{"id":2588,"date":"2012-09-20T03:00:26","date_gmt":"2012-09-20T07:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=2588"},"modified":"2012-09-20T03:00:26","modified_gmt":"2012-09-20T07:00:26","slug":"q-and-a-preserving-prunes-and-pigs-in-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2012\/09\/20\/q-and-a-preserving-prunes-and-pigs-in-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Q and A: preserving prunes and pigs in winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preserving prunes<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have about 40 pounds of prunes in 1-pound bags. I am not sure if I can eat that many before they go bad.<\/em><\/p>\n

I have the nine tray Excalibur dehydrator. But, I think the prunes would have to be cut up or mashed to get them dry. I don’t mind making prune powder. Or, I could can them. I have a water bath canner and a pressure canner. I really don’t want to add sugar since when I stew prunes, I never use sugar. I can freeze the bags but they will not last as long as it will take me to eat them. <\/em><\/p>\n

Is it possible to pack them in jars as they are and pour water over before processing?<\/em><\/p>\n

Linda<\/em>
\nCullman, Alabama<\/em><\/p>\n

Are these prunes, as in store packaged prunes? It sounds like it. If so, just store them in their bags, inside a rodent-, moisture-, and insect-proof container and they’ll stay good for decades. Just like raisins. Much less work, too! — Jackie<\/p>\n

Pigs in winter<\/strong><\/p>\n

How did your pigs do during the winter, Jackie? How cold did it get there? We are heading into winter here with snow on the mountains but not yet on the ground and we just added 3 young pigs to our farm. We’re still working on their winter pen and I was wondering what size of house you would recommend. The outside open area is 28 x 38 feet. The plan is to build a straw bale winter den for them and secure it on the outside with pallets and rebar. I’m picturing in my head how much room a 200-pound person would need to lay down x 3. Any suggestions?<\/em><\/p>\n

Shannon in Chickaloon, Alaska<\/em><\/p>\n

Pigs do fine in the winter. We have plenty of snow and it was -35 several times; below zero most nights all winter. We made a pallet pig house using a pallet on each end, one side of the barn for one side and another pallet on the other side with a door open to the south. We stuffed the pallets with straw, top to bottom. Then we added a scrap plywood roof. For more insulation, you could stack straw bales on top. Pigs will tear a straight strawbale house apart for fun. With plenty of bedding, the big pigs do fine. They love to crowd together for warmth and togetherness. Use plenty of bedding throughout the winter and they’ll do fine. — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preserving prunes I have about 40 pounds of prunes in 1-pound bags. I am not sure if I can eat that many before they go bad. I have the nine tray Excalibur dehydrator. But, I think the prunes would have to be cut up or mashed to get them dry. I don’t mind making prune […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11,13,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2588"}],"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=2588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}