{"id":1810,"date":"2011-11-09T03:00:15","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T08:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=1810"},"modified":"2011-11-09T03:00:15","modified_gmt":"2011-11-09T08:00:15","slug":"q-and-a-blossom-end-rot-and-old-laying-hens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2011\/11\/09\/q-and-a-blossom-end-rot-and-old-laying-hens\/","title":{"rendered":"Q and A: Blossom end rot and old laying hens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blossom end rot<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not a question, but a comment and suggestion for the man with a not very productive garden and blossom end rot on his tomatoes. I’ve learned that blossom end rot is worsened by a lack of calcium. Calcium can be fed easily to your plants by crushing a few egg shells and putting them in the bottom of the hole when planting the tomatoes. I have my own chickens and buy crushed oyster shell for them, so I add about a tablespoon of the oyster shell to the bottom of the hole instead of egg shell. I hope he has better luck with his garden in the future! A successful year will probably convince his wife.<\/em><\/p>\n

Karen King<\/em>
\nMenomonie, Wisconsin<\/em><\/p>\n

Good comment, Karen. Indeed, a lack of calcium often contributes to blossom end rot. I’ve found that the calcium is usually a secondary contributor, however, and that steady, adequate watering nearly always takes care of the problem. Mom used to crush egg shells in her tomato holes, too. And she always had great tomatoes. I, too, sincerely hope his wife is encouraging to his endeavors. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Old laying hens<\/strong><\/p>\n

What do you do with your old laying hens? Mine were about 3\u00bd years old and their laying had really fallen off this summer. We butchered them last weekend. We took the breast meat and ground it up, we added about \u00bc pound pork sausage to \u00be pound chicken. This made a dry, but tasty sausage. After 5 days I boiled the legs and thighs for 45 minutes. This meat is still so tough it was hard to get it off of the bone. I was planning on canning the meat but now I don’t think that its texture would improve with canning. I ground it up with the large blade that came with my Kitchen Aid meat grinder and am thinking about making chicken salad sandwiches out of it. Can you think of any other uses for this meat? What do you normally do with those old laying hens?<\/em><\/p>\n

Shirley<\/em>
\nStevenson, Washington<\/em><\/p>\n

We use our old hens for soup and stews. Boiling the meat for 45 minutes is definitely not enough to get them tender. I don’t grind the meat, except sometimes for chicken salad sandwiches, which comes from the meat I have canned. Pressure canning your old hens definitely tenderizes the meat. To stew your old hens, cut the carcass up, then put it in a large kettle with plenty of water to cover it, then add seasonings as you wish. Bring to a boil, cover, and gently simmer for several hours. I often stew a hen on our woodstove until the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender. Then remove the bones and make your gravy or soup from the broth and meat. I’ve never had a real tough hen, yet. Most of our old hens get canned up after pre-stewing so I have ready-tender meat to use at any time. Other uses for your ground meat? How about chicken enchiladas or fajitas or mixing it with an egg and cracker meal and frying chicken patties, mixing it with your ground pork, an egg, and cracker crumbs and make chicken loaf, similar to meat loaf? — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blossom end rot Not a question, but a comment and suggestion for the man with a not very productive garden and blossom end rot on his tomatoes. I’ve learned that blossom end rot is worsened by a lack of calcium. Calcium can be fed easily to your plants by crushing a few egg shells and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}