It’s hard to believe that those little seedlings are already big enough to transplant! But that’s the way they grow. Just like kids. I’m beginning to transplant from the flats they grew in to 4″ pots and deep, oversized six and nine packs. Today, besides doing Easter dinner, I transplanted tomatoes and peppers. But because I’ve planted over 14 different tomato varieties and 12 different peppers this year, this job has only just begun. We made our own potting soil this year. We haven’t been happy with Miracle Grow, so we made potting soil the old-fashioned way, mixing 1/3 rotted compost, 1/3 black soil, and 1/3 sand-clay mixture. To avoid weed seeds and bacterial contamination, we cooked a roasting pan full of each one in the oven, then turned them into a wash tub to mix. The result was a fine, loose mixture that should grow tremendous plants.

I’ll be doing this every day for about a week, as we not only have tomatoes and peppers, but celery, petunias, dahlias, blanket flowers, lupines, and other flowers, as well. Then it’ll be time to start the squash, pumpkins, and melons! What a garden we hope to have this year. I can hardly wait.

Readers’ Questions:

A day in the life of Jackie

What does a day in the life of Jackie Clay look like? When do you arise and lay your head down at night? How do you fit everything into 24 hours? Do you see your life changing as you age or have you been able to keep to the pace you set ten years ago?

Deborah Motylinski
Brecksville, Ohio

Wow, that’s a tough one, as every day is different. But I’ll try an honest answer here. I get up about 7 AM or so, get David up so he can get off to school. Start the wood cookstove, feed the house critters–goldfish, cat, and our dog, Spencer. Check the greenhouse plants, watering as needed. Visit with Will for a few minutes while his coffee perks. We plan our day’s must-dos, want-to-dos and future plans for awhile while watching the geese come flying down the creek and the eagles flying out of the big woods for their morning hunting.

I go out and feed the baby goats, turn the chickens out, feed the goats, donkeys, and horses, then it’s back to the house to get Mom up, get her breakfast, meds, etc.

Today I got David up and off to church, transplanted tomatoes and peppers into 4″ pots, fed the bottle baby goats lunch, swept the dried mud from our floors (you can’t help tracking in this time of year!), gathered eggs, cooked Easter dinner, washed a few loads of clothes, helped Will load our 8N tractor on the trailer, checked on the rhubarb, which is poking up through the mulch, planted some wildflower roots in our woods by the beaver pond, then it was chore time again and I fed, watered, and played with the donkeys, goats, and horses. Fed and watered our huskies (and played with them too). Transplanted a few more peppers, got Mom ready for bed, did her meds, and now, at 9:37 PM the blog. I’ll probably get to bed about 10:30 and oh how nice that’ll feel. But it was a good day!

No, my life’s not changing much, over 10 years ago. I’m taking a few more breaks during my work and maybe not doing it as fast as I did, but about the only thing that is different is that I appreciate everything more than I did back then. — Jackie

Cottage cheese from sour milk

After searching all over the BHM website anthologies and back issues, hard as I have tried I cannot find a recipe for making cottage cheese from sour milk. I’m pretty sure this is the way it was done before cultured cottage cheese came onto the scene. Do you have a recipe or can you direct me where to look for a recipe to make cottage cheese using sour milk?

Cheryl Ochenkowski
Eastpointe, Michigan

Yes, you can make cottage cheese from sour milk. The only trouble is that sometimes the results are not dependable; some is more acid than others because of the degree of souring of the milk and whether it is store milk or raw milk. The process is very easy. Just heat half a gallon (or so) of sour milk in a double boiler gently until a soft curd forms. Then pour it out into a colander lined with a doubled cheesecloth or clean piece of white sheet and drain it for an hour. Add salt, pepper, or herbs as you wish and refrigerate, covered. — Jackie

Spoiled pickles

Looking forward to the garden again, and to restarting my apple and cherry trees. We lost several to the rabbits; they totally stripped bark and cambium up to 3 feet from the ground. Looking forward to canning some rabbit.

Question: I bought 10 pounds of real nice Kirby cukes and tried pickling them. Have done this several times (brine method) and have had varying success with them. The last two times they just sat there and spoiled — no fermentation, as far as I can tell. No scum or bubbles to skim off, just flat-out spoiled. I use a clear plastic (food-grade) tub for this, not a stoneware crock. Everything is sterilized beforehand, and I keep it in an unheated room, with a cheesecloth cover over it. Any thoughts on what might be wrong?

Howard Tuckey
Lisle, New York

Just a few thoughts as I can’t oversee your pickling process to tell for sure what is going wrong; is the brine too weak (could you be putting the salt on top of the cukes where it doesn’t mix with the old brine when adding more?), could a part of one or more cukes be poking up out of the brine? Even one little piece sticking out of the brine will cause spoilage. Be sure to have a sterile weighted plate or food grade plastic bag full of the same brine on top of the cukes and brine to completely submerge them. Are you washing them well before pickling? Clinging field dirt can cause spoilage, and it doesn’t have to be much. Are you holding your brining pickles in a cool, dark place, such as a corner of your unheated basement or root cellar? Too much heat will sometimes cause fermentation of pickles to stop.

I hope this helps because I sure want you to have great success with your pickling! And darned those rabbits! They ate a few of my black raspberry canes, too. But fortunately I still have a whole bunch. — Jackie

The book was fun to write, but I’m honestly glad I’m done with my part. Sort of like being on deadline! Whew! Now I can get back to doing what I was writing about and helping Will on the addition.

Readers’ Questions:

Making soap

I made soap recently and used Backwoods Home Magazine issue #84 the article by Grace Brockway titled “The joys of making soap” and used her basic lard soap recipe. This was my first time making soap and it didn’t set up. I let it set about 3 days and it was really runny and felt a little oily to the touch. I then went to the first anthology (the first two years) and found an article about soap making. It said to pour the soap back into my bath canner with water and heated it up until it gets real creamy looking. Then to poured it out into the mold again. And that is what I did. That time it did set up. But it is really soft even after two weeks or so. I can still cut it with a knife and on the inside it is real sticky. After it has been exposed to air it will form a soft shell so it is not sticky, but it is still soft. Is there something that I did wrong or could do differently?

Jarad Brinkerhoff
Glendale, Utah

Often when we are learning a new skill, we don’t get it right the first time. It takes practice. Soap is no exception. The trick is knowing when to pour the soap out into the mold. If you pour too soon, it will stay soft, like yours did; too long and it gets hard and brittle. You might reclaim the soap by once again heating it with minimal water, even if you have to chop or grate it. Then whip the tar out of it with a wooden spoon, while it heats. Pour it our into fresh molds and put them in a warmish place to set. (Not in a cold basement; cold sometimes prevents soap from setting up.)

I’m sure your next attempt will be less frustrating. — Jackie

Good laying chickens

Could you please tell me what type of chicken is a really good layer and setter I have Dominique and Buff Orpingtons. But they are to fat, sassy and busy to set, they are pets to me I love and enjoy them so much, but would like to have some that are good setters. Any suggestions?

Penney Schmitzerle
Leitchfield, Kentucky

Your chickens should be good setters, as the breeds are known for that. I’ve had Buff Orpington hens that would hatch a golf ball. How old are your hens? Young hens often don’t get the hang of sitting on eggs; it takes a little age. You can also try any of the Cochins; they are really good mamas. Good hatching! — Jackie

Rinsing grain and woodstove baking

You said not to buy wheat (or corn) from the feed store for food purposes because it is not cleaned well. Well, would it work to wash the grain, dry it well, and then use it?

Gail Erman
Palisade, Colorado

I’m sure you could rinse your grain to rid it of bug parts, dust, etc. Just be sure it is very dry, inside and out (don’t soak it!) before storage, as it will mold if it is not.

Pick up a camping oven. They are basically a tin or aluminum box that you sit on top of your stove, with a rack in it to elevate your baking off the stove top’s heat. They work pretty well, but don’t bake a large loaf of bread. Usually you do rolls, biscuits, or small loaves in them. — Jackie

Floor insulation

We are in the process of adding an addition onto our house for our handicap daughter and our master bedroom. What do you consider to be the best way to insulate the floor for the addition will be on concrete pillars and have a crawl space of about 10 inches. The builder wants to use regular insulation (the pink stuff) but I am concerned about moisture and little critters looking for a place to
live.

Michelle Chapin
Fresno, Ohio

What we did when we built our addition with a crawl space was to tack strips of 1″x2″ along the bottom sides of the floor joists and laying OSB down on them, sealing off the access to the fiberglass insulation to the “critters” who love it for nests. Because your crawl space is so low, you might consider using treated plywood in place of OSB because of the possible moisture issue. The fiberglass is added above the panels. — Jackie

Storing honey

I’ve been given a plastic jar of honey — perhaps 3/4 of a gallon — that my father harvested 40 years ago. I know honey lasts forever, but I’ve also heard that botulism grows on honey. I hate to process it by boiling it, but would prefer that to creating a health risk. How can I make sure my family is safe in eating it?

Roman and Kelly Balaban
Wilmington, California

I have no information regarding ADULTS or older children getting botulism from eating honey. The risk is for infants under the age of 12 months of age. If you have no infants in your family, I, personally, wouldn’t worry. I have some of my own honey that is over 15 years old and I am still using it. It tastes fine and we are all alive. — Jackie

Canning lemon juice

I was hoping you might be able to help me. I just received three big bags of lemons and was hoping you might have some ideas on how to preserve them. I read in your archives how to dry them (which I will try), but would also like to make and can them as lemonade? Is this
possible?

Tami Wagner
Manning, Oregon

Glad to hear you scored on the lemons. You can juice them and can the lemon juice but I’m not so sure about the lemonade as you’re adding a lot of water which dilutes the acid in the lemonade. Why not juice the lemons, then can up the juice; it only takes a minute to make your fresh lemonade by adding the juice to water and then adding sugar to taste. To can the juice, heat the strained juice to 165 degrees; do not boil. Then ladle it into hot jars, leaving 1/4″ of headspace. Process the pints or quarts for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. (If you live at an altitude over 1,000′, consult your canning manual for directions on changing your processing time to suit your altitude, if necessary.) Enjoy your bounty! — Jackie

This Franken-bill is, in my opinion, only the start. The government has learned not to cause public outcry by taking giant steps. So it nibbles away at our freedoms in tiny bits that are “for our safety and own good.” They say things like “mad cow,” “bird flu” and people agree to anything.

Now they’re talking about tracking the vegetables farmers grow and sell (or give away) because of “bacterial contamination,” etc. For crying out loud!

For more information on this, check out: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-875

and on the NAIS:
http://www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/omni/jes/divajes_111_hromni2009_jes.pdf and
www.nicfa.org

Most of you readers know me pretty well and know I’m not highly political or radical. This stuff scares the crap out of me. First it’s your animals and vegetables and pretty soon it’ll be your children. We need to keep informed and active on this one or we’ll lose yet another freedom that will about kill self-reliant living! Gee…could that be what this is really all about?

Oh, by the way, we have our radiator fixed and a new, used fan on the way. Wow, it was hard to find parts!

Readers’ Questions:

New book

I was wondering when you are going to publish your own cookbook? I know one person asked and you said sometime next year, just wondering when next year was. I can’t wait to get one of them!

Teresa Ro
New Freedom, Pennsylvania

I have just finished the new book and we’re working to put in photos, etc., along with all the finishing editing, etc. But it’s a book on growing and canning your own food, not a cookbook (although it does have a lot of recipes on how to use your home canned foods). It won’t be too long before it is available. — Jackie

Buying wheat from the feed store

Can a person buy their wheat that they are going to bake with and eat from the local feed store?

Bonnie Plasse
Rolla, Missouri

In a survival situation, that wheat would sure be okay. But it isn’t cleaned like wheat is that is destined for your table. It has more dust, small bits of chaff, bug parts, etc. If you want cleaner wheat, buy it from a bulk foods store or bread wheat outlet. — Jackie

Autobiography

After reading “Jackie’s Childhood” in the March/April 2009 “Ask Jackie” column, my mom and I wish you would write your autobiography pre-”Starting Over”. You are an interesting person and we enjoy your writing.

Pam Ayala
Arlington, Washington

Me interesting? You should just ask my kids. They agree I’m pretty boring. I will mention this to Dave and see what he thinks. — Jackie

Canning pasta, shredded zucchini, and pickled squirrel

I recently received a free issue of BHM and was so impressed I ordered a 4 year subscription and all available back issues. I love the straight forwardness and the canning issues, I am learning a lot. Now my questions are: May a person can spaghetti, made with burger, noodles, and ingredients? And how would you can fresh shredded zucchini? And have you ever heard of a recipe for pickled squirrel? Myself and my wife love to can and when I come up with something useful I will send it in.

Conel Rogers
Makanda, Illinois

While you can home can pasta and rice recipes, such as chicken rice or chicken noodle soup, spaghetti, when canned, is a quite dense product, as you have much more pasta in it. So I wouldn’t recommend canning it. Can your seasoned sauce, complete with favorites, such as mushrooms, meat balls, sweet red peppers, or roasted tomatoes. Then just boil up your spaghetti pasta and you’re in business.

Shredded zucchini doesn’t can up very well; it gets mushy. It’s better frozen or dehydrated. Or best used fresh from the garden, of course.

I’ve never heard of pickled squirrel, but I’m sure someone, somewhere has done it. Any recipes out there? — Jackie

Growing grass for chickens

We would like to know what type of grasses chickens prefer to eat. We know chickens will eat anything, but we wanted to know if there was a type of grass or ground cover that chickens like better. We were thinking of clover, maybe vetch, or alfalfa. Also which would be the most nutritious?

Robert & Gloria Leustek
Gladstone, New Jersey

You’re right, thinking that legumes like clover, vetch, or alfalfa are both highly nutritious and loved by chickens. We are planning on turning our chickens out into our new orchard where it was planted in clover, along with the wheat and oats we harvested last fall. They will be “free ranging,” and also fenced in at the same time, being able to scratch, eat clover, bugs, and weeds at will. And they’ll stay out of my other gardens! — Jackie

Canning meatloaf

I found where you told how to can meatloaf in Aug 14, ‘07 blog. Can it be roasted or baked in a wide mouth glass jar or does it have to be cut up and put in a glass jar after it is baked?

Nancy Foster
Dallas City, Illinois

I used to just pack the meatloaf mixture into wide mouth quart jars, raw and process it that way. But now canning experts don’t recommend raw packing a dense product like meatloaf. So, instead, I make mini-loaves, just a little larger than my jars to allow for shrinkage during baking, then put them in a roasting pan, side by side and bake them just long enough to thoroughly heat them inside and shrink them down. I pack them hot, into hot jars and make a broth from the pan drippings and tomato sauce and pour over the meatloaf, leaving 1″ of headspace. These are processed (qts) at 10 pounds pressure for 90 minutes. If you live at an altitude over 1,000 feet, consult a canning book for directions on increasing your pressure to suit your altitude, if necessary. — Jackie

Canning cream soups

I was wondering if you could tell me the recipe AND how to pressure can cream of chicken (or mushroom, or whatever) soup? I’m convinced that what I can make at home will be much healthier than what I buy in the store. And I use it a lot as a base for recipes.

Sarah Axsom
Natchitoches, Louisiana

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work at home. If you make a condensed version like store bought soup, it’s too dense to home can (the center of the jar doesn’t always heat enough to kill bad bacteria), and if you use a homemade cream of whatever soup, with milk, it tends to curdle and look yucky. What I do is to can up small jars of chicken bits in broth or diced mushrooms in water, then when I want cream of… soup, I make a simple white sauce (2 Tbsp margarine, 2 Tbsp flour heated together, milk added to make a thicker soup and add the chicken or mushrooms.) It takes only a couple minutes and is much better, and more healthy than store soup. — Jackie

Growing enough to can

My question is concerning how to figure out how much of each vegetable to can and to eat fresh. Our garden was too small last year to do what I wanted. I know you wrote about this but can’t remember where to find it. I have your first CD and have been subscribing for 2 or 3 years.

Also, I feel like such a dork! I made a comment to you on line that you should write a book on dairy goats. I’d ordered the little book Starting With Dairy Goats and WOW you wrote it. I feel fairly confident with our upcoming kidding the first week of April. Now if I can just get the girls comfortable on the milk stand all is well.

Good luck with that radiator problem. My husband has a portable mill. When big equipment goes down it can be an economical killer to get it up and running smooth again.

Dinah Jo Brosius
Battle Ground, Washington

What we do is to eat all we want fresh and can the extra. Very soon you discover what you really need to grow more of in your garden so you have enough to do both. I used to alternate some foods so I had more room. Herbs, especially, I grew on alternate years, saving the room for more carrots or beans that we ALWAYS ran out of by the next summer. Of course, I expanded the garden every year until I had enough room for everything I needed and even a little room to try “exotics” we weren’t used to having in the garden.

We finally found a local radiator guy to fix the radiator; we couldn’t find a used or even after market NEW one anywhere in the country; I spent 3 days on the internet and phone. And just yesterday, we found a fan for it. (When the fan bites a chunk out of the bottom tank of the radiator, it really, really damages it!) So in a few days, Will should have the dozer back working again. Thank GOD! — Jackie

Turning jars upside down after processing

Are you suppose to turn processed jars upside down for 15 minutes or so after removing from the canner to insure them sealing?

I’ve been canning for years and have never heard much less done this. I’ve not had a problem with jars not sealing either. My friend tells me that it must be done that way.

Nancy Hanson
Washburn, Wisconsin

No, don’t turn your jars upside down to seal them. In fact, this can cause jars NOT to seal. Check all your canning books and manuals. None say to turn them upside down. Old recipes for jams, jellies and preserves that weren’t water bath processed used to say that and I suppose it did help them seal because the whole contents of the jar remained hot that way. But it’s much better to be sure your jars seal by water bathing them instead of inverting them. — Jackie

Canning butter

I tried canning butter for the first time. I noticed on the bottom of the jars the butter is liquid, the body of the jar is solid looking and the lid is sealed tight. Is it normal for the butter to be liquid on the bottom and the rest solid? Is it safe?

Colleen Lebo
Jonestown, Pennsylvania

Yes, that is normal. Mine has it in the pantry, right now. To prevent this, you can heat your butter while melting it, stirring as you do, to drive off the excess moisture in the butter. Some folks shake it as it cools to mix in the liquid so it doesn’t settle. I don’t. As canning butter is “experimental”, I can’t tell you that it is safe. I can tell you that I’ve used it for years with no problems, as have many, many other people. — Jackie

Two days ago, the weather radio that I turn on first thing each and every morning started warning us that a major winter storm was heading our way. It was kind of hard to believe, because we had only about 4″ of snow on the ground and the weather was pretty typical of this time of the year. A bit cold, cloudy, spitting snow on and off; nothing too bad. But I know enough to ignore the warning. So yesterday, we got ready. David took off first thing in the morning to haul our last two loads of square hay bales from the farm we bought them from. I got two more “extra” big round bales of hay to see our horses and donkeys happily through the storm, then set to work to tighten up the place. I filled the water tanks in the basement, stuffed extra insulation in the cracks of the chicken coop, gave the goats extra bedding to snuggle down in, watered all the stock extra well, hauled in a wheelbarrow load of kindling, then a big load of large chunks from our storage pile of 9 truckloads, under the porch. We still have about half a cord on the enclosed porch, but these pieces are all hardwood and are bigger. That way they last longer. By evening, it was still. STILL, like just before a huge thunderstorm. It seemed warm, being only 20 degrees with no wind. I made sure the snow shovel was handy on the porch, then waited. This morning it hit! We got over an inch an hour with a 30 mph wind. And it’s going to go on all night. Then the temperature’s going to drop out of sight. They’re talking about a low of -38 tomorrow night, with wind chills of -45 to -50. Brrrrrrr. Yep. I’ve learned to NEVER, never, ignore the warnings. We’ve got plenty of wood, propane, just in case, too. There’s 600 gallons of water in the house tanks, tons of hay, grain for the livestock, a full pantry, a pretty snug little cabin, the snowplow’s on the truck and we’re cozy inside watching the snow blow by. We feel blessed, indeed.

Readers Questions:

Researching his own questions

I saw what Dave Duffy wrote on his blog, so I decided to research my own answers to the questions I asked you a couple weeks ago. I always think I don’t have time to do that, or don’t know how, but I surprised myself and found out it wasn’t as hard as I thought. And I discovered all kinds of things about using my computer, plus I found the index of questions to you over the last couple years. Wow! I’m glad you’re there when we really need you, but I’m glad to know where to look for answers for myself, most of which I found had already been asked and were in your past blogs!

Steven Gregersen
Fortine, Montana

I’m just learning the capabilities of my computer, too. It’s amazing! — Jackie

Storing garlic in olive oil

We just moved here to New Mexico from Vermont and brought with us a lot of home grown garlic. We have a lot and would like to store them in Olive oil. Can this be done,and for how long? Some people say it cannot be done because of botulism. I already have peeled the garlic and put them in live oil.

Frank Barber
Deming, New Mexico

Your garlic and oil, when kept refrigerated, will stay good for a long, long time. Just be sure you don’t leave the jar out on the counter.

There’s not really a reliable way to safely can garlic in oil. What a lot of folks do is to FREEZE small amounts of garlic w/oil, in individual containers, like ice cube trays, then dump the cubes out into a freezer bag. Then when you want your olive oil w/garlic, just thaw out a cube or two. You can also pickle garlic, but since you’ve already put yours in oil, that won’t work. I dehydrate a lot of mine, and that works just great! — Jackie

Growing potatoes in tires

Potato tire stack–I tried it this past summer. Did everything like the article said, and come harvest time, I had shoots out the top, they dried off, and when I went to find my treasure, I only got a handful of little new potatoes…the rest of the dirt in the stack was just that–DIRT! Any ideas on what could have gone wrong? I added each tire when the stalks were high enough and only buried them 8″ per time, using very loamy, loose dirt/compost…very puzzled how it could look so good above ground but do NOTHING under the ground! Sure don’t want to do that work again without having any idea why it failed! How do you make sure in a stack that high that there is enough water at the bottom…that’s my only thought!

John Wendling
Berea, Ohio

It sounds like maybe your potatoes didn’t get enough water. One way to cure that problem is to cut a 4′ piece of PVC pipe and drill 1/4″ holes down the length, every 6 inches. Put a bottom cap on it, and when you’ve got all tires in place, gently pound the stake in on one side. Leave the top sticking out of your top layer of tires. When you water, stick your hose in the pipe and just leave running slowly for awhile. The water will ooze out of the pipe and soak the whole depth of the tire bed.

Now, before you try this watering trick, think back. Did you water your potatoes TOO much? That will also result in low production. Or did you fertilize a lot? Was your compost high in manure? High fertility, especially high amounts of nitrogen will result in huge potato vines and few actual potatoes. (Just a couple of ideas for you…)

I’m hoping you’ll have better luck next year. Many of my friends use this method and love it. — Jackie