Well it feels like spring.  Today it was 43 degrees and melting snow like crazy.  I had transplanted peppers all afternoon in the sunshine, in the greenhouse.  When David got home from school, he hooked the plow onto the truck (which just got back from the Ford garage, having a fuel pump put on), and spent half an hour plowing slush off our mile long driveway.  But he was having too much fun, and the drive was cleared.

So he hopped on the bulldozer, which had sat idle most of the winter because the starter wouldn’t turn over.  Bingo!  First crank over and it fired right up.  You should have seen that smile!  He let it warm up well, then took it down to my new horse training ring-in-progress and started shoving snow off it.
 
"Yes!" he exclaimed, "my huge Tonka toy!"  It was nearly dark when he brought it back up to the parking spot, the snow nicely shoved way off the ring so that the sun will dry it off so we can grade it earlier.

 
In the meantime, I helped Tom get three patio door windows into the house, where he could take off the rotten frames.  We’re using them vertically on the south wall of the enclose porch, next to the greenhouse.  That way we’ll have a huge view, plus plenty of solar gain.  And I can use the porch later on this spring for additional plant growing room.  I’ll sure need it.  Boy have I ever got the little plants!  But I’ve got the aphids back, too.  No more soap for them; I’m dusting with rotenone powder tomorrow.  Those little bugs can kill baby tomato and pepper plants in short order.  I can’t take a chance; the plants are just too nice to gamble with.
 

Readers’ questions:

Bologna canning disaster

I made canned bologna using your recipe found here…

http://www.backwoodshome.com/advice/aj80.html

I’ve raw packed many meats before, but with the bologna I had my first canning disaster. All but 3 jars sealed. I’m sure it had to do with the not enough head space, but I also did some further digging and found this

http://www.backwoodshome.com/advice/aj90.html about exhausting first in the water bath (I did exhaust the pressure canner correctly.) Any hints to make this go better next time? In the recipe you call for 1 lb of tender quick for 25 lbs of meat. Is that correct? It is a lot more than many of the baked bologna recipes call for. Also I did use any saltpeter and did add some onion powder. The flavor and texture turned out great but a little on the salty side.

Dan Kenny
Independence, Ohio

When canning meat, especially dense meat, such as bologna, be sure to allow at least 1" of headroom at the top of the jar.  You should place your opened jars of meat in a roasting pan filled with enough water to come up to the shoulder of the jars, but not enough to boil into the jars.  Then simmer the pan on a stovetop until the center of the meat in the center of the pan is hot all the way through.  In this way, when you seal the jars and put them into a hot canner, they will all heat thoroughly during processing.  If you do not "exhaust" or pre-heat the meat in the jars, some of the denser meat might not reach a high enough temperarature for long enough to ensure safe processing.
 
If your recipe was a little too salty for you, you can reduce the Tenderquick to 3/4 of a pound per 25 pounds of meat.  You don’t have to add saltpeter to the recipe.  Remember that Tenderquick not only contains salt, but also sugar and other ingredients.
 
This recipe for bologna is an old Amish recipe that I’ve used many times and it’s always worked for me. — Jackie

More on beans

Hi Jackie,Sorry I didn’t give better directions. I cook a pound of beans at a time so I just add a teaspoon of ginger to my beans. So just add a teaspoon for each pound but not over a tablespoon unless you are cooking 5lbs.or more because you will taste the ginger and not the beans. Just add it to the pot or jar as you heat the beans up or when you add a jar to the pan to bake. You only add the ginger as you cook from scrach ann then eat. Or if you are canning only add when you empty the jar to finish cooking. Otherwise the ginger will lose its effect in the jars.

Brenda Jarrell
Varnville, South Carolina

Thanks for the information; I’ll sure give it a try.  (Who likes the natural effects beans provide?)  Besides, ginger is good for you, too! — Jackie

After dehydrating, what next?

I have read the articles in your magazine (and in other books and magazines) regarding dehydrating vegetables and i do understand the concept. As a matter of fact, Cabellas offers several dehydrators
in different sizes. My question is, after vegetables are dehydrated, what next? (i saw that dry tomatoes and onions can be ground up and used as a powder, which i also understand, but what does one do with green beans, potatoes, peas and the like? how does one rehydrate them? How does one cook them or prepare them so they are not raw potatoe chips–or bean chips (in essence) or something?

Most vegetables and fruits are simply rehydrated and then eaten or cooked.  You can easily rehydrate them by just adding water and letting them plump back up.  With vegetables, which are harder, you can pour boiling water over them, then let them stand until they plump back up.  Or just dump a handful into a soup or stew; they return to "normal" as they cook.  Once the vegetables are normal, you can just simmer them until they are tender.  You’ll hardly know they weren’t fresh, to start with.
 
For instance, I’d much rather eat dehydrated peas than canned ones.  They taste much fresher and less "mushy".
 
Dehydratating is fun, easy, and it gives you a whole different dimension in your food storage.  And it takes up so little space to store the food, too!  Give it a try; you’ll love it. — Jackie

Egg storage method

I recently stumbled across a depression era method of keeping eggs over a long period of time.
"TO KEEP EGGS: To four quarts air-slacked lime, put two tablespoonfuls cream tartar, two of salt, and four quarts cold water. Put fresh eggs into a stone jar, and pour this mixture over them. This will keep nine dozen eggs, and if fresh when laid down, they will keep many months. If the water settles away, so as to leave the upper layer uncovered, add more water. Cover close, and keep in a cool place" My question being, before I try this method have you ever heard storing eggs in this way??

Nathan Yoder
LaGrange, Indiana

No.  To tell the truth, I’ve never heard of this method of storing eggs.  Let me know how it turns out! — Jackie

Going to Jackie’s house

This is just a comment I would like to send to Jackie. If there is one place I’d like to visit is, well your house when you’re canning. Why? Cause it would probably beat going to Disney world, I’d learn something valuable and I subscribed to the magazine just to read your articles

Thanks for the kind words.  You’d be welcome at my house too.  And I’m canning most every week; it’s an ongoing process that sometimes I don’t even think about.  Tomorrow I’m doing up a batch of spit pea soup. — Jackie

Stewing a rooster

I started keeping chickens last year and one of my roosters got nasty with my daughter so we butcherd him. He was 20 months old so I know I need to stew him, but the only recipie I could find that called for stewing chicken was a coqavin recipie that takes 5 days to prepare. Do you have a recipe that perhaps takes only 1 or 2 days?

Tracey Morris
Salinas, California

Holy mackerel!  FIVE DAYS????  I’d never eat a stewing chicken again; I’m too lazy.  All you’ve got to do is cut up your chicken, put it in a large, heavy pot, add water to cover and spices to your taste, then put the lid on.  Simmer it on low temperature until the meat is falling off the bones.  A crock pot works well for this, or my Dutch oven, on top of my wood range.  Cool the whole thing down until you can handle the meat without getting hot hands.  Pick the meat off the bones, discard the bones, skin and yucky stuff.  Cut up the meat as you like.  Put the meat back in the pot of broth and let cool until the grease rises.  Skim as much of it off as you want.  Then heat it back up.  I usually mix up a batch of biscuit dough and layer biscuits on top of the broth/meat pieces.  If you want more "dumplings", put the lid back on and simmer until they’re nice and fluffy/done.  If you want "biscuits", bake in the oven with the lid off.  Either way it’s darned great eating! — Jackie

 
Yesterday I kept at the transplanting in the greenhouse, getting over 100 baby tomatoes transplanted.  The weather’s warming up and the sun on the greenhouse is heating the entire house all day now.  That’s a pleasant change from burning all that hard-earned wood in my kitchen range.  Mom likes to sit out there, absorbing the sun and watching me work with the plants.
 
It’s not an easy job, taking care of an elderly parent who is also handicapped.  Mom can be quite demanding and requires nearly constant attention.  So working with the plants is good for us both.
 
I just got an e-mail from Tessa Gowans, the seed curator at SEED DREAMS (P.O. Box 106, Port Townsend, WA  98368), and they DO have lots of Hopi Pale Grey squash.  But she asked that readers please send a little cash to help with their expenses of printing and mailing their seed list.  They are a homegrown seed supplier and not a mega corporation.  Help ‘em out if you can.
 
We had fantastic northern lights last night.  I mean jaw-dropping, knock you dead northern lights.  They were weaving ribbons of light, accompanied by huge flashes of light in the clear sky, kind of like heat lightening only more so.  They went on and on for hours and it was a truly amazing show.  One more reason we love it here in the northern backwoods!

Readers’ questions:

Adding ginger to beans

Did you know that if you add a teaspoon of ginger to your beans you can get rid of the gas they produce.Just add the ginger when you heat the beans.I use powdered ginger so there is no change in taste.

Brenda Jarrell
Varnville, South Carolina

Good deal, Brenda.  A tsp of powdered ginger to how many beans?  I seldom make a meal’s worth but make a big batch and can most of them up. — Jackie

Hopi pale grey seeds

I tryed the email address you said gowantseeds@yahoo.com. They say they don’t have an account with yahoo so if you have a few extra hopi pale grey seeds left over would you send to me.

Brenda Jarrell
Varnville, South Carolina

I e-mailed Tessa Gowans at gowantoseed@yahoo.com (You had the wrong e-mail address!) and Tessa said they DO have lots of Hopi Pale Grey seeds.

A BIG NOTE TO ALL READERS, SEED DREAMS IS NOT A BIG MEGA COMPANY, BUT A VERY SMALL HOMEGROWN SEED SUPPLIER.  IF READERS WOULD LIKE A COPY OF THEIR SEED LIST, PLEASE ENCLOSE A LITTLE CASH TO HELP DEFRAY THE EXPENSE OF PRINTING AND MAILING THIS LIST.  Good growing! — Jackie

Canned, dried beef

How do you make that canned dried beef that you buy in the stores — hormel, etc. (thinly sliced, salted, and dried)

Suzette Stuter
Reedsville, Pennsylvania

While you can certainly make dried beef (like jerky without the seasonings) by thinly slicing across the grain on more tender cuts of beef and canning it (75 minutes pints at 10 pounds pressure), you can’t make "dried beef" like you buy in the stores because it’s processed "mystery meat", i.e. ground, formed, then sliced, with chemicals added. — Jackie