Our last snow’s just about gone and the temperatures are up into the high fifties.  Yes, we’re going nuts with joy!  I started the big TroyBilt yesterday and tilled a few passes in the garden to get ready for the 25 red raspberry bushes that are due any day now and to plant the 6 Nanking cherries that came three weeks ago when we had two feet of snow on the ground.  Yeah.  Gurneys.  Boooo.  The soil was so nice, after tilling in all that rotted compost from last fall.  Wow.  No more roots, sticks, stumps and junk, just nice black fluffy soil!

Then our carpenter friend, Tom, came to saw a big hole in the west wall of my kitchen.  Well, actually, I asked him to.  You see my kitchen was awfully dark, especially after we put that porch on the south side, shading the one kitchen window.  After the greenhouse was built, I had a $500 window where I didn’t need a window anymore, between the greenhouse and living room.  So I decided to move the window into the kitchen.  Good move!  Boy does it ever let in the light!!!!  I’m really happy I made that change.

And today, David and I, with a lot of tips from Tom, built a support wall for the floor joists, for the next addition onto the house.  This will be an entryway, small laundry room and living room.  Our house is pretty small, and the kitchen table takes up a lot of the kitchen, making it pretty tight.  So on the east end of the greenhouse, we’re building a sunroom/living room, with a wood stove (more wood heat!) and moving the kitchen table into the old small living room.  It will then be a dining room.  Cool.  Then someone won’t have to get up so I can open the refrigerator door for milk!

I hadn’t had much experience laying block, and that was years ago.  David had done it a little while we were building the house.  So Tom came and got us started and we went ahead and finished the 20′ long block wall.  And if I do say so, it turned out pretty darned nice!

Readers’ questions:

Floating carrots

Congrats on your new love. I have a question about pressure canning, I have had a canner for about a year but was very nervous to try it out, well yesterday I bit the bullet and canned up some plit pea soup, I followed all the directions to the letter. My question is when the pressure came down and I took the cans out all the carrots had floated to the top of the jars, and the soup itself was still
boiling. Is that normal?

Cybele Connor
Hammonton, New Jersey

Yes.  Many foods that are pressure canned continue boiling happily quite a while after you take them out of the canner.  As for the floating carrots, don’t worry about that, either.  When you heat the soup up  to eat it, just stir the carrots back into the soup evenly.  Congratulations on your first attempt.  You’ve just opened the door to a whole lot of good eating and fun, too! — Jackie

Sprouting spinach seed

After I enjoy my spinach crop every year, it bolts and goes to seed.  I can’t stand to let it go to waste so I harvest the seed and give it to friends and neighbors.  Last year I had a bumper crop and still have a gallon of seed left!  I was curious if this can be sprouted for salad and sandwiches?  Is it good tasting and what is the safest way to sprout?

Sandy Coates
Indian Valley, Idaho

I’ve never sprouted spinach seed, but I don’t know why you couldn’t. Just put it in a plastic refrigerator container and wet it thoroughly. Then drain the water off and cover it.  Rinse it each day with fresh water and drain it until it sprouts.  You’ll just have to experiement. Micro greens, including spinach, are the latest fad.  You “plant” the seeds in a container thickly and harvest the leaves when they are still very small.  These are used in salads or on sandwiches, much as you’d use sprouts.  I have tasted these baby “baby” spinach leaves and they are sweet and good. — Jackie

Hail storm killed my garden

Hope you get out of the cold weather soon!

Aaron Neal
Fort Worth, Texas

I had the same thing happen when we lived in New Mexico; we had three feet of hail in little over half an hour!  Yep, my garden was gone.  I kind of waited to see if things might sprout again; no go.  A few that did were way weak and not worth the effort.  I’d plant again, if it was me. You can’t control the weather; we just have to do the best we can with what  we get.  Good luck. — Jackie

Cooking beans in soaking water

When you soak beans overnight do you drain off that water and add new water to cook or do you keep the soaking water to cook the beans in?

Gail Erman
Palisade, Colorado

Unless the beans were really dirty or you soak them on the counter in warm weather, You can just cook them in the soaking water.  Otherwise, rinse them and use new water to cook them in.  I like to keep any nutrients I can, whenever I can. — Jackie

Transplanting blackberries

I found some wild blackberries on my property and wanted to move them closer to my home, however my neighbors say that if I do that the plants will die. They say woodland types don’t transplant well. Are they right ?

Edward Jones Jr.
Jasper, Georgia

I listen to my neighbors….to a point.  Heck, I’d sure transplant the blackberries!  What’s to lose?  I’ve never had a problem with blackberries; they’re about a weed.  Just put them somewhere that you
can control them.  I just planted two rows, but I didn’t put them in my garden.  I had David bulldoze a new strip between the garden and the house for them.  This way they won’t spread into my garden and become a pest.  The driveway will contain them the other way.  I can hardly wait till they produce. — Jackie

Keeping cats out of the garden

What is the best way to keep cats our of the garden?  I have one cat that thinks the raised beds are his litter boxes. Is there a way to keep him out with out going through a whole lot of expense?  hanks and we LOVE your magazine and books.

Julie Jaco
Senatobia, Mississippi

While there are repellant sprays, etc. for pets, the best way I’ve foundis to fence your garden.  You can just use chicken wire, which is very inexpensive…or even that plastic garden fence that local stores carry, stapled onto wood stakes; it doesn’t take much to keep cats away from your garden area. You can “lure” the cats away from your raised beds by making one for them.  Use sand and let them dig to their hearts content; just keep kids out of the kitty box as some parasites and diseases can spread from cats to kids through fecal contamination. — Jackie

After a week of back to back blizzards, the sun came out and the temperature climbed to 50 degrees today. It was SO nice. And today my son Bill and his wife, Kelly came up to help Mom celebrate her 92nd birthday. Of course their son, Mason, came with them and both Greatgrandma and Grandma got to play with him and be wowed by his frequent smiles!

He was afraid of the chickens, but it won’t be long before he’s ready for a pony. His daddy was riding his pony, Sprite, while still in diapers. And they had years of history together. They went to lots and lots of horse shows, to compete with not only kids Bill’s age, but also adults on expensive horses. And you know what? They won a lot! We had Sprite until she was 42; she was a member of the family. I hope we can find Mason such a good pony!

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Readers’ questions:

Cracked corn for chickens

I only have a handful of chickens and have access to pleny of free field corn. I would like to make my own “cracked corn”. What kind of grinder do I need? And, do you have any suggestions on where to get one?. Thank you SO MUCH for all of your help and articles. You are a treasure trove and I bow to your feet. I also have many other questions- how is it best to ask, snail mail or like this?

Grace johnston
Tangier, Indiana

If you have field corn, GREAT!!! You don’t need to crack corn for chickens. They digest it fine whole, and really prefer it that way. There really isn’t a home grinder for cracked corn, other than using your grain mill, which is plenty labor intensive for the results given.

You can certainly ask questions either way. Via snail mail shares the answer with a lot more readers. — Jackie

Uses for pig fat/suet

What are some uses for pig fat/suet, besides lard? Is there other uses such as candles or something? Thank you, I enjoy your writings and the knowledge you give out. This means a lot to me and helps out so much.

Scott Michael
Canyon City, Oregon

You can make soap from pork fat! Candles don’t work because pork fat has a low melting temperature and the candles won’t handle hot temperatures before melting down. (You could make fat oil lamps in a pinch, but I don’t think you’d like the results, otherwise; it tends to smoke and not put out great light.) Soap is a much better alternative. — Jackie

Canning bacon

How does one can bacon?

Kimberly Baxter Packwood
Ames, Iowa

You can home can bacon, but you’ll need “real” bacon, not store bacon, because store bacon is too fat and not “solid” enough to hold up for canning. I canned my own bacon by first smoking it, then cutting it into chunks that would fit into a wide mouth pint or quart jar. You don’t can it sliced. I heat the bacon in a roasting pan, in the oven at 200 degrees until it’s hot all the way through. Then I pack it into hot jars to within 1/2″ of the top. Bacon, as with all meat, is processed for 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes at quarts, at 10 pounds pressure.(Check your canning manual if you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet and must adjust your pressure to suit your altitude.) Bacon is canned without adding liquid.

Important note: As far as I know, there isn’t an approved method of canning bacon, but this has worked well for me. Consider it an “experimental” method. — Jackie

Canned bacon

This is a response to the question asked by Pete Gibson in the May/June issue regarding canned bacon. It used to be manufactured by Celebrity Foods Canned Bacon but has not been available for approximately 10 years. According to the company’s web site it will soon be available again produced in Ohio under direct license from MRE wholesalers.com. Thought this might be of interest to the readers of BHM. Their web site shows them opening a can that was 20 years old and the product still good. Great idea for storing in case of an emergency.

Bill Lahnen
Lakewood, New York

Thanks for the info, Bill. There’s been a lot of interest in canned bacon, and for good reason; it’s a great product. I’ll be waiting to see it once again on the market! — Jackie

Freecycle groups, dehydrating

I hope you have plowed yourself out. We are getting snow this weekend in PA, but not like you. Thank goodness!! Recently, I joined a “free to join” group -”freecycle”, which, by the way, you probably would love. It’s an organization where people give others what they no longer need to help keep things out of landfills. The main stipulation for being able to join and participate is that every thing is “free”, absolutely no money exchanged. Today I received a slightly used dehydrator. If it’s been used, I would be really surprised, it’s still in the original box and spanking clean.

I’ve noticed that in several of your answers to questions, you mention your preference for dehydrating. Could you please tell me what you dehydrate and give me some tips for success. Onions are on sale for a really good price this week. I use a lot of onions and wanted to know if you have been successful drying them and how you do it. Also, potatoes. After they are dried … can’t they be used for frying, mashed or only in casseroles? What’s the storage method?

If you are interested in more information about “freecycle”, go to www.freecycle.org then browse the many groups by specific states. There are groups all over the US and possibly in your area, which might help you get things you need for your homestead and also possibly help someone else. Today was the first time I requested one of the offers and have gratefully benefited. Thanks for any advise you have time to offer. Since your advice helps me all the time, I hope I have given you something to help you too.

Rosemarie Wesolek
Mahaffey, Pennsylvania

I’m sure many readers will pick up on your tip about freecycle. I do know about them, but just don’t have the time to go so far out of town; there’s none within 35 miles of us and most of the better stuff
is in Duluth, 80 some miles south. Mom kind of ties me down as to my “going”. I dehydrate a whole lot of foods, as well as canning them. I dehydrate peas, carrots, onions, fruits of all kinds, asparagus, tomatoes, corn, squash, jerky and a whole lot more. Onions are dead easy; I just slice them into whole rounds, then lay them on the dehydrator trays, in a single layer. When they are dry, I either put them in jars that way or whiz them through the blender to make chunks or powder. These, I put on cookie sheets in the oven, with only the pilot light on and stir until they are really dry; they tend to clump without this extra drying.

To do potatoes, I slice them into salt water to keep them from blackening. Then I drain them and drop them into boiling water for a minute. Then I drain them and lay them out onto the dehydrator trays. The boiling keeps them fromdarkening during dehydrating. No, you can’t make French fries out of them, but you can rehydrate them and then make fried potatoes out of them. Or you can make potatoes augratin, scalloped potatoes or the like. Dehydrated foods are very good and take up little room on the shelf. I lovethat! — Jackie

Gooseberries not producing

I ordered & planted some Gooseberrys plants May-2005.They were 2 yr.old plants called (Hinnonmaki ) the red kind.Well they have never produced anything but they grew. Last fall I moved them & replanted to another place as I thought that might help. Why don’t they produce any fruit? What am i doing wrong? Thanks for the great info you give..

Sharon Beck
Sikeston, Missouri

Have patience. Most trees and shrubs, including gooseberries need a little time to sink their roots down and get over the shock of transplanting. This can take a year or more; often several years.
Moving them just delayed things. If they’re getting sunlight, a little compost and kept weed free, you will get fruit. — Jackie