{"id":4076,"date":"2014-06-28T03:00:19","date_gmt":"2014-06-28T07:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=4076"},"modified":"2014-06-28T03:00:19","modified_gmt":"2014-06-28T07:00:19","slug":"q-and-a-shelf-life-of-yeast-chicken-coop-door-and-canning-pears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2014\/06\/28\/q-and-a-shelf-life-of-yeast-chicken-coop-door-and-canning-pears\/","title":{"rendered":"Q and A: shelf life of yeast, chicken coop door, and canning pears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shelf life of yeast<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have been searching to find out the shelf life of yeast. I have one jar that is for bread machines. Is it possible to use it to make a regular loaf of bread? I also have active dry yeast but I’m not sure how long is it good for after the expiration date. I grew up on farms. Had my own until circumstances made me go into apartments. I do try to “keep things simple” but do not have a garden. I have learned self-sufficiency for apartment living quite nicely. I had fear of losing my job the last 5 years to perfect this new life style. Now that I have made it to retirement I am going thru my collection of foods. I enjoy all the Jackie Clay emails, Q&A’s and books. Keep up the extremely important work you do. It’s been joy & tears as I’ve watched all your life changes. <\/em><\/p>\n

D. Whirry<\/em>
\nWaukesha, Wisconsin<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m happy that you’re still homesteading, even though you’re in an apartment. Will was living in an apartment when we met via mail but he still was growing container gardens in his windows, including oak trees and pole beans!<\/p>\n

Yes, you can make regular bread from bread machine yeast. It’s the same “animal.” Yeast is usually good when stored at room temperature, for about a year. When frozen, it remains good much longer. I usually have a pound of yeast on the pantry shelf to use daily and another in the freezer. I’m glad you made it to retirement without losing your job. That happens too often today, where one works for years at a “good” job, then is let go when nearing retirement age. Not fair! — Jackie<\/p>\n

Chicken coop door<\/strong><\/p>\n

We need a new door on our chicken coop. One with a handle on both sides since we accidentally locked ourselves in it this winter! Thank goodness for neighbors that need a good laugh when they come and let you out! We live in central Wisconsin and had the winter of all winters with lots of cold air this year. (I am sure you know what we are talking about) Our door right now is a piece of plywood. So what kind of door do you have on your chicken coop? I cannot find a picture of it on this blog. Can you suggest how to make one? Do you think plywood with 2x4s will be sturdy enough? Even with a plain plywood door all of these years the ladies have kept themselves warm. <\/em><\/p>\n

The Bill Bean tomato plants are doing just wonderful from the seed that we bought from you. Can’t wait to try one. Thank you for posting the beaver report. So far I think we have a lot more rain than the beavers planned on. But we do need to make it through July!!<\/em>
\n\u00a0<\/em>
\nCindy Hills<\/em>
\nWild Rose, Wisconsin<\/em><\/p>\n

Our current chicken coop door is made of one-inch rough sawn lumber and 2x4s. I have a hook inside and out so I can’t lock myself in. Although in our chick raising coop, the door kind of drags on the bottom and once it stuck shut with me inside and I had to yell for Will to come let me out, so I know how foolish you felt! When we build our new cordwood, insulated chicken coop we’ll have an insulated door made of 1″ lumber and 2x4s with insulation board sandwiched between layers of 1″ boards for added insulation. And we’ll have a hook inside and out!<\/p>\n

I’m glad your Bill Bean tomatoes are doing good. Ours are too. My biggest one is over 3\u00bd feet tall already!<\/p>\n

Yeah, those beavers. But, like you say, we still have a lot of summer left over so we’ll see. Right now, we’re having way too much rain. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Canning pears<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am confused about canning pears. My neighbor’s tree is loaded (unknown type) and he says I can have all I want. Are they supposed to be fully ripe to can? Did I read that canning pears are picked firm and if so then how do you know when to pick them?<\/em><\/p>\n

Sheryl Napier<\/em>
\nNewport News, Virginia <\/em><\/p>\n

I can ripe pears. But I do like to eat them when they’re a bit crunchy. You can can them either way. Just eat one to see if it is ripe enough. A ripe pear tastes sweet and juicy. A green one tastes BLECYUCKY. Lucky you, Sheryl! Just think of what you can do with all those pears. — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shelf life of yeast I have been searching to find out the shelf life of yeast. I have one jar that is for bread machines. Is it possible to use it to make a regular loaf of bread? I also have active dry yeast but I’m not sure how long is it good for after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,8,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4076"}],"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=4076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}