For our pigs, that is! We have two gilts that need to be bred and we have no boar. Friends of ours, Tiffany and her husband, Nate, had a boar they could spare but needed their three goats bred. So we traded breeding services and we brought all the animals home. Two of their goats are in with our Boer buck, Thor, and the other, which is part Boer, is in with our Nubian/Boer buck. The kids should provide plenty of milk and also extra buck kids (lots of tasty meat). It’s a totally win-win situation, as neither of us will be out any money and we’ll both get our animals bred.

Will’s been working on log siding for our house. Rather than pay $50 or more for a piece of log siding to finish our addition, he’s cutting slabs with our portable Hud-Son bandsaw mill and then using sanding discs on our angle grinder to clean off the pieces after he drawknifes them. So far, he’s got several done and they are looking good! My son, Bill, did this with the interior gable ends of his log home and his turned out great. Better than store-bought siding! Cheaper and better is our motto!

Our winter continues to be GREAT. Today it’s sunny and 42 degrees above zero! This is unheard of here in northern Minnesota in January. The usual temperature is 35 below, so you can see why we’re kind of nuts, here. True, it may not continue, but every mild week is a week closer to spring and a week that it’s NOT cold. — Jackie

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Sweet and spicy pickles

What I would like is a recipe for sweet and spicy pickles. My husband and I were at a flea market in Abilene, Texas and bought a jar from a vendor. They were crisp and not too spicy. They have just a small amount of jalapeños in them. I have searched but can’t find a recipe that looks like it would work. So, I was hoping you might be able to help me out. My family really liked them and I hope to have enough cucumbers this year to make some.

Ken and Jackie Smith
Tuscola, Texas

What I do is make Bread and Butter pickles and add a few slices of jalapeño or other hot pepper. (Will likes Hungarian Wax.) This gives you a crispy sweet, yet spicy pepper. Try it and I think you’ll like them. (You can vary the amount of hotness with your likes. We like only a few slices where you may prefer more.) — Jackie

Planting potatoes

I would like to try potatoes in my garden for the first time next year. Do I have to buy special seed potatoes or can I plant some store bought if they develop eyes? We really like the small dutch yellow (Holland?) type. They roast really well with a little oil and seasoning.

Michael Lowery
Dekalb, Illinois

Yes, it’s a better idea to buy seed potatoes. Most store potatoes have been treated to prevent sprouting. Even when they do sprout, this spray sometimes interferes with those potatoes producing decent crops. Buy good seed potatoes, then save your own to use as seed potatoes the following years. You’ll be happier in the end. — Jackie

Planting fruit bushes

I want to add some more fruit bushes to my property without spending much. I’ve looked at some online nurseries for plants such as blueberries, raspberries, bush cherries, gooseberries, and grapes. I’ve seen on eBay people selling the seeds for those, and it’s much cheaper, and it would seem you’d get more plants out of it.

Have you ever grown these plants from seeds, and did you have good success? Or would it be better in the long run to just spend the extra money and get fewer plants from a nursery?

Donnie McIlwain
Lowman, New York

You’d be much better to buy a few of each one each year than to start them from seeds. In reality, it usually takes about 4 years before you get any fruit from your seedling berries. Ask around; maybe there’s a friend or neighbor who has raspberries or grapes you could get starts from. — Jackie

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Canning ham

Can you “can” store bought hams? If so how much time should you process it

Connie Gann
Rogersville, Missouri

Yes, definitely. I have one in my fridge right now to can up! You will process pints and half pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. If you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet, consult your canning book for directions on increasing your pressure to suit your altitude, if necessary. (Or buy my canning book, Growing and Canning Your Own Food, it has directions on canning store ham and tons and tons of other recipes that are not found in other canning books!) — Jackie

Storing meat

Just wondering if you can your pig that was processed or where you keep it. You don’t have a freezer right? Next question, I want to raise chickens in the spring for the first time. Layers and fryers. From what I’ve been told the fryers are all ready in 6 weeks. Is that the process you go thru and then can them all up or do you just butcher as you need them. If so-what breed do you use, because they can get to big right? As always you are amazing, and I thank you so much

Jacqueline Wieser
Sidney, Nebraska

I will be canning some of our pork. But we DO have a freezer, just purchased two months ago in order to have space to store our beef through most of the winter so I can can up that a little at a time. It is a small, upright freezer with Energy Star ratings and we have it on our unheated enclosed back porch to further save energy. So far, it’s working out just fine.

As for the chickens, we have white rock, cuckoo marans, white laced red cornish, and cochins. We crossed white rock roosters with our cornish hens and got our own home-hatched meat birds. The cochins, we hope, will hatch this year’s batch for us so we don’t have to use the incubator, as they are setting fools. Our meat birds could have been butchered at 6 weeks, but we prefer to wait until the weather is cooler and do a few at a time. Now we have the freezer, we can do several at a time instead of the three that was my limit for cooling in the fridge overnight and canning up the next day. Our first generation crosses aren’t as fast growing or quite as wide in the breast as commercial crosses, but they are plenty good enough for us. Regular cornish rock broilers DO get big fast and need to be butchered between 6-9 weeks because they start having health issues (bad legs and heart attacks) after that age. Plain old dual-purpose breeds like buff orpington or white rock are good for both meat and eggs. They don’t get as big as fast or have as much breast meat as do the cornish rock broilers, but they are pretty good eating and live a long, productive life as layers. — Jackie

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Old cast iron kettle

I bought a very used cast iron kettle for $2. It was a great buy I think. Put it in a hot fire to burn the gunk off, then scrubbed, then coated with lard and slowly baked it in a low oven. It looks pretty good except it has some rather deep pits inside on the bottom. Is it safe to use with the pits or is it a loss?

Gail Erman
Palisade, Colorado

It is safe to use, but you may have trouble with food sticking in the pits. Sometimes you can use an angle grinder to grind those pits out, making the surface flat and smooth again. Use a rather coarse grinder at first and finish with a fine grinder, then sandpaper. Re-season the pan and you should be good to go. — Jackie

Canning olives

I buy olives by the gallon because I want the jars. We like olives but have a hard time using them up as it is just the two of us now. Can I re-can them in pint jars and how do I do that?

Nancy Foster
Dallas City, Illinois

I re-canned many #10 cans and gallon jars of olives, finally finding directions on a California University website. Basically, drain off the liquid, then bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, pack the olives in your pint (I used half-pint) jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Pour the boiling liquid over the olives, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Process pint and half-pint jars at 10 pounds pressure for 90 minutes. If you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet, consult your canning book for directions on increasing your pressure to suit your altitude. The olives do not get mushy. — Jackie

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Chicken stock

I’ve been canning for years and just ran across something that I’m not sure about. I just opened some quart jars of chicken stock to make soup and found on the underside of the lids a small patch of black liquid. I found it in three different jars — not all from the same batch or year. The contents smelled ok, but I dumped them out anyway. Any idea what this is? Were the contents safe to use?

Jennifer Grahovac
Wooster, Ohio

I think what you found was simply a chemical reaction between the chicken stock and the metal lid. This happens from time to time. It will not happen when you use plastic Tattler reusable canning lids. It does not affect the food in any way. But, as with any canned food, do the smell test, then if it smells okay, be sure to bring it to boiling temperature for at least 10-15 minutes before eating –just to be safe. — Jackie

Tomatoes and garlic in olive oil

I have a recipe that calls for the following items. Sun dried tomatoes, garlic (I buy from the store already crushed in the jar) basil ( I use fresh ) salt. You are to layer them in a jar and cover them with olive oil. One recipe I have says to keep refrigerated, the other one say I don’t have to. Which one is correct?

Teresa Roh
New Freedom, Pennsylvania

Keep it refrigerated. There have been cases of foods like this causing botulism after sitting out at room temperature. Rare, but possible, so refrigerate just to be safe. — Jackie

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Where to get chickens

I was wondering where you got your white laced cornish chickens from. I have looked on-line and all I can find are the dark cornish. Also, do you know anything about feeding fodder to livestock? I have found several systems on-line that make growing your own feed seem easy. Is it too good to be true? John and I cannot wait to meet you guys in May!

Mia Sodaro
Frazier Park, California

We bought white laced RED cornish from Welp Hatchery. We wanted the white laced reds as they are a prettier bird with a whiter skin than the dark cornish. Yes, we have grown up feeding fodder to livestock, primarily corn stalks with ears matured and on the dried stalks. This works well for horses and cattle. Let me know if you have specific questions, and I’ll be happy to answer them! We’re excited about meeting you at the seminar, too! — Jackie

Canning ham

I have a lot of left over ham. I was wanting to can it instead of freezing it. Is it safe to can at home? Is it done the same as other meats or would the prolonged canning time make it turn to mush as it is already precooked? I can’t seem to find information on canning ham anywhere!

Jennifer Gall
Roseburg, Oregon

That’s one reason you should have my book, Growing and Canning Your Own Food! (This is the most complete canning book out there, with lots of recipes to can, including ham. – BHM Staff) Yes, basically, you can ham like other meats. Only, because it’s pre-cooked, you only have to slice or dice it up, fill the jars, and pour boiling broth or water over the meat, leaving 1 inch of headspace. It must be processed for 75 minutes (pints and half-pints) and 90 minutes for quarts, at 10 pounds pressure. If you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet, consult your canning book for directions on increasing your pressure to suit your altitude, if necessary. Ham is wonderful, canned like this. I do it every year! — Jackie

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Obviously, we can’t use an electric stock tank heater. Propane heaters are expensive to buy — and to run! Will remembered his dad telling him about his chore, as a kid, of having to fill his grandpa’s wood-fired stock tank heater every day and that got Will to thinking. We have two big tanks for the horses that we fill with hoses, chopping ice out in-between. But, sooner or later, the ice gets thicker and thicker until there’s only a five-gallon basin left unfrozen in the top. Will looked online at some wood-fired heaters and thought he could manufacture one. A trip to the dump brought back a couple of small hot water heaters, which he dismantled for the tank inside. Then he welded an air vent pipe on (square one in photo), cutting a hole in the lower side and putting a chimney on top to vent the smoke. Then he added a piece of 8-inch pipe, welded on top to load the wood, with a flat swinging cap to close after the fire is going.

He tried it yesterday, first in the cow’s tank, which was also frozen pretty badly. By evening, the tank was half unthawed! So this morning, he took it down to the horse pasture and set it in a chopped basin on top of the ice, and fired it up. Now, two hours later, there is a wide basin of water around the heater and all the afternoon to go. (And because it’s forty degrees today, that should help a lot!)

It’s amazing what can be done with very little money to make homesteading on a shoestring much more enjoyable! Thank you, Will! — Jackie

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And now we are waiting for the call to come pick up our pork at the processing plant. Of course, it’s going to be a little longer before the hams and bacon are smoked, but the wait will be worth it! I’m hoping that by next year we will be set up to smoke our own meat again. Both Will and I have done it before, but right now, we don’t have a smoker or facilities to set one up. (There’s always a next year project!)

We kept our two gilts and are bringing a friend’s boar over to breed them. We’re trading breeding services on our buck goat for their boar’s services, so it will work out great for both of us. We’d hoped to breed both to a red wattle boar, but their only red wattle boar weighs 800 pounds. He’d squash our gilts! So we’re using their Berkshire boar this time and have reserved a purebred red wattle boar from the same sow that we got our barrow from — unrelated to either gilt. We don’t want to raise lots of pigs. Grain prices are horrible and don’t look like they’ll ever come down again. But we’ll raise a couple of litters a year and sell the extra weaner pigs to help pay for the feed costs for the pigs we keep to raise to butcher. I really do love the red wattle pigs and our friends say there’s no better pork. I’ll let you know about tomorrow! Mmm.

Meanwhile, I’m working on an article for the magazine on off-grid living on a shoestring, getting ready for a second Christmas dinner with my son, Bill and his wife, while Will is out burning brush piles. As our land was cut-over Potlatch timber land, there were lots of slash piles up on our ridge. UGLY. They were too rotten to use as firewood, so they just sat there. As we’re having an open winter, Will decided to burn them as there’s 3-4 inches of snow on the ground for safety. Last night, he burned six piles up on the ridge and BOY does that look better! And today, he set off the three piles down in our horse pasture. Those were all that was left from clearing the horse pasture, all shoved into one huge pile and two small ones. They all burned nicely, and relatively completely. What a relief it is to have all that gone. Another job done.

On to the next! Will’s working on his bridge, down at the creek. It, too, is coming along nicely, with both ends now down and supported well, rip rap on the upstream side consisting of power poles, boulders, and rock. There’s even planking on top for temporary driving over with the four wheeler! Now he’s hauling gravel to raise the level of the lower ground beyond the bridge, with rip rap to keep it from washing away. This will be a huge improvement over our inaccessible acreage across the creek, except in the winter. Soon, we’ll be able to drive the four wheeler, dozer, or tractor over it year-round. — Jackie

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