Butchering a sheep

My family was recently given a sheep to butcher. It was a show lamb with a bum leg. In the course of researching (we have done chickens and cows but never sheep) I was told by a fellow homesteader that I had to be careful handling the carcass and bury the head, offal, and hide. I usually feed the offal to the pigs. She said it was poisonous. I am very doubtful since we can use the intestines for casings. Have you ever heard of such a rule and why?

Malisa Niles
Woonsocket, South Dakota

I think your friend was thinking about the possibility of scrapie in sheep and goats. But if your lamb was healthy other than the bum leg, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. To be safest, I’d probably not feed the offal to your pigs. There is quite a debate on just how the disease is spread. Some say it’s passed from dam to offspring via amniotic fluids; others say it can be passed from one animal to another. Yet another theory is that eating from a contaminated carcass can pass it on to other animals. This is all irrelevant if your lamb was (and probably was) healthy. — Jackie

Garlic sprouting too early

The garlic I planted on October 6 is already six inches tall, and it’s only October 28. Normal northern garlic planting dictates plant in October, look for sprouts in April. Will the crop survive the winter having already sprouted, or should I pull and replant? I’ve never seen this happen before.

Kristina Dickinson
Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts
 
Your garlic should survive fine, as is. Although not “normal” in some areas, it is in others. My fall planted garlic often sends up leaves before freezing and then goes on to make nice bulbs the next year. — Jackie

Not using a pressure canner

I have a friend who is scared of using a pressure canner so she will can meat, veggies, etc. using her hot water bath. She says that all you have to do is instead of pressure cooking the item 30 minutes or so she will cook it in the bath for 3 to 4 or 5 hrs. It told her I did not think that was safe but she said that she has not gotten sick off of the canned goods yet. Is what she is doing possible, just keep the items in the hot water bath longer?

Nancy Smyer
Lufkin, Texas

Is it possible? Yes. Most of our grandmothers canned meat and vegetables that way. Is it SAFE? NO! If you care about food safety, please don’t even consider canning low acid foods such as vegetables and meat in a water bath canner. There are a lot of things in life we are “afraid” of. We just need to overcome unfounded fears and learn new valuable — and safe — skills. — Jackie

10 COMMENTS

  2. Elizabeth,

    Yes, we do grind our grain for some of our flour (whole wheat). I have an inexpensive hand mill from Emerency Essentials, now called a Victorio. It takes two passes through the mill to make finer flour, but it’s not a big deal. I’d like to buy a Nutrimill one day, but right now our finances are being put to the big barn and there’s no room for it in the budget.

    Jackie

  3. I agree with Jackie, but I am terrified of pressure cookers. Still gonna get one, and take ANOTHER class from our county extension office. I have helped my folks can for years and years, but my dad was the cooker operator. Old dogs CAN learn new tricks, eventually. Good Luck to Nancy’s friend, hopefully she too will visit her county extension office. The people who work there have always been wonderful TRYING to help me and my phobia.

  5. Agree with Jackie and April. It’s just a matter of time until someone gets seriously ill. You can boil jars for 10 hours and they will never reach the temperature it needs. I would never put family or friends at risk. Why take chances? And pressure canning is so easy and safe now.

  6. Yep…what April said!! When your luck runs out and you hit and win the good old botulism lottery, it will be too late. “They” never thought reusing needles in the medical profession was wrong either!

  7. Pressure canning does more than make it “faster and easier.” Pressure canning allows the temperature to rise to higher levels than open kettle canning, high enough to kill botulism in low acid canned foods. Botulism poisoning is relatively uncommon, allowing many anecdotal stories to be shared of “my mother/grandmother/great-grandmother never used a pressure canner and they were fine.” Delphine Hein herself canned for a number of years until 13 people who came to one of her dinner parties died from eating her canned peas (do an internet search and read about it). This was in the 1930s, before pressure canning was really available in the home, but we know more now and don’t have to take those chances.

  8. Jackie, Just curious – if you grind your own wheat or not & if so what grain mill do you usel Thanks so much Elizabeth

  9. Kristina, garlic is planted so shallowly that if yours gets south and west sun you’ll probably want to mulch it 4 to 6 inches deep with hay, straw, dried grass clippings, shreded prunings, shredded bark or whatever else you have on hand. As Jackie said, if the garlic sprouts it will go on to produce bulbs but I think my bulbs are larger (my garlic is in full south and west sun all day) if I mulch and keep it from sprouting. I don’t have any measurements, just observation from my first year without mulch and with sprouts, to the following years with mulch and no sprouts. I pull the mulch back in spring.

  10. I canned low acid vegetables in a water bath canner for four hours for years and years and years, decade after decade. I know my Grandmother canned meat in a waterbath canner for several hours at a time too. It was a common practice of the past.
    Pressure canning is just much faster and easier.

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