Chicken broth

My daughter works in a restaurant that prepares rotisserie chicken every day. She asked them to save the bones for her, and brought a bunch home last night. We are going to make broth and pressure can it. My question for you is: how long can I keep the bones in the fridge before I have to deal with them? I won’t have time to do all that for three more days. Could I freeze the bones until I have time to prepare and can the broth? There is a fair amount of meat on them. Also, is there a formula for ratio of bones to water?

Julie Hamilton
Lititz, Pennsylvania

I would recommend freezing the bones to ensure great flavor in the broth. Holding them in the fridge would probably work if they were used within three or four days, but freezing would be safer. There is no formula for a ratio of bones to water. Just use your common sense. For more flavor, simmer the bones for at least an hour, adding salt, pepper, or other spices to taste. — Jackie

Salty soil

Last spring I had our garden soil tested and there was too much salt in both gardens. The only way that I can fertilize the soil is horse manure, which is the worst for salt. I can’t seem to find cow manure. That is all being used. First of all how do I get the salt out of my soil, and then how do I re-do the soil for nutrients? We are not sure if we want goats, etc.

Debby Rich
Helena, Montana

In most cases of salt in soils in the west is a result of a flat garden having poor drainage. This allows the salt to sit in one spot until the moisture evaporates, leaving the salt behind. The best way to combat this is to grade your garden so the moisture (rain, watering) drains off reasonably quick. You can slowly do this by working in your rotted manure chiefly on one end or side of the garden, in effect, creating your own slope without using equipment to grade your ground. One thought; are you watering your garden from your house and do you have a water softener? This can quickly add salt to your soil you wouldn’t have otherwise. A quick fix is to plumb in an outside faucet between your well/city water line and the water softener so your outdoor water does not pass through the salts in the water softener. — Jackie

6 COMMENTS

  1. When I make chicken/turkey stock, I do it in my crockpot. I put in the bones, wingtips, skin, fat, a big quartered onion, garlic, carrots in chunks, stalks of celery with leaves, if possible, a couple tablespoons of vinegar, and parsley, if I have it. Crush the bones down as much as possible, cover with water up to about an inch from the top, and let cook on low for about 20 to 23 hours. Strain, remove and save any meat, and season to taste. You can refrigerate overnight and remove fat, if you wish. It is so good, it almost never gets canned!

  3. Here in western CO we have terribly alkaline(salty) soil, in fact when I had mine tested it was almost off the chart! No amount of organic matter will help so the best (and only) thing I have found that works is raised beds.

  4. sorry, finger check – and discover how deep it is because that will tell you whether you have a drainage issue. If you drip irrigate instead of flood irrigate you won’t have water accumulating and evaporating on the soil surface. If you plant cover crops and mulch your crops heavily that will also help keep your water from evaporating and leaving salts on the surface and in the root zone. Raised beds or planting in a furrow and hill system, with your plants on the hills (see Sepp Holzer’s ideas) will also help keep the roots away from the accumulated sodium and soluble salts. Huge amounts of organic material from cover crops and mulch plowed in – no manure – will help. It might be useful to find out whether the salts and sodium are coming from the parent material of your soil, your water or both or manure. It may take some investigation but you can remediate and manage saline or saline-sodic soils.

  5. sorry, finger check – and discover how deep it is because that will tell you whether you have a drainage issue. If you drip irrigate instead of flood irrigate you won’t have water accumulating and evaporating on the soil surface. If you plant cover crops and mulch your crops heavily that will also help keep your water from evaporating and leaving salts on the surface and in the root zone. Raised beds or planting in a furrow and hill system, with your plants on the hills (see Sepp Holzer’s ideas) will also help keep the roots away from the accumulated sodium and soluble salts. Huge amounts of organic material from cover crops and mulch plowed in – no manure – will help. It might be useful to find out whether the

  6. Debbie, some suggestions to add to what Jackie wrote – I’d dig a 2 to 3 foot hole in the garden area to look for an impermeable layer in the soil

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