wood kitchen range nearly every day for about a month now, but when we saw that thick frost, we knew it was time to get busy and split wood in earnest.

David had hauled about 5 cords of leftover slash from logging operations nearby this spring. And he brought about 3 more truckloads of firewood from his karate instructor’s house, where he helped saw up down and dead trees. In addition, all summer, we’ve been adding to the pile as we cleared pieces on our land, cut downed trees on the mile long trail to our place and found a tree on the fence. It all adds up and there’s a nice big pile of wood out there. Unfortunately, most of it needs splitting to be useable in the stove.

We are buying a tractor mount wood splitter from my oldest son, Bill, but both the tractor (needing repairs) and the splitter are three hours south of us.

So we’re doing it the old fashioned way for now. With an axe. We’ve got a splitting maul, which we do use. But the axe splits quicker with less backache. I can’t do marathon splitting anymore. I split a few rounds, gather them up and take them into the house, rest, then go do it again until the wood box is full. Or the trailer is full to take around the house to the porch. I’ve learned to pace myself. It takes longer, but it gets done just the same.

Of course things speed up when David can spend time home. That young man can split a truck load in the time it takes me to split a couple of trailer loads of wood. But being a young man, he’s got plenty that takes him away from the homestead; school, sports, youth group, fun with friends, etc.

So I just keep pecking away at that huge pile, which doesn’t seem to get any smaller. (Is it having babies????) Pretty soon, the tractor and wood splitter will be coming home and we’ll go at it warp speed. But for now, it’s just a middle aged woman whacking away at that firewood with an axe. Hey, it works!

Readers’ questions:

Canning ground meat

Hi, Jackie!
You may have mentioned it in the past (I’ve only been a subscriber for less than a year) but I wanted to know how to can Ground Meat. Particularly beef, but also venison, wild hog, goat, etc. I use it a lot with a large family, and don’t like it that I rely solely on the freezer for my supply. I’d like to have it canned and on my shelf for when the electricity goes off. (Happens here a good bit.)Also – does it taste any different from freshly browned ground meat? Should I go ahead and season it? That is, I could put Italian seasoning/onions/garlic on some and Taco seasoning/onions on some, etc. if it works better to be seasoned first. We’re basically at sea level here, so any pressure canning directions would need to be for that.
Many thanks,

Sarah Axsom
Natchitoches, LA

Ground meat is very easy to can and is very handy in a whole lot of recipes. I have a whole lot of ground meat and stewing meat on my pantry shelves to use in recipes throughout the year.  All you do is brown the meat and pack it hot into hot jars to within an inch of the top of the jars.  You can season it, but don’t use too much and don’t use sage as it gets bitter when canned.  You can always use more later on, to spice it up to your taste if it needs more when you use it.

Ground meat is processed at 10 pounds pressure for 75 minutes for pints and half pints, which is probably the amount you’d use in most recipes.  Be sure to wipe any grease off the rims of the jars before you put the lids in place; grease can prevent lids from sealing.

I use canned (and seasoned) ground meat as taco filling, sloppy joe mix, with mushrooms and also in mixed recipes, such as chili, spaghetti sauce etc.  The taste in recipes is about the same as when you use it fresh.  But when heated “plain” it has a texture more like meatloaf, so hamburger patties aren’t so hot.  I DO make a lot of different meatballs and these are really handy.  Just make the meatballs small enough to be handy in the jars, mix them the way you like and then gently fry them till they’re lightly browned.  I’ve canned them with my own Italian tomato sauce and with a mix of cream of mushroom soup and a little water in the pan juice.  Both are excellent.

You are wise to begin canning up some ground meat.  Not only is it good for just about eternity, but power outages and other emergencies don’t affect the quality or availability of the food.  This I like!  Besides, it’s just so handy. — Jackie

Making laundry soap

i want to make my own laundry detergent- all things i have found calls for fel’s nappa soap- i make my own bathing soap- would this be the same?- or is there a recipe that you would have for fel’s nappa soap that i could make?-if you could just tell me what fel’s nappa soap is and why it is need to be used- thank you so much- i love the magazine and your column- thank you

sharon woodmancy
marshall, il

To make laundry soap (NOT detergent, much better!!), just make a batch of good old lye soap.  Yes, I know lye is a little hard to get right now because some morons are using it in making meth.  Yish!!  But you can still find it if you look; try Lehman’s Hardware.

I just use an old cheese grater and grate a bar of soap into a bowl.  Then I pour boiling water over it and let it sit for about an hour.  It’s then good to go.  When I didn’t have running water and heated my wash water on the kitchen range, it was nearly boiling when I put it into the wringer washer.  Then you could skip the soaking in boiling water step; it would dissolve very nicely in the first load of nearly-boiling water, which made the whites very white without bleach.

When you make a regular batch of lye soap, you’ll get enough bars to do many, many loads of laundry; more if you use a wringer washer as you don’t throw away barely used laundry soap.  It has more life than doing just a load of undies and towels!!!  One small bar will wash the former, as well as your shirts, bedding and jeans.  And you’ll save water too! — Jackie

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