You know that “frost” warning I told you about? Well, we did the usual; covered the tomato and pepper plants…I didn’t have enough tarps for everything… Then just before dark, I turned on the weather radio that we live by, just to make sure. The “scattered frost” they had talked about all day had been upgraded to a FREEZE WARNING! Oh crap! Temperatures predicted to be from 28 to 30 degrees. Double crap! Luckily, David was home from haying and both of us went down with buckets and tubs to pick what we could.

Last year, the plants and all the fruit that was left on the vine froze dead, black under our tarps at 28 degrees.

We picked by flashlight, every large tomato, pepper, cuke, and bean that we could find. Then I set up the sprinklers for morning. Sometimes when plants freeze or are frosted, you can save them by heavily watering them just before dawn, continuing until the sun comes up and the temperatures moderate.

I set the alarm for 5 A.M. Dawn was to be at 6 A.M. Boy did it freeze! The corn leaves felt like ice in the cold clear early morning. I turned on the generator and threw the well switch. Would the hoses be frozen? If so, I was toast. Luckily, the sprinklers spit a bit, then started to revolve very slowly as the ice in them melted. I watered and watered, walking through the icy wet plants until my pants and shoes were soaked. I moved the sprinklers here and there, then back again, desperately watching the sun creep up into the sky.

I kept at it for 2 1/2 hours until the well had no more water; I would have to wait for 1/2 an hour for it to re-fill. By then I’d be too late… So I figured I’d done all I could and went to the house, remembering the corn leaves iced thickly from my sprinkling.

My legs and feet were also like ice, and I couldn’t warm up.

But when I got up later on, the garden looked remarkably good. I think I’ve saved a lot of the corn and squash, as well as most of the tomatoes and beans. Some of the corn leaves were frozen too badly and are turning brown, but most look okay. I’m a week away from getting ripe corn, which I need to can. So I’ll see what happens…

Meanwhile, I’m canning up a storm. Today I made more mixed vegetables. When I pulled carrots, I about fainted; most were at least three inches across at the tops and were pretty hefty all the way down. I guess I’ll be canning up a lot of carrots pretty soon! Maybe I’ll have to use the bulldozer to harvest them and a chainsaw to cut them up? Wow!

Readers’ Questions:

Mayonnaise recipe, chipped beef, and rancid beans

I have a very good time at homesteading. By reading your blog I can tell that you do too! Do you have a recipe for mayonnaise? I know it probably takes eggs, but not sure what else. Also a recipe for chip beef gravy. My husband loves it. I have some dried beans that now have a rancid taste. Have you ever made bean flour, or is it even possible. A brainstorm I had was to grind the beans into flour and use to thicken stews and soups. Do you think that this is possible or would the flavor come out?

Mary Ann Nelson
Franklin, West Virginia

Here’s a mayonnaise recipe for you:
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp. powdered mustard
1/8 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
5 tsp white vinegar
1 1/2 cups salad oil
4 tsp. hot water
Beat egg yolks, salt, mustard, sugar and 1 tsp. vinegar until thick and smooth. Add 1/4 cup oil slowly while beating in 1 tsp. vinegar and 1 tsp. hot water. Beat well. Alternate oil with vinegar and hot water until all is used up and your mayonnaise is smooth. Will keep covered in refrigerator for up to 1 week.

I make my chipped beef gravy as simply a white sauce. I melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a sauce pan slowly. Then I mix in 2 Tbsp. flour to make a paste. Slowly add about 1 cup of milk, heating while stirring to make it smooth. Add more milk as needed to make a sauce as thick as you like. Then add your shredded chipped beef and gently heat; don’t boil.

Yes, you can make bean flour by grinding your beans, even in your blender. But don’t use your rancid beans; the flavor won’t go away or be covered up. The yuck will stay with you. Feed your beans to the chickens or hog and try keeping the next ones in a more airtight container. I have some that are ten years old and are still perfect. In fact, I once ate some that were 1,500 years old (only a few; I planted the others to increase them), and they tasted fine. Have fun on your homestead. You’re right; I DO love my little bit of the backwoods. — Jackie

Pickled eggs

Have you ever canned pickled eggs and if so do you have a recipe? I am a very recent subscriber and do enjoy your articles very much.

Bonnie Benore
Yelm, Washington

There is a recipe for pickled eggs in the current issue of Backwoods Home Magazine, in the article I did on preserving food. Check it out for details and enjoy your eggs! — Jackie

Canning different vegetables at the same time

Maybe a silly question, but a friend has been “rumored” to come help me learn how to use my new pressure canner. Now, can or can you not - (no pun intended!) put two types of veggies in the same canner? Say, 3 of carrots and 4 of green beans. She said the juices would mingle, but I thought you didn’t put water over the tops in a pressure canner.

Tammy Amland
Howard Lake, Minnesota

No question is a silly question. Yes, you may put different vegetables in the canner at the same time to save both room and your time, as well. No, the juices won’t mingle. Just be sure that you either pick different vegetables with the same time requirements or else process them for the length of time required for the vegetable with the longest time required. Yes, the shorter time vegetables will slightly overcook, but that’s not usually much of a problem, compared to the time and energy you save. — Jackie

Canned bacon

No question, just info! You’ve asked, I’ve forgotten, and you’ve mentioned again, where can I get canned bacon?

Answer:
http://www.mredepot.com/servlet/the-364/Yoder%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%99s-Celebrity-Canned-Bacon/Detail

First time in 20 years its been available in America. They also have canned deserts, canned WHOLE CHICKENS, canned cheeses, all sorts of goodies! please pass along to the readers!

Alex Hahn
Fairfield, California

Canning potatoes

I just received 60 pounds of small red potatoes, and everything I can find says I have to peel them to can them. Can they just be scrubbed and then canned?

Linda Fisher
Klamath, California

YES, you can process your new potatoes without peeling them. In fact, new potatoes can up much nicer with the peels on them. Just scrub them up till they’re clean and go on with your recipe. They’re great that way. — Jackie

Canning grapes

I just received 48 cups of grapes and I only have a pressure canner. Can I can them, 1 cup grapes, 1 cup sugar, fill with boiling water and pressure can them for 20 minutes at 10 lbs pressure? Also, I recently canned 40 quarts of turkey broth and when I removed them from the canner the jars pinged numerous times. They all sealed, but I was surprised by all of this pinging and wondering what would have caused it.

Marcia Speltslambert
Clay City, Indiana

You’ll be happier with your grapes if you water bath can them. Simply use your pressure canner as a water bath canner. ANY large kettle will do, as long as the jars can be covered by at least an inch of boiling water. Just be sure that they have something under them, whether it is a folded kitchen towel, wire rack or whatever, so they don’t sit right on the very hot bottom of the kettle. I made a rack that lasted over 10 years out of a wire covering of an old dart board and another from a wire grill cover from the dollar store. — Jackie

Half-gallon jars, butternut squash, and laying hens

I have several questions that I cannot find an answer for: 1) I recently purchased new Ball 1/2 gallon canning jars. I cannot find any info on canning with these, in my Ball Blue Book or elsewhere. Should I just relegate them to holding dehydrated foods?

2) I have lots of butternut squash from the garden and want to can it as a butternut squash soup. The info I have found says not to can squash puree as it is too dense and would probably not reach a uniform temperature. Does that also hold true for the soup?

3) I have read conflicting info on how long chickens continue to lay. I read in one of your online columns about someone who had chickens laying into their seventh year. The owner of our feed store says the average is about 2 years. My girls are 2 1/2 years old and have just stopped laying. Should I get replacements? I miss having fresh eggs.

Debbie Boutelier
Prattville, Alabama

The canning experts do not recommend canning in half gallon and larger jars anymore because some people canned dense items in them, such as split pea soup and roast beef in large pieces, and these foods didn’t heat sufficiently in the center, as to kill dangerous bacteria and their toxic spores. I still can foods such as soups, broths, tomatoes, etc. in them, using a 10 minute longer processing time than required for quarts. While this used to be an approved canning method, and I have never had trouble, I still can’t recommend that others can in half gallon jars.

You can process your squash soup. It isn’t as dense as pureed squash, so you won’t have any trouble with it heating thoroughly.

While experts tell us to get rid of our two year old hens, actually, they’ll molt after their spring/summer laying cycle, then start in again in the fall. To keep them laying during the winter, keep them decently warm and keep a light on at night in the coop. Not only will this trick their biological clock, but will keep them moving around and eating more, which produces more eggs. I’ve got hens that are five and six years old, and they still beat my younger hens at laying. — Jackie

Tomato soup

I made some home canned tomato soup tonight. I was wondering if it would be safe for me to add a specific amount of sugar directly to each jar of pulp? I add the salt that way but thought the sugar might need to dissolve or something. I concentrate the tomato pulp and add spices and sugar to it but it’s hard to judge the sweetness of a BIG pot o’ boiling ‘maters. Do you ever can concentrated tomato soup? How much sugar should I add per pint jar? I don’t have a recipe. I’m wingin’ it here! I will be adding 1/2 a jar of milk when I open them to make it.

Cathy Ostrowski
Amherst, New York

I can an all purpose tomato sauce, with added spices and a bit of brown sugar to taste. This, I use for pizza sauce, in meatloaf, tomato soup, as well as dozens of other things. The sweetness of a recipe depends on your own personal definition of “sweet enough”; it varies greatly between people. I’d add your sugar when you’re making your concentrate, then add your milk, when you’re ready to use it. Then taste it. If it needs more sweetness, simply add a little sugar when you make your soup. It’s quick, easy and more dependable that way. Then next time you make your concentrate, just add that much more sugar to your initial recipe. — Jackie

It’s THAT time of year. You plan for it, you dream of it, you drool for it, and then you grouse about it; harvest time. Our garden is terrific this year. And all of a sudden, it’s hitting me square in the behind! I started out dinking with a batch of mixed vegetables, then the carrots I’d thinned. Again. Pretty laid back. Then IT happened.

Everything is ripe at once. Oh my! Cucumbers, green beans, dragon’s tongue beans, peas, onions, carrots, and very soon the corn and tomatoes. Cool! But I’m also trying to take care of Mom and help Tom out on the additions so we can have it ready for a wood stove, come fall. Fall, which is roaring down on me like an out of control freight train.

Tomorrow, they’re even saying the F word on the weather radio. Yes, possible scattered pockets of FROST! EEEK! My corn really needs two more weeks; some is still immature, like my tomatoes. I’ll try to cover what I can, but the corn patch is just too big to do anything with. I’ll just have to pray about that. The root crops will be fine, but my melons, squash, corn, and beans are in peril, not to mention my wonderful tomatoes. Now where is that huge tarp?

Tune in next blog and we’ll all see what happens! Wish me luck!

Readers’ questions:

Canning meat

I’m going to try pressure canning some beef this fall for the first time. I need to pick up cans yet. Can you give me a rough estimate on how many cans it takes, say like about how many pint jars for every 10 pounds of beef? I’ll be packing with broth.

Ellie Boast
De Smet, South Dakota

It really depends on what you are going to be canning. For instance, if you put up deboned steaks, packed fairly tightly into a wide mouthed jar, you’ll get more ounces per jar. However, if you do like I did today, and canned meatballs in tomato sauce, you’ll get less per jar because of the type of product. Out of 10 pounds of ground beef, I got 9 quarts and three pints of end product. If I had been putting up chunks of roast or steak, I would probably have gotten about six quarts because there would have been less liquid because the larger flat pieces fit tighter together than stacks of meatballs. — Jackie

Food storage

I just received the newest issue and look forward to reading your article on dehydrating with a fine tooth comb. I recently used some dehydrated chili on a backpacking trip and it came out GREAT! Now I am inspired to do other stuff for quick and easy meals with very little storage.

I would like some suggestions on using a shed (wooden, next to the house) for a pantry. I have a small kitchen with no room for bulk food storage. I am currently using a small cabinet in the garage for my overflow, which is not insulated nor does it have heat or A/C. I would like a larger dedicated food storage area just outside the kitchen (will not have A/C).

Our winter overnight lows only get to about the mid 20s but the summers/early fall get quite hot. Humidity is also an issue. I am certain that I can keep the rain and most critters out, but what other issue do I need to take into account?

Sharon Payne
Buena Park, California

I would suggest insulating your shed, not only to keep it warmer in the winter, but cooler in the summer. Adding ventilation, via vents or a small attic fan/vent will also do much to help keep air moving and cut down on humidity. Make your shelves out of 2″ thick lumber. I’ve seen a lot of storage shelves made out of 1″ material and they all sag and threaten collapse sooner or later. This also goes for store-bought book shelves. The only ones I’ve used with success are the ones that hold my popcorn tins with dry flours, noodles and dehydrated foods in them. These don’t weigh as much as do my stacks of full canning jars in the pantry. On our old farm, I had shelves in my basement made out of rough-cut one inch lumber and one night there was a terrible crash. Yep, one of the shelves had broken, dumping jars and jars of food on the cement floor! What a mess. Let my mistake help you to not make the same one. Your shed idea is a good one. I would probably add a sturdy locking outside door…or even NOT have an outside door if the shed is accessible to your kitchen or house. In the years to come, food just might become a real target for thieves. — Jackie

Potato seeds

Well, we got the tire, did everything according to direction and are now waiting to harvest our crop of potatoes. However, can anyone tell me why our potato plants have small “tomato” looking fruit on them? Looks like a tomato but smells like a potato! We do have a couple of tomato plants hanging upside down close by but I wasn’t aware these two would cross-pollinate, let alone bear fruit!

Mallory J. Babcock
Troy, Pennsylvania

Your potato did NOT have an affair with your tomatoes! These are potato seeds. They follow the blossoms. Although when we plant seed potatoes, we plant parts of the potato, itself, potatoes CAN be raised from seed. It isn’t as sure a thing as using cut potato sets, though. The seed must be truly mature to be viable, which takes a long growing season. Some seed won’t produce the true variety you want and it takes a long, long season to start that seed indoors, then move the individual plants out; more work less dependable results. You can just ignore the seeds and not worry about them a bit; it’s a natural process. — Jackie

Fig jam

My mom has a fig tree bearing enough fruit to make fig jam for a year. If I cannot do all at once, can the figs be frozen, then used? If not, do you have a very easy recipe that does not require a lot of time to do?

Connie Aldredge
Fountain Valley, California

Yes, you can freeze your figs and make jam later on, when you have more time. A lot of people do this with other fruits, as well, including berries, cherries, plums, and others. Sometimes this time of the year gets pretty hectic, doesn’t it? — Jackie

Concord grape jelly

This is my first attempt at making concord grape jelly, well any jelly for that matter. I followed the recipe which called for 4 cups grape juice 1/2 cup water and 3 cups sugar. I followed the instructions, step by step, with the water bath, and used a thermometer to make sure the water was hot enough (it said to cook it until it was 8 degrees above boiling) the first batch was very watery so I thought maybe I didn’t cook it long enough so i cooked it again and it is still very watery. Should I throw the jars out? (I got 9 8-ounce jars) (I pretty much picked the vines clean so we wont have any more this year) or can I add more sugar and recook or should I use the pectin stuff and how much? What a mess. My husband said we can always used it for “grape syrup on pancakes.” Any advice would be appreciated.

Wayne & Carol Pitsenberger
Sevierville, Tennessee

You started with a harder way to make jelly; with no pectin. While grape jelly often sets well with no added pectin, sometimes it takes a little experience in getting the jell point just right. You want to boil it down till when you dip up a spoonful with a clean spoon and hold it above your kettle, the jelly oozes together, making a sheet instead of drops when it pours back into the kettle. Yours probably didn’t reach this point. But don’t throw it out. Pick up a box of powdered pectin. Then get ready to make jelly again. You’ll need bottled lemon juice. To each quart of jelly, dumped into a large saucepan so you can wash and sterilize your jars again, you’ll need 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 2 Tbsp. bottled lemon juice and 4 tsp. powdered pectin. Add all that in another large saucepan and bring to a boil, mixing well. Add your jelly and bring that to a boil, boiling 1/2 minute. Pour out into your sterilized jars and put hot, previously simmered NEW lids on the jars and process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. This will set for you. Until you get more experience, why don’t you use powdered pectin and use the recipes in the box. After quite a bit of success that way, you can try different methods and you’ll probably succeed quite well. Enjoy. — Jackie

Jars not sealing

I have been doing a lot of canning and have always used the Kerr/Ball lids. Today I was hauling more jars to the shelves and I noticed that on a few jars the lids had unsealed. These jars of peaches have been stored for a few weeks. I was going to take my corn to the shelf too and noticed 2 more jars where the lid unsealed. Am I doing something wrong or is this a bad batch of lids? I am very careful about wiping jars and making sure there is enough head space in the jar.

Would it help if I left the rings on?

Cindy Hills
Wild Rose, Wisconsin

It is possible you got bad lids, but I really don’t think that’s the problem. Did you simmer your lids? Once I was in a hurry and just kind of like dipped them into the boiled water. Mistake! I had several jars in two batches that didn’t seal. Are you only tightening your rings “firmly tight”? Another time, I was in a bad mood after fighting with the kids on a hot day. I guess I took out my frustration on the rings; they were REALLY tight. Yep, more unsealed jars; the jars couldn’t exhaust like they should. It’s a wonder I didn’t break jars! Because you had failures with both pressure canned and water bath processed foods, I wouldn’t look at your canner for a problem like a gauge that was misreading. I know things like this are frustrating. I hope you have much better luck in the future. — Jackie

Canned meatball recipes

Will you please share the recipes for your meatballs and the different sauces you have canned them in? I have been canning everything I can get my hands on, since buying my first pressure canner this spring, and have enjoyed every minute. If it can’t get away from me, I put it in a jar. I love hearing those lids ping and pop! Since I’m starting out new, I’ve had to purchase jars, but our local Ace Hardware is selling them for $7.00 a dozen until the end of August, so each payday I buy a few more. Everyone else is selling them for $12, so I’m getting as many as possible from Ace. I just wanted to say thank you for encouraging people to try new things. I’m having such a wonderful time.

Rosemarie Wesolek
Mahaffey, Pennsylvania

I’m having fun canning right now. I first made meatballs, using institutional sized cream of mushroom soup, diluted with water mixed with the drippings from the pan I cooked the meatballs in. I was frying my meatballs in two frying pans but a friend told me she put hers into a roasting pan and baked them. They brown on all sides with no fussing around turning them over all the time. I did that today and it worked great! My meatballs in mushroom sauce goes like this: I used 10 pounds of hamburger (on sale, of course!). To that, I mixed 1 cup chopped onions, 1 Tbsp. black pepper and 4 Tbsp. seasoning salt. I smushed that in well with my hands and formed up the meatballs. You can also mix in cracker crumbs or oatmeal and eggs, like you do meatloaf, if you wish. Bake the meatballs in roasting pans at 350 degrees, until just done; they shrink down. Pour off most of the grease. Dip the meatballs out with a wooden spoon and gently slip into wide mouth canning jars. While the meatballs are baking, heat 2 family sized or 1 institutional size can of cream of mushroom soup and half a can of water in a large saucepan to nearly boiling. Add your pan drippings, diluted with another 1/2 can of water. Pour this into your mushroom soup and mix well. Ladle this over your meatballs, to within 1 inch of the top. Process at 10 pounds pressure for 90 minutes for quarts or 75 minutes for pints. If you live at an altitude over 1,000 feet, consult your canning manual for instructions on adjusting your pressure to suit your altitude.

Today I made meatballs with green peppers and onions, with tomato sauce. I simply added chopped green peppers to the other recipe and mixed in well, topping the full jars with home canned tomato sauce from last season.

Tomorrow, I’m making Italian meatballs, using garlic, onion, basil, and oregano and using the tomato sauce. Instant spaghetti meatballs! It’s so fun!

Remember, all meat products are processed for the same time, so you can use any recipe you like. — Jackie