Blossom end rot
Not a question, but a comment and suggestion for the man with a not very productive garden and blossom end rot on his tomatoes. I’ve learned that blossom end rot is worsened by a lack of calcium. Calcium can be fed easily to your plants by crushing a few egg shells and putting them in the bottom of the hole when planting the tomatoes. I have my own chickens and buy crushed oyster shell for them, so I add about a tablespoon of the oyster shell to the bottom of the hole instead of egg shell. I hope he has better luck with his garden in the future! A successful year will probably convince his wife.
Karen King
Menomonie, Wisconsin
Good comment, Karen. Indeed, a lack of calcium often contributes to blossom end rot. I’ve found that the calcium is usually a secondary contributor, however, and that steady, adequate watering nearly always takes care of the problem. Mom used to crush egg shells in her tomato holes, too. And she always had great tomatoes. I, too, sincerely hope his wife is encouraging to his endeavors. — Jackie
Old laying hens
What do you do with your old laying hens? Mine were about 3½ years old and their laying had really fallen off this summer. We butchered them last weekend. We took the breast meat and ground it up, we added about ¼ pound pork sausage to ¾ pound chicken. This made a dry, but tasty sausage. After 5 days I boiled the legs and thighs for 45 minutes. This meat is still so tough it was hard to get it off of the bone. I was planning on canning the meat but now I don’t think that its texture would improve with canning. I ground it up with the large blade that came with my Kitchen Aid meat grinder and am thinking about making chicken salad sandwiches out of it. Can you think of any other uses for this meat? What do you normally do with those old laying hens?
Shirley
Stevenson, Washington
We use our old hens for soup and stews. Boiling the meat for 45 minutes is definitely not enough to get them tender. I don’t grind the meat, except sometimes for chicken salad sandwiches, which comes from the meat I have canned. Pressure canning your old hens definitely tenderizes the meat. To stew your old hens, cut the carcass up, then put it in a large kettle with plenty of water to cover it, then add seasonings as you wish. Bring to a boil, cover, and gently simmer for several hours. I often stew a hen on our woodstove until the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender. Then remove the bones and make your gravy or soup from the broth and meat. I’ve never had a real tough hen, yet. Most of our old hens get canned up after pre-stewing so I have ready-tender meat to use at any time. Other uses for your ground meat? How about chicken enchiladas or fajitas or mixing it with an egg and cracker meal and frying chicken patties, mixing it with your ground pork, an egg, and cracker crumbs and make chicken loaf, similar to meat loaf? — Jackie
We recycled some old layers this year. I couldn’t bare to see the new crop hen pecked by the old bossy ones (especially when I am paying $25 a pop for them).
For cooking we put them in a Crock Pot (Slow Cooker) and made a chicken stew. Probably not something you’d want to pay for in a restaurant, but a hearty enough meal for a family of four.
Ralph,
I know what you mean. I don’t like it either. I have some “pet” layers that are six years old.
Jackie
I butcher meat chickens every year. Some years (like this one) over 100 + birds end up in the freezer. So I am not squeemish about butchering a bird.
BUT – I just can’t stand to kill off my old layers! I am like the old dairy farmer that couldn’t cull “Bossy” when she dried up for the last time. You spend a few years with the girls and you get to know them. It’s hard to eat a friend!
I’m not knocking butchering your old layers – I just can’t do it.
Blossom end rot is related to insufficient calcium during rapid cell growth, but adding calcium in any form doesn’t necesarily make the calcium available to the plant because it has to go into solution first. If you add a calcium source, give it time to solubilize. Extra milk if you have cows or goats, tums, and powdered milk can provide quick soluble calcium. Oyster shells, bone meal, egg shells and lime will be slower acting, probably best applied in fall or early spring. pH of the soil solution (6.5 is best for calcium uptake) is one of the controls on availability. Other interrelated and competing factors are amount and type of nitrogen and phosphorus being applied to the tomatoes or in the soil, amount and frequency of water. A steady, even source of water is probably the simplest way to prevent blossom end rot – Mulch, Mulch, Mulch and add organic material so water is held and released slowly. Depending on where you live, a foot of mulch around your tomatoes may be needed. A soil test and an inexpensive ($10 or so) pH meter used correctly will tell you if the calcium you have or are applying can be available to the plant. Blossom end rot also affects eggplant, peppers and squash, but in those crops don’t confuse it with the failure of fruit formation due to lack of pollination.
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