I just finished canning some smoked pork shoulder that friends brought up

It’s deer hunting season here in northern Minnesota, so I’m quickly canning up some great smoked pork shoulder that my friends, Pam and Joan, brought up to me awhile ago. They got a great deal on it and shared with me. I had taken it, frozen, to my friend, Jeri’s house. They’re on grid and had a nearly empty freezer. So I brought a case at a time home to thaw and can. And I just finished yesterday, and have washed and dried the jars tonight so they can go down in the pantry. How pretty they look! And pretty tasty, too. I love the variety of meat and poultry in my pantry. It makes for a wide choice of meals, which I love.

My oldest son, Bill, called last night and told me he had an “extra” deer for me. David and I have been hunting, but so far all we’ve seen have been does and fawns. Call me a fool, but I won’t shoot a mom with babies; they need her if the winter is bad, in order to survive. They haven’t learned the ropes yet. We’ll get a dry doe or a young buck. We aren’t trophy hunters and I prefer a tender, large deer to huge antlers any day. I love the hunt, especially this year, where the days have been above freezing and beautiful. I love the canning and eating. But I DO hate the killing. (Remember that I can’t cut the head off a chicken?)

But between hunts, I’m helping get ready for winter. I cleaned out the chicken coop and put the shavings on the flower beds, am pulling tomato cages and hoses from the big garden, and am splitting cedar kindling for the stoves. Will has been working on logs for the second part of our new hayloft, putting the bulldozer back together, and working out details for the stairway to the new loft. It’ll be much better than a ladder for us “older” folk! We not only plan for today but for ten or twenty years down the line.

Readers’ Questions:

Canning peach pie filling

I canned peach pie filling using a recipe I got off of Canning USA. It called for cornstarch. I heated the peach filling thoroughly and then water bathed them for 30 minutes. They seem to be OK. What do you think?

Can you give us your version of a good, safe canned recipe for peach pie filling?

G. Koskinen
Celina, Texas

We canned peach and other fruit pie filling for years, using cornstarch. Now there’s Clear Jel, a refined cornstarch product that is recommended instead. Plain cornstarch seems to thicken more and there is concern that the center of the jars might not heat thoroughly enough for safe processing. Personally, I wouldn’t toss my pie filling. But I would use Clear Jel in the future…just to be safest. Here is a recipe using Clear Jel, which is available in many health food stores and markets in Amish and Mennonite communities, or sometimes at your local extension office:

6 quarts, sliced, peeled peaches
7 cups sugar
2 cups + 3 Tbsp. Clear Jel
5 1/4 cups cold water
1 3/4 cups bottled lemon juice

For fresh peaches, place 6 cups at a time in a gallon of boiling water and boil for 1 minute to heat thoroughly. Drain and place in covered container to keep warm. Do remaining batches. Combine recipe water, sugar, Clear Jel in large kettle. Bring to a boil and stir until it thickens. Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute more, stirring to prevent scorching. Add peaches gently and stir well. Continue to simmer for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Pack immediately into jars, leaving 1″ of headspace. Process for 30 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. If you live at an altitude over 1,000 feet consult your canning book for directions on increasing your processing time, if necessary. — Jackie

Making a living in a new community

My husband and I are planning on purchasing land and moving to another part of the state where there seems to be a nice self-reliant community. Organic farms, dairies, herb farms, and naturopathic doctors abound. I’m trying to think of a way that I can contribute to that kind of community and hopefully bring in a little extra income. I’ve been thinking about what I’ll do for the past few weeks, and finally I asked myself, what would Jackie Clay do? I know this isn’t exactly your area of expertise, but I wondered, for a self-sufficient woman such as yourself, is there ever a service you wish existed that you would gladly pay for just to make life on your homestead a little easier? Perhaps not now since you’ve got your routines more or less down, but maybe when you first started? Or something that you wish you had time to learn that would save you time and or money on your homestead but you just keep putting off because you’re too busy with all of your responsibilities? I find you to be an extremely reliable and delightful source for information on many things I am up to lately, I thought it couldn’t hurt to see what you had to say about this.

Erika Fey
Milwaukie, Oregon

The one thing I can think of right off the bat is a nice, cheerful, dependable person to help with “grunt work” on the homestead, whether it be fencing, gardening, painting buildings, carpentry, barn cleaning, helping with elder care, etc. Wow, what a bonus. Especially if it was at a reasonable rate. For instance, I had to have help with Mom after she got out of the nursing home after a bout with pneumonia weakened her. We were paying $30 an hour for someone to bathe, dress, and help care for her! (I was kind of “force fed” that service by helpful social workers.) Luckily she got strong enough that the help was no longer needed.

While now I have a helping partner, Will, on the homestead to help with “grunt work” around the place, it would have been nice to have someone come a couple of days a week to help out while things were hectic.

You’ll have to search your talents and likes for things you could offer. Everyone has them and it just takes a little creativity to get going. — Jackie

Making candles

I don’t know if you would think that this falls under the self reliance category or not, but I have a question on candles. Every time I go to make candles in a glass container the middle always sinks in. At first I thought that it was because I was cooling it off too quickly so I tried to cool it down slowly, but still does the same thing. Any advise on this?

Alissa Ray
Morganfield, Kentucky

I used to make candles to sell at art and craft fairs. This dip is called a well and as your candle cools and the well forms, simply reheat wax from the same batch and fill in the well. With less wax that is hot, it will make a nice flat surface. — Jackie

Canning olives

How do you re-can olives? We got a real good deal on some gallon cans, and want to put them in 1/2 pint jars.

Daryl Kaufman
Seymour, Missouri

I got a bunch of #10 cans of sliced black olives given to me by dear friends and I searched for two days to find canning directions! I finally did from the University of California. I canned up a can of them and they turned out great with no softening at all. I drained the olives and brought the brine up to a boil, then packed the olives into hot half pint jars, poured the boiling brine over them and processed them for 90 minutes at 11 pounds pressure. This is for pints or half pints. If you live at an altitude of 1,000 feet or lower, you can use the standard 10 pounds, as I live at 1,500 feet and need to boost my pressure up a bit to compensate for a little higher altitude. — Jackie

Corn relish

I just got the special on your new book with the older Recession-Proof Your Pantry book, and figured I’d start with the older one first. There’s a recipe in there for a corn relish that I can’t wait to try, but our fresh corn is all gone for the season, so I plan to try it with frozen whole kernels from the store. Think it’ll work?

Howard Tuckey
Lisle, New York

Yes, you can certainly make corn relish from frozen corn from the store, but of course it won’t be as good as when you use fresh corn from your garden! Enjoy it. — Jackie

Canning ground meat

I was watching a video on line where a guy canned ground beef/venison. He did a raw pack and processed it for 75 minutes at 10 lb pressure. I decided to try it his way with my venison. I opened a can and it was still reddish on the inside, like it was raw. Is it safe to use or do I have extra dog food?

Thomas Boyd
Mountain City, Tennessee

Canning ground meat this way is not recommended, especially if it is not heated first in open canning jars placed in a roasting pan containing the jars of meat and water to evenly distribute the heat. The meat needs to reach 170 degrees in the center of the jars BEFORE the lids are put on and the jars placed in the pressure canner. While your meat MAY be okay, I, personally, would be leery of it. If you have just canned it, I would open the jars and freeze the meat. (If you freeze it in the jars, the expansion of the jars with only 1″ of headroom, may crack the jars.) The same if you use it for dog food, which would be a shame. Next time, why don’t you lightly brown your meat or make meatballs out of it, then can it in broth. You’ll be much safer and have a nicer end product. — Jackie