Getting ready for spring planting; I’m saving squash seeds

Our pumpkins and squash are storing very well. We have them tucked here and there around the entryway and closet. They don’t go to the basement, as both pumpkins and squash like a warmer storage place than our 40 degree basement, which is GREAT for onions and potatoes. By the way, our potatoes are as hard as crunchy apples, and just as juicy.

We are eating both our roasted squash and pumpkins, and feeding a few to the goats and chickens. But before feeding them, I cut them open and carefully harvest the fat, mature seeds from each one. I dry them on pie plates, after squishing them out of the strings. Some I save for seed (from the best tasting and nicest fruits), some I toast with salt for a crunchy snack, while I toast a few others for Mom’s two small parrots, who love the seeds. The strings and meat we don’t eat go to the chickens and goats for a mid-winter snack that they thoroughly enjoy. It also helps cut our feed bill and makes the chicken egg yolks bright orange.

And I love seeing those fat orange pumpkins and multi-colored piles of squash in the house! Tasty decor! Only in the backwoods…

Readers’ Questions:

Turmeric pickles

I have just started to can and LOVE IT! You have been a great inspiration. I can’t wait to get your new canning book. My questions, can you decrease the amount of sugar in recipes such as sweet relish, apple butter or tomato butter, without ruining the integrity of the product. Also, I have an old family recipe for Turmeric pickles. It calls for 2 quarts of sugar, 1 quart of vinegar, 1/2 quart of water. 2TB turmeric and 1 TB pickling spice. But it doesn’t give an exact amount of cucumbers and onions. It just states to add them. Is there a ratio of product to liquid that should be used for safe canning?

Bea Ward
St. Paris, Ohio

While the sugar in many canning recipes is simply for a sweeter taste, like in sweet relish, canning them without it or with less will affect the taste. Many butters can be made without as much sugar, but some people don’t find them to be as tasty. You’ll have to try them without sugar and see how they taste to you. Personally, I use the sugar recommended, then simply eat less of the end product to reduce my sugar intake. A dab of sweetened apple butter tastes better to me than a couple of tablespoons full of unsweetened apple butter. A lot also depends on the variety of apples that you use — some are very sweet naturally…where others are quite tart.

As for your pickles, you want as many cukes and onions as the brine will cover in the jars. Better a bit too much brine, rather than pickles that stick up out of the brine; they’ll get dark and soft during storage. — Jackie

Canning chicken and rice soup

Love your new book! So far we have canned the beef stew and the chicken soup with rice.

Question on the chicken soup: Upon filling the quart jar half full of hot soup, we added a handful of rice. Upon completion, the rice is in a big clump. Has that been your experience, and do you think the rice got heated to the proper temperature?

Ron & Amy Rogers
Centerview, Missouri

While the chicken soup is processing, the rice is boiling around like mad in the broth. When the pressure drops to zero, the rice slowly settles to the bottom of the jars. While it has processed, it did get heated properly. When you reheat it to use, simply fork the rice apart and heat as you would any other soup. — Jackie

Bread machine recipe

I don’t know how you manage to do all you do. You must never sleep. I have a recipe for the lady who wanted to use whole wheat flour and also eggs in her homemade bread. My bread machine has a recipe we like. Here it is; 2 3/4 cups bread flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 2 tsp salt, 2 TBSP dry milk, 2 TBSP butter, 2 TBSP sugar, 7/8 cups water with one egg in the cup before the water, and 1/2 cup yogurt, 1 1/2 tsp dry yeast. This is right out of our old Panasonic bread machine book. Hope this helps her.

Jim
Petersburg, Michigan

Thanks Jim! I’m sure many readers will enjoy this recipe. (Yes, I do sleep; but often not as long as I’d like!) — Jackie

I don’t have a question, just a recommendation to Holly A. about her bread machine’s bread top falling down. My suggestion is to reduce the amount of yeast she is using. I had the same problem and cut the yeast amount in half and it seemed to solve that problem.

Dave Leland
Whitmore Lake, Michigan

Thanks so much, Dave! I’m sure Holly will appreciate your help. — Jackie

Being self-reliant

I have been looking at so much info about how to start being self-reliant, but I am so overwhelmed. Can you please give me a simple starting point and maybe a few steps further? Whew! I didn’t realize being self-reliant was so complicated. Ok it’s more simple than I am making it out to be, but what’s necessary and what’s not? I am starting from scratch here in my city (town of 1200) home in the Ozarks. Thanks for all your time and advice.

Michael Hendricks
Bull Shoals, Arkansas

Hi Michael,

The first step is NOT to get overwhelmed! Really. That stalls your quest. Being self-reliant is a whole journey down a very interesting road. And no two people can exactly agree on what it IS! Start with little baby steps at first. Try to reduce your spending here and there. No budgets, lists, or “have-to’s.” You know what you must spend on and where you waste money. Yes, you waste money. So do I. I don’t really “need” more lily bulbs, more new peppers, that new horse halter.

By spending less, you are instantly earning more. Who doesn’t love a raise in pay? In this way, you’re on your way to becoming self reliant, by providing more for yourself! Trying to get out of debt is a great way to get a larger raise. Everyone likes a bigger home, a nicer home, a newer car, a bigger truck. Sometimes downsizing not only cuts down on your payments but empowers you down a saner way of life. My first homestead had a fixer upper house that stretched the “fixer” part of that! But it was rent free and let me begin to garden, can, raise chickens, have goats, and learn a whole lot.

My truck is a 1985 Chevy with patchy blue paint, but it runs and is paid for. The insurance is cheap and it gets more than 20 miles per gallon. My son, David, just “had” to have a “nice” truck and bought a 2001 Chevy extended cab truck with electronic everything and plenty of chrome. It’s lucky to get 15 miles per gallon, and he owed $155 a month for FIVE years, plus his insurance (mandatory because of the loan) is four times mine. Everyone has their own priorities.

If you have access to, or can find a bit of land, great. Maybe you can start a garden or raise a few chickens and thus begin learning how to provide some of your own food. Then you can begin learning to put it up for later use, canning and dehydrating some of it. Go slow and don’t get overwhelmed. I first did tomatoes and jam…then pickles, green beans, and mushrooms. So much of this is NOT hard to learn. Get a few good books and read a bit in your spare time instead of watching TV. If you don’t have a bit of land, how about growing a few tomatoes in containers on your porch or patio? I know people who line their driveway with potted tomatoes and peppers, grown in 5-gallon buckets. They have enough to eat, can, and sell, too!

Learn building skills. Again, a good book helps, but so does grabbing a few boards, a hammer, saw, and nails and building something — a gate, a sawhorse, a doghouse — something small to start with. If you’ve got a friend, relative, or neighbor who is handy with tools, volunteer to help so they can teach you at the same time. It’s great fun and it can come in oh so handy later on down your self-reliant journey; the more you can build and fix yourself, the more you’ll “earn” by saving. The same carpentry skills you use building a chicken house are used to build your own house!

Try to develop patience and focus on a goal. I pasted a picture of a log cabin in the woods, complete with chickens and a garden, above my bed, where I could see it every night. Now I’m sleeping in that cabin, with the chickens in their snug coop, and the garden waiting for me outside. It does happen, although sometimes not in the way we expect it to.

The more you can provide for yourself and do for yourself, the closer you are to being self-reliant. Start small and rejoice in your progress! — Jackie

Canning water

Comment on home canned water. I have been canning our well water in canning jars, for more than 10 years. I don’t always have a canner full of jars of veggies. I usually have plenty of hot water and hot jars for the beans or carrots, and the pressure is easier to control if the canner is full of jars. I also seal jars of water in the water bath canner. Our well water is tested regularly, so we know what we have (and don’t have). Our high calcium content makes white deposits in the jars. That settles and we don’t use it for drinking, but for washing dishes or the toilet. Thanks for all the information you share.

Mrs. Jim (Sally) Kohler
Boise City, Oklahoma

Thanks for your comments! We have such “doing” readers! I love it. — Jackie

Castrating buck kids

Great to see you well and “Out Catting Around”!

My question is what age is the best time to castrate buck kids with the plier type crimpers? Last year we must have waited too long. I have a not quite wether now. Is the only fix for poor old Bouncer a vet surgery now? He is 9 or 10 months old now.

Dinah Jo
Battle Ground, Washington

I love that bulldozer!

I assume you’re talking about a Burdizzo type emasculatome, where you crush each cord and blood vessel to each testicle. I do my buck kids as soon as each testicle can be plainly felt and the pinchers will fit. That can be anywhere from two to four months of age. But any age buckling…or buck…can be done successfully with them. Just be sure to get the cord above each testicle, between the body and testicle. DO NOT enclose the center dividing membrane in the “pinch”. Leave it pinched tight for about five seconds, then release. I’ve never had a “slip.” Also, do not get real close to the top of the testicle, as one kick and you’ll pinch the top of the testicle, which is not good. You could get an incomplete castration or major swelling. — Jackie

Products from Mexico and wrapping meat

I am wondering why you don’t use products from Mexico and some South American countries. Is it because of their use of pesticides or just on the principle of using USA products?

Also I had to take care of elk meat in a big hurry today so I cut it into roasts and froze it. I wrapped it in plastic, then in freezer paper but I am wondering if both are necessary or is just freezer paper or just plastic bags enough?

Gail Erman
Palisade, Colorado

I don’t use products from Mexico and other “less developed” countries for the simple reason that toxic chemicals banned in the U.S. are used there. I don’t buy food from Vietnam because of all the Agent Orange that was dumped on the soil during the Vietnam War. I’m sorry, but I don’t think it just disappeared. I also believe that good old Americans should be able to produce food that we eat…or I’ll grow it myself.

The tighter you wrap meat for the freezer, the less chance you’ll have of freezer burn. I’ve hung elk in a tree to freeze after gutting and skinning, wrapped in an old, clean sheet to keep the birds off. With a saw, I quartered the frozen meat and brought one quarter in at a time to thaw and can up. That worked fine for me. But of course I had no electricity and no freezer, save what Mother Nature provided. — Jackie

Permaculture

We will be moving to 20 acres in NE Washington state with plans to develop and manage the land in the most self-sustainable method possible (we are hardiness Zone 6 and have frost dates of June 6 and Sept. 7). We are intrigued by what we have read about “permaculture” and its techniques of farming land in a natural manner that maximizes land use and sustainability. What is your opinion of permaculture?

Marilyn and Crew at The Happy Horse Ranch
Oceanside, California

The term “permaculture” is ambiguous sometimes. What one person means is argued by another with equally good intentions. We practice permaculture, to a great extent, here on our homestead. We use only organic materials in our orchards and gardens. Our chickens have free run of the orchard all spring, summer, and fall, happily eating clover, bugs, and fallen fruit. Our prunings are fed to our goats. Our goats are pastured and produce milk and other dairy products for us. Their manure enriches the pasture, as well as the gardens and orchards, as does the chicken manure and horse manure.

We burn wood from our own woods, which is either standing dead or blow down trees. The ashes are spread on our gardens and compost piles, and thus fertilizes our garden and pastures.

We have cleared pastures of many trees, but have left a lot as well, to provide shelter for animals and a windbreak for the gardens, pasture, and our home.

We’ve planted and transplanted many edible trees, shrubs, and perennial vegetables and fruits along the woods borders and here and there, tucked into the landscape. Among these are: pin cherries, chokecherries, bush cherries, high bush blueberries, asparagus, rhubarb, currants, blackberries, edible acorn (burr oak and white oak), hazelnuts, horseradish, and comfrey. They are not fenced or tilled, but are mulched with leaves and straw when planted. We’ll also be introducing mushroom beds in our woods from boughten spores.

But we also grow our garden in traditional rows and wide beds as we grow what we eat and rows and beds are easier to work with. We do use heavy mulch where possible, along with drip irrigation to conserve water.

So do we advise permaculture? That’s a personal decision; one you’ll need to make for yourself on your own land. Enjoy the journey! — Jackie

Canning pasta sauce

I love onions and have a pasta sauce that I make up fresh and really like. I want to can it this summer when I’ve got plenty of tomatoes. Can I add as many onions and mushrooms that I want to the sauce without any detrimental effects? The spaghetti sauce recipe that my canning book has uses 30# of tomatoes and only 1 cup of onion. I’d like to add a lot more onion than that. It is to be pressure canned for 20 minutes for pints. Would that be adequate time to process it regardless of how many onions or mushrooms I put in my sauce?

Mrs. Sarah Paintiff
Bunker Hill, Illinois

No. Sorry, but when you add too many low acid vegetables, such as mushrooms and onions, you can compromise the safety of shorter processing time. I, also, love onions and mushrooms. What I do is to make spaghetti sauce with meat. Because you’ll be processing your sauce for 70 minutes, you can also add more mushrooms and onions safely. — Jackie

Good rear tine tiller

Could you please suggest a good rear tine tiller? Large garden area, heavy soil.

Dawn
Orion, Illinois

In my opinion, the Troybilt 8 horse tiller is absolutely the best. I’m on my second now, after 32 years of heavy, heavy use on red clay, rocks, and prairie hardpan. Of course, after composting and adding plenty of organic material, the soils rapidly got much better, and easier to till. I wouldn’t like to think of a large garden without one. — Jackie