Ask Granny - January 2009

Here's 9 questions answered for this month's ASK GRANNY.

Hope you'll enjoy the questions as much as I enjoyed answering them.
Happy New Year!
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QUESTION 1



Dear Granny,

You do some animal raising and I'm sure you know quite a bit more than myself. My question is, what is the easiest edible animal to raise? The best starter animal that is, both in price and in headaches. When I get my own farm going, I hope to not have to do a lot of vet trips so ones I either don't have to worry about medically too much, or ones that are sturdy or plentiful enough that I don't have to worry about them dying off.

-Lee in IL

Lee-
Without a doubt rabbits are the easiest and most cost effective animal when it comes to putting meat on the table.
Going by today's prices (2009), $150 would probably set you up with cages, water bottles, feed pans and grade breeding stock if you bought carefully.
That is 2 does and a buck; each with their own cage.

Not all rabbits are suitable for meat production.
Stick with the California, New Zealand and Creme D'Argent breeds.

In so far as having the vet out for a sick rabbit....that's probably not going to happen.
The vet call will cost you more than the rabbit.
In my opinion, a sick rabbit is a dead rabbit.

Rabbits are historically and traditionally the cottagers and homesteaders animal.
They don't take up a lot a space and pay back in a big way.

It's one of the reasons people use to keep them in cities and in towns.
Rabbits work in perfect tandem with vegetable gardens.

Rabbit manure can be applied directly to plants in the garden.
It won't burn plants and does not have to be composted or aged.
Basically you feed the rabbits from the garden, and then re-cycle what you fed them back to the garden.

Rabbits are much easier to dress out than chicken.
They are more efficient in turning grain, vegetables or kitchen waste into food for humans.
Rabbit meat is high protein and very low in fat.
It's much lower in fat than chicken.

The hardest thing about raising rabbits for meat is killing them.
It is very hard to kill a helpless furry, cute animal.

For some reason rabbit meat fell out of favor in this country sometime after the 1920's and it is hardly ever seen in the grocery store these days.


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QUESTION 2



Hello...
I just found your site and have really enjoyed reading it all the last 2 days.
I do have a question about your pantry quantities.
What you can and freeze each year when you are planning is it to feed just the two of you or do you add enough for family members as well?
Thanks
Susan

Susan -
I only plan enough food & supplies for just 2 middle age adults.
When we had a child at home the quantities were a little different.



There is enough food set aside that I could feed my immediate extended family (7 adults/2 children) in a disaster for about 4 - 6 months before we’d find ourselves in a little trouble.



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QUESTION 3

Granny,
I really enjoy reading your blog. I always refer back to your food pantry lists. Could you please explain how and where you store your rice, oats, and bean items. I just recently stocked up and want to make sure I can provide them with the longest shelf life.
You are a true inspiration!
Mandi

Mandi -
I store my grains, beans, rice, legumes, flour and other dry goods a few different ways.
I use old Mason jars for the beans, rice and legumes that are stored in the kitchen.

I use large tins for sugar & flour.


I use large clear plastic tubs for foods that are stored in my basement.




When the food that is stored in the tins & Mason jars runs out I re-supply from the basement.
That way the food is rotated.
If I have the room in my freezers I will store flour, oatmeal and other grains there.



Freezing flour and grains keeps the bugs out.

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QUESTION 4

Granny -
I have been reading a lot about the benefits of whole wheat flour.
With the increase in the price of flour I am considering purchasing a wheat grinder to make homemade bread for my family. I am encouraged to
find your recipe for bread, thank you.
Just curious, what grinder do you use to grind fresh flour?
What advice would you have for beginner?
Thank you,
Jodi


Jodi -
I use an old cast iron mill to grind my flour.
I have to put the wheat through the mill about 3 times to get it fine enough to suit me.



Just so you know, I don’t grind all the flour that I use for baking.



I do buy #25 pound sacks of white flour when I find them on sale.



I mix home milled flour about 50/50 with store bought flour for most of my breads & rolls.
I have never found a recipe for 100% whole wheat bread that I have been happy with.

In my opinion the loaves are too dense & heavy.
I might work on a recipe this year for 100% whole wheat bread and see what I come up with.

When starting out making breads from home milled flour, my advice is to find a good recipe and cut the fresh ground flour with sack flour.

Start by first substituting 20% of flour with fresh milled whole wheat flour.

See how it works.
If you are happy with the product, increase the whole wheat flour next time you use the recipe.
Don't be afraid to experiment.
You will have some failures, but don't let that stop you.
Baking failures are appreciated at bird feeders and by dogs and cats.

Some recipes will take more fiddling with than others.

And don't forget, home milled flour must be refrigerated if you don't use it right away.
Fresh milled flour will turn rancid if set out at room temperature for too long.
Good luck!

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QUESTION 5


Granny-
You talk about your sheep and goats often.
What type breeds do you have? Meat or milk goats?
And do you use your sheep for meat or mainly wool?
What breeds are they?

I raise pure bred Border Cheviot sheep.



I also have 3 Montadale X Cheviot ewes that I bought this past summer from another sheep producer.
The ewes I bought are daughters & granddaughters out of a ram that I had sold him a few years ago.


I wanted some of my old bloodline back.

My husband has a few cross bred Suffolk X Cheviot ewes.



He loves broken faced sheep and black faced sheep.



My husband and I run our sheep together most of the year, but they are 2 separate groups.

He has his flock and I have mine.

That’s because we can’t agree on certain management practices and he has different goals.

His goals are to raise big framed market lambs and easy keepers.

My goal is to raise beautiful, normal sized Border Cheviots.
Unfortunately, Border Cheviots in America today are being bred over tall.
It's a show ring fashion that is ruining the breed, and is a foolishness that I don't approve of.



We receive most of our sheep income from market lambs.
Sadly due to NAFTA,CAFTA and other WTO trade treaties, American wool is practically worthless.

In fact we didn’t even bother to take this year’s wool clip to the Wool Pool.
It wasn’t worth the gas.



Instead it was dumped out in our wood lot.

Maybe American birds & wild creatures will have a better use for it than foreign textile mills.
Wool makes a nice bird’s & squirrel’s nest lining.

We don’t own any goats at present and I hope it stays that way for awhile.

We have never raised meat goats because I don’t like them and our fences won’t hold them.

Not to mention that I can’t stand the way billy goats smell.
That said, in my location there is some money to be made in meat goats and they always bring a good price at the local sale barn.

We have had dairy goats in the past, and have milked off & on over the years.



In the past we have raised Alpines, Toggenburgs, Saanens and different types of cross breeds.

We once had a Nubian nanny that we got rid of because I couldn’t stand her crying all the time.
Nubians are very vocal.

And we once had a La Mancha billy named Elvis.
He was a sweetie and didn’t stink too bad.

If I ever get into heavy duty cheese making I would consider having dairy goats again.
Goats are very smart, and baby goats



are just about the cutest and baddest baby farm animal there is.


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QUESTION 6



Granny,
The oil lamps in the background of your pictures are beautiful! Do you have any advice on what to look for in an oil lamp? Aladdin? Eagle burner's?
Thanks,
Christine



Why thank you Christine!
As far as oil lamps go there are basically 3 or 4 kinds.

Mantle lamps, flat or round wick lamps, floating wick lamps and pressurized lamps.

Pressurized Lamps

I have very limited experience with pressurized lamps. They are popular with the local Amish here.
It is my understanding that they can be fussy to operate and dangerous if left unattended or in poor working order.
I think I’ve heard that the flame has a tendency to creep up.

Floating Wick Lamps

Floating wick lamps are really just for decorative lighting.
The experience that I have with them are as small votive lamps that are placed in front of religious icons.

For the most part they are very safe to use, and are based on a design that has been used for well over 6,000 years.

The way that they work, is a piece of cork or other material is fitted with a small wick through the center.
The whole rig floats on top of a layer of oil and water.

Some people will just use oil in the lamp without the water.

The advantage of using oil & water is if the lamp should accidentally over turn the water will extinguish the flame.
Lehman's Hardware sells a nickel floating wick.
Floating wick lamps are very similar in principal to early American Betty Lamps.

Betty lamps just burn fat, grease or oil without the floating cork or water.

Mantle Lamps

Aladdin Lamps are perhaps the best known mantle lamps.



In my opinion they are the most effective type of oil lamp for general non-electric lighting needs and you can easily read by them.

However, they are expensive.

The way that a mantle lamp works is by the combustion of volatile gases moving across the webbed mantle via a round, continuous tube shaped wick and flame spreader.



Mantle lamps are very safe, but like all open flame lighting must be used with common sense and caution.

The top 18"- 24" area around the chimney of an Aladdin lamp gets extremely hot and stays hot for a long time after the lamp is extinguished.
In fact the entire gallery assembly of an Aladdin lamp get super hot.
Be careful.

Aladdin lamps need close supervision if used around children or people who don’t understand how they work.

Flat Wick or Round Wick Lamps

These are the type of oil lamps that most people are familiar with.



They way that they work is similar to a floating wick lamp, except the wick is stationary and is threaded through a brass or nickel burner.



Fuel is drawn up through the cloth wick and is burned off.



The higher the wick is turned up - the higher the flame.



Wick height determines the amount of light.
Only problem, is that the wick can be turned up just so far before the lamp smokes and breaks the chimney.

Round wick lamps do seem to give a bit more light than flat wick lamps and can be turned up higher without sooting and smoking.



Flat wick or round wick lamps are easy to use, but don’t give enough light to read by.



Just so you know, there is a type of lamp called a double wick lamp.

Works just like a single wick except there are 2 wicks attached to the burner.
In theory it gives off twice the light.
Next time I'm out at Lehman’s I might buy one and I’ll let you know if it’s true.


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QUESTION 7

Granny -
I have a question that isn't really about cook stoves, but your stove made me think about canning and the problem I created for myself!
I am very anal and labeled all our canning jars with their ingredients using one of those pouch label makers.
I had NO idea how well those silly labels would stick and now I can't get them off.
The steam from the dishwasher doesn't do it; I can't pick them off, it is driving me nuts because of course I need to reuse the jars next year. (obviously I should have placed label on the jar lid)

Any ideas?
Lee


Lee-
I don’t know what a pouch label is or looks like.
In the past when I have had stuck on labels, I soak the jars in a sink full of EXTREMELY hot water overnight.
Next morning I scrape them off.
If any adhesive should remain I remove it with an old rag soaked in paint thinner.
Works good.

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QUESTION 8

Hi Granny,
We've got the same stove, however ours is in green enamel. I don't worry about the cooking surface during the heating season since it gets so much use. It really paid for itself with the big ice storm we had recently.
Concerning your post about Alladin wick trimming... My Alladin lamps can very suddenly go from a nice bright light to a soot storm in a moments notice. My elderly neighbor told me he's never had that problem because he burns only clear lamp oil,(I use kerosene)...However, that same evening, his lamp sooted up and cracked...clear lamp oil and all..(@ $4.00 a quart!) Is this because we've neglected our wicks, ya think?
Thanks and Merry X-mas,

Dan

Dan -
I don’t know.
I wouldn’t think a dirty wick would do that on an Aladdin lamp or on a flat wick lamp no matter what type of fuel is used.

Maybe the flame spreader is not seated correctly?
Is the mantle locked on?
Maybe the wick needs cleaned?
I'm stumped.

I do know that if you turn a wick up too high and too fast on any type of lamp you can get lots of soot, and on a mantel lamp you'll blacken the net.

By the way, if ever you should have “a runaway lamp” the best way to extinguish it is with an empty tin can placed over the top.



I know it will probably never happen, but I keep a tin can handy just for such an occurrence.

When flames are shooting out of the top of an oil lamp, it’s a bad time to be hunting for the can opener.

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QUESTION 9



I'm curious about a typical menu in your house. I want to move more towards the 100
Mile Diet, and in WA state I think I have a similar growing season to you, so our diets would be similar.
As I move more processed food out of my menu planning, I struggle with creative things to replace them with sometimes.

And how long do your winter squash keep? I just had to throw mine out, and read that they are only meant to last until December. But I for some reason thought I would be able to eat them until spring. Did I store them wrong, or do they only last until December?

Thanks and Merry Christmas!

Sarah

Sarah -
You have two questions for me.

Winter squash is the easy one, so I’ll take it first.

I can’t keep acorn squash much past Halloween.

It always starts to turn yellow or go soft - even if I keep it in a cool location.

But butternut squash is never a problem for me, and will last until the spring.
Those are the only 2 kinds of winter squash I grow.



What I do with winter squash when it starts to look like it’s on the way out, is to freeze it.
I pressure cook it like pumpkin, and then pack it into rigid freezer containers.
Squash freezes very well for up to a year.

Your second question is much more involved.
My ag zone is 5b.
So depending upon where you are located in Washington State, we may very well share a similar growing environment.



That said, you are closer to the west coast and I’m closer to the east coast.
So we don’t have equal distance food hubs.
My largest and nearest food hubs are Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, Erie and maybe Cleveland.



I’m not sure where yours are.
Food hub location does factor into food availability when trying to eat local or when considering the 100 Mile Diet.



While I strive to produce most of my own food, I fall short of the 100 Mile Diet goal.



I have a very large garden, grapes, berries and an apple orchard.
I grow most all of my own vegetables and produce.
I spend the summer canning and freezing the food I produce.



Obviously foods items like coffee, coco, nutmeg, rice, sugar, oranges, olive oil and bananas don’t grow in Pennsylvania and I have to buy them.

I don’t produce any of my own grains, legumes or wheat; I suppose I could if I needed to, but at present it’s simply not worth it.



I buy sack flour, wheat berries, steel cut oats, rolled oats and other dry staple goods..

I also buy some ready made pasta, noodles, chocolate chips, herb tea, bread crumbs, and other types of convenience foods.



I do buy small quantities of peanut butter, mayonnaise/salad dressing, wine vinegar, canned olives, canned milk and tomato paste.

I buy a lot of canned salmon because I eat it very often and haven’t found a local source yet.
It was something I meant to do this year but never got to it.

I buy local raw milk and most of my cheese from a neighbor.
I do make some cheeses at home.

Eggs, chicken and lamb are produced here on the farm.
Most years we do a couple of summer pigs.

We didn’t do any this year because we didn’t have corn stored.
We no longer have our own rabbits or beef cows, and we will have to buy or trade for that if we want it.

That said, I estimate that I produce well over 70% of all the food consumed in my house and I seldom eat out.



I try to always eat in season and eat at home.
If I'm away for the day I pack my lunch or meals.

The last meal I had away from home (besides at my mother-in-law’s or while traveling in NYC) was on my birthday.
I hate to eat out and think it’s a waste of money.

My typical menu may not suit you or your family due to different regional, ethnic, religious, cultural or health differences.

I have no children at home and my husband is not home for dinner 2 or 3 evenings a week.
I eat the same 3 or 4 basic breakfasts every day.

And most of the year I eat salmon, and a fresh or canned vegetable or salad for lunch about 4 or 5 days a week.
During the winter that changes somewhat due to the fact that nothing fresh is in the garden.
I still will eat salmon, but usually eat a hot vegetable, soup or leftovers.

I'm also an Eastern Orthodox Christian.

Orthodox Christians typical fast from meat & dairy and other foods on Wednesday and Fridays.
We also fast during the periods before Easter, Christmas, during the first 15 days of August, at the end of June and other various days.



I don’t always keep a strict fast, but never the less, my religion factors into my menus and food choices.

So with that background, here’s a fairly typical menu per person for a few days.




MONDAY
Breakfast:
cooked steel cut oats with frozen blueberries & milk
cup of herb tea
Lunch:
salmon, garden salad, raw carrots, roll, apple
Dinner:
Roast chicken, frozen or home canned green beans, baked squash,boiled potatoes

TUESDAY
Breakfast:
2 scrambled eggs, home canned tomato juice
cup of herb tea
Lunch:
chicken salad, left over green beans, piece of toast, orange
Dinner:
Lamb chop, brown rice, cooked kale, home canned stewed tomatoes, apple


WEDNESDAY
Breakfast:
cooked rolled oats, home canned applesauce
cup of herb tea
Lunch:
cold salmon, garden salad, left over kale, home canned peaches
Dinner:
Homemade lentil soup, left over stewed tomatoes, roll

THURSDAY
Breakfast:
Soft home made cheese on toast, home canned peaches
cup of herb tea
Lunch:
Lentil soup, roll with butter, hot, home canned beets, garden salad and apple
Dinner:
Ham & eggs, toast with butter & jam, home canned tomato juice

FRIDAY
Breakfast:
Steel cut oats, frozen blueberries
Lunch:
Garden salad, fried chick peas with leftover rice and kale, orange
Dinner:
Buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup (buckwheat flour & maple syrup are local)

SATURDAY
Breakfast:
bacon, eggs, toast, home canned tomato juice
Lunch:
home canned vegetable beef soup, garden salad, roll with butter, home canned apple sauce
Dinner:
Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, frozen broccoli, roll with butter , milk with cookies (Saturday is milk day)

SUNDAY
If I’m going to church I’ll try to skip breakfast if I can.
Orthodox Christians usually fast from sundown or from after midnight on Saturday, if they want to receive communion on Sunday.
This practice varies among Orthodox, and is a private matter of conscience between a person and their spiritual father or parish priest.
If I’m staying home I'll eat breakfast.

Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs, home canned tomato juice, toast and orange
cup of herb tea
Lunch:
Home made lasagna, garden salad or sliced tomatoes with feta cheese (depends on season) roll, home canned peaches
Dinner:
Pork chops, scalloped potatoes, cooked carrots frozen or home canned, fresh spinach or kale, cranberry crunch or strawberry pie (from frozen)

The important thing for me is to eat what I like, eat seasonally and eat what I have on hand.



And I never let leftovers go to waste.

You'll notice that if I have chicken for dinner, I'll eat it for lunch in chicken salad the following day or day after.
Same goes for vegetables served at dinner.
I heat them up the next day.

If I end up with lots of leftovers by the end of a week - I make soup!

The key to my daily menus is food units per adult.
More or less units are used depending on the size of the adult.
Fewer units are used for children.

Typically my husband eats more than I do.

He will eat much more red meat,milk, bread, beer and cheese than I will.
He doesn't eat as many fruits, vegetables or legumes as I do.
His units are different from mine, but the food is still home prepared, home grown and mostly local.

Here's the basic daily units for me personally: I'm 55 years old, overweight and with a moderate activity level.

6 - 12 ounces of first class protein - eggs, cheese, fish, chicken or red meat.

2-3 servings of fruit.
Fresh fruit is always preferred. If I have fresh peaches I eat them. If it's strawberry time I eat them.
If it's the dead of winter I eat what's in the freezer or what I canned.
During the winter I will buy bananas, oranges and grapefruit if I happen to get to the grocery store.

2- 5 servings of vegetables. A serving is about a 1/2 cup.
This is easy for me.
Wherever you see "garden salad" in the above menus, it can be anything I found in the garden.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh spinach, lettuce - whatever.
If I have fresh veggies that's what I eat.
If I don't have fresh, once again I eat what's in the freezer or home canned.

I eat 1 -3 servings of cereal, bread, pasta, legumes or starchy vegetables.
A serving is 1 ounce.

I try to eat at least one serving of milk, cheese or yogurt.A serving is 1 cup.

I will only occasionally plan to eat sweets because they are such a problem for me.
My husband doesn't have my problem, and he'll eat more desserts than I will.

My husband drinks coffee, while I do not.

Believe it or not most people eat the same basic 10 - 12 menus every month.

If I were you I'd pick 10 meals that your family eats, cook them from scratch and build your family menus from there.
Hope this helps.

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