Bonnie, whom I’m sad to say, we don’t communicate with like we should, mostly on our part, but Bonnie also has a very busy schedule. She’s politically active, volunteers at different spots helping out, continues to garden, and keep groceries on the table for her and her husband Steve.

She’s a wonderful, caring person who has always had a special place in our hearts. Deb and I would like to say how much we appreciate her, and also to thank her for this wonderful poem, actually two, she shared with us this Easter morning.

Bonnie, you’re the best, and thanks again for thinking of us! We love you guys.

This first poem was opened in our e-mail…

I wish for all a very happy, happy Easter Day,

Let us celebrate Him, on this glorious Easter Day.

Bonnie

And now… “Resurrection.” We hope you guys enjoy it as much as we did.

RESURRECTION

The sun, now slowly peeking from the hills across the way,

Then we must live our lives for God, and keep that Home in sight.

Written (rather quickly), by Bonnie Fordham Hollingsworth, April 10, 1998

For Jerry Ray Hollingsworth, a cousin in CA.

Copies were distributed at his church on Easter Sunday.

May you all have a joyous and blessed Easter.

Dub and Deb

STILL JOBLESS AFTER ALL THESE YEARS……This past week., at the White House, President Obama faced the media to once again plug the American Jobs Act, his plan for more stimulus spending, paid for with even more taxes. In September, the U.S. unemployment rate held steady at dismal 9.1%, with 14 million Americans out of work. In September about 103,000 jobs were added, but 45,000 of those were Verizon strikers returning to work, and the number of long-term unemployed (27 weeks or more) increased by 208,000? According to the CBO the unemployment rate will remain above 8% until 2014.

If you demand more, want to see full employment, we will have to wait until 2018, and that will only happen if employers regain their confidence, and begin to add 176,000 per month… In the President’s press conference (October 6th) was asked to comment on the federal Reserves’ chairman’s warning that the economic recovery is “close to faltering”. The President’s answer? Laying the blame as far away from his doorstep as possible, pointing a finger at everything from the tsunami in Japan to the GOP in Congress. Ending his response, he attempted to dress up his plan in an imaginary cloak of bi-partisanship, claiming “every idea we have put forward are ones that traditionally been supported by Democrats and Republicans alike”….. Not so, as the Washington Post points out. A key component of the President’s plan is taxes, and there are lots of them. The Presidents’ proposal would impose $1,5 trillion in permanent tax hikes over 10 years, Senator Harry Reid knows the plan is indefensible, and proved it by going out of his way to “change the rules of the Senate” last night to avoid his caucus voting on it. The Democrats don’t want to be on record of supporting the President’s latest stimulus, so now the legislative body is at an unprecedented standstill. Yesterday, Tuesday, the Senator Reid could get the needed 60 votes…..they are now trying to reduce the bills that will never be acceptable, and reintroduce a new “JOBS BILL” that they hope will pass….

“A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man. Which debt he proposes to pay off with your money “….G Gordon Lilly

United States and Taiwan……diplomatic relations with mainland China in 1979, Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act, with veto proof majorities to ensure that future Presidents would sell the island the armaments it needs to defend itself. The is now in danger of becoming a dead piece of paper, as the Obama Administration “reportedly “is planning to reject Taiwan’s to buy badly needed new F-16 fighters. It’s time for Congress to act, in case Congress decides the self- imposes deadline of October 2011.

IS THE Postal SERVICE DOOMED….Neither rain, nor snow, nor heat is supposed to stop the United States Postal Service from delivering mail, but it can be saved from mounting debt , plummeting volume , and the not-so-slow-motion postal train wreck. Last week, the USPS barely avoided default when Congress extended the due date of $5.5 payment due to the Treasury for retiree health benefits… It lost $8.5 billion last year, and expects to lose $10 billion more in 2011… According to 2010 study by the Boston Consulting Group, mail volume will decline an additional 20 percent by 2020, with first class mail dropping a jaw breaking35 percent.

OBAMA and the SUPREME COURT ….. The Obama administration asked the Supreme expected after the Justice Department announced earlier this week it would not challenge a Lower Court’s ruling.

The key takeaway from this brief is that the White House wants the Supreme Court to hear the case for its merits and weigh in on whether the individual mandate is constitutional. It does not want the Court to dismiss the case on procedural grounds or get into issues of whether parties have a right to be bringing this case in the first place.

“A DEMOCRACY MUST BE SOMETHING MORE THAN TWO WOLVES AND A SHEEP VOTING ON WHAT TO HAVE FOR DINNER”…James Brovard

RISKY IRAQ DRAWDOWN………A flurry of newspaper articles reporting that the Obama Administration may decide to disregard the advice of its military commanders, and reduce the U.S. military presence in Iraq to less than 4,000 troops by the end of the year, which prompted 42 distinguished American foreign experts to write a letter to the President, on September 15, urging him to reconsider.

Although violence in Iraq is much diminished from its peak in 2004-2007, Iraq’s fragile coalition government needs U.S. military assistance to ward off threats posed by pro-Iranian militias, al Qaeda in Iraq terror groups, ant he simmering disputes in northern Iraq between Iraq’s Kurds, Turks and Christian groups……

Time FOR ACTION ON PAKISTAN……….Unless Pakistan agrees to take recourse against those ISI officials involved in the September 13 attack, and to work more closely with the U.S. in confronting the Haqqani network, the U.S. will have to review its policy toward Pakistan. For its part Nina Rabban KHAR, P:akistani Foreign Minister warned” that these continuing allegations could cause the United States to lose an ally”……..wider breach has developed between Pakistan and the United States, the killing of bin Laden, living in an area, a mere stone’s throw from Pakistan’s Military Academy. Pakistan’s “hiding bin Laden for many years is the most serious cause of the distrust of the Pakistan’s, seems that they are playing both sides of the street.

SHOVELING for LABOR……….The first stimulus bill of over $800 billion was sold in part, that our badly needed infrastructure was “shovel ready”……having proven that this bill resulted in creating anything, except an increasing deficit. Now the President wants another stimulus bill “called JOBS BILL”. Which fortunately did not pass in the Senate?

Did this stop cash strapped California’s Governor Jerry brown, no way Jose’….on this past Sunday he signed a bill that attempts to prevent California cities from banning Government-mandated project labor agreements, or PLAs…..PLAs are pre –hired agreements that contractors negotiate with labor unions. Contractors must generally agree to play by union work rules, pay workers union wages, and contribute to union health and retirement funds—whether or not the employees they hire belong to a union.

According to many studies, PLAs raise costs by 12% to 18%, which partially explain why cash strapped cities and states and tapped-taxpayers are against moving to abolish that rule, which unions hope the new law will discourage cities from leaving the doors open to non-union contractors.

The California law is the first of its kind and non-union contractors fear that this new law will deter cities from passing. Cities that ban government mandated PLAs could face legal challenges and harassment from the union. The other fear facing the non-union contractors is the state could refuse to fund their projects….

“IF YOU THINK HEALTH CARE IS EXPENSIVE NOW, WAIT UNTILL YOU SEE WHAT IT COST WHEN IT’S FREE”………….P.J.O’Rourke

WHAT IS NEXT IN LIBYA……….. The Obama Administration, which stumbled into a war in Libya with no clear military plan or exit strategy, now must fashion a suitable and acceptable way forward…The Administrations short-sighted effort to score a quick and easy military over Gadhafi’s regime failed to end the threat to civilians in “days not weeks “as the President promised. The Administration now has to scramble to develop and implement a long term strategy for a post Gadhafi Libya.

Dim headed me, I thought we were no longer going police the world and along the way create statehood.……The United State has committed itself to help the rebel TRANSITIONAL NATIONAL COUNCIL to stabilize Libya, restore law and order and prepare the way for an orderly transition to a new representative government. The USA should also assist in Libya’s reconstruction and the rapid repair of its damaged oil exports back to previous levels.

NOW would be the right time to discuss the Tran-Continental oil and gas pipe line starting in Canada with it ending in Texas. Permitting has nearly been complete, except for the environmentalist’s court actions and threat for not backing Obama in 2012, the agreement will require the President’s signature. Imagine receiving oil and gas from a neighbor without the need of our military. The combination of Canada and the United states will have the largest oil and gas reserves in the world.

Are there problems, of course there was, and still is, mainly in treating the water that is used in the process, has contaminated some of the drinking water……as Winston Churchill once quibbled about Obama’s America “you can count on it to do the right thing—after it’s tried everything else”.

Will go into more detail next issue, very important issue to our way of life.

“JUST BECAUSE YOU DO NOT TAKE AN INTEREST IN POLITICS, DOESN’T MEAN POLITICS WON’T TAKE AN INTEREST IN YOU”…Pericles..(400 B.C.)

SOLYNDRA CONFLICKS EXTEND A LONG WAY……….There is still more to the “Solyndra Senators”……In addition to the taxpayers losing $535 million under the Federal Department of Energy, other federal agencies also provided millions of dollars in grants to states, cities, counties and towns to purchase Solyndra solar panels. Many states provided other tax credits to those who purchased solar panels.

There is also a potential conflict of interest between owners of companies who were recipients of government grants and their employees who may belong to union who take campaign contributions from the owners and unions. The news article predicted that at the end of the day the loss to taxpayers could be closer to a billion dollars.

“TALK IS CHEAP… EXCEPT WHEN CONGRESS DOES IT”…Anonymous

THE BIGGEST TRADE BARRIER…….When President Obama was on his mid-western tour, when asked about the Korea, Columbia and Panama ‘free trade agreements’ WHICH HAVE BEEN SITTING ON HIS DESK FOR OVER 3 YEARS…….his response to the question, was “ these trade agreements all would be law if not for an obstructionist Congress. Passing the deals is something Congress could do right now”

Liar. Liar, your pants are on fire (not from Rep.Wilson)……Congress cannot pass agreements “right now”, because the bill is still sitting on his desk. Signed by Congress over three years ago, and before Obama became President, just needs the President’s signature, and a Page to bring the document over to Congress.

LABOR LEADERS TO OBAMA….STOP KILLING JOBS……..Many major unions are clashing with a Democratic administration, which usually, they walk lock step. They now are starting to call the EPA the “Employment Prevention Agency”

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, of Texas wrote to the EPA on be–half of its 23,000, warning the EPA that “red tape” would jeopardize 2,500 jobs working on 6 power plants across the state of Texas.” The 76,000 member United Mine Workers claim that the closing of fossil fueled plants would kill 54,300 jobs and indirectly destroy 197,140 others working in the coal utility and railroad industries.

There is more on this subject, and breaking news by the minute, but I have run out of time, and my fingers and brain, are getting weary……Hope all is well, see y’all in the funny paper, which are not so funny anymore, as some of the creators are resorting to the news of the day……..AP

Man, I love college football, and I’m anxious to see how the Gators perform this year with a new coaching staff, and a new offensive scheme. This weekend their SEC schedule kicks in! Go Gators!

Mississippi State and LSU tonight on ESPN at 8:00…Deb can’t wait, I promise you!

Today let’s take a look at some of our reader, or friend’s feedback.

The first reader this morning is from Chris:

“Hi there, what kind of butter do you buy? Do you buy the blocks of Land O’Lakes type butter or the BIG kind sold at a Costco? Can you email a recipe? I am getting more into the canning. Mostly I am canning tomatoes and freezing beans and dehydrating tomatoes because I do not have a pressure cooker yet. I have made jerky in my dehydrator, but it never lasts long enough to store. LOL. I would like to try my hand at canning butter.”

“Thanks for any and all ideas or help.” Chris

Hey Chris. We appreciate you stopping in to visit. Yes, as a matter of fact we do use Land ‘O Lakes brand for our butter canning. I don’t want to sound “the expert” here this morning cause I ain’t, but butter canning turned out well for us. This was our first attempt but it did turn out well for us, remember it’s 6 months old at this point and it was our first time…just lucky I guess???

Seriously though, and this is to all the people out there that can quite frequently, and I’m sure they’ll agree, as well as those that don’t. You MUST follow the procedures of canning to the T. Like anything else, driving a car or riding a bike, you must pay attention and be aware of what’s going on.

Lids not sealing, not pressure cooking the product to be canned long enough, not wiping down the rims of your jars after filling them with your product, letting the pressure off your pressure cooker instead of letting the pressure drop by itself (this is also VERY dangerous too!), and also be sure to check to see if any of your jars have hairline cracks.

Also not canning with the right pressure weight will foul you up as well. The higher the altitude, the more weight you need. Why? Beats me! Anyone with a little help here in the reasoning behind this? Anything can happen though if you’re not aware or paying attention.

If you pay attention to what you’re doing, and understand this is a type of food storage that can provide your family with great vegetables, stews, meats, fruits and jellies for extended periods of time…and NO refrigeration.

It works for us, and literally we enjoy doing this…here’s a little “how-to” on how we canned the butter, and a link below that showing pictures of us in the canning process. 11 pounds of butter will can right at 12 pints, almost to the T.

In regards to canning butter though, one of the main reasons I consider going ahead and doing so, is freezer space. Which brings up yet another question? Will butter store in the freezer and still be fine to use after thawing, and then, how long can it stay frozen?

If it’s okay to store frozen, then we’re good to go as far as the butter we have frozen, if not, anybody want to buy some cheap butter? There’ll be a good sale going on here at Dub and Deb’s place!

So, let me get back to the point I was making about freezing it. If you can store it frozen, look at the freezer space it takes up. We have a considerable amount in the freezer, maybe 40 pounds or so. With that being the case, if we can it, look at the freezer room it frees up.

Plus, it then becomes a nonfactor if you were to lose power for any length of time. Simply store it on the shelves in your pantry, or, if cramped for space, simply slide it under your bed!

Yet another question for you? The process I’m aware of for canning butter, is not a hot water bath, nor a pressure cooking canning process. It’s along the lines of the same style of canning we use for sweetbreads or cakes.

I’ve never actually canned butter before, but we’re fixing to give it a shot. Our attempt at this will be as follows, but if you have any input, good or bad, please share with us, and your reasoning behind your thoughts, as well. We’d like to try this, at least by the weekend.

First off, we’d put our canning jars in the oven and let them be heating up. We’d be melting our butter down in a pot, and I’m assuming you’d need to stir this frequently to make sure it doesn’t stick.

After simmering for a few minutes, we’d then take the mason jars (pints), out of the oven and fill them with the butter, but be sure to leave your 1” headspace…don’t fill to the top.

I forgot to mention, but you need to have your jar rings and seals (lids), in a small pot of hot water, while your butter is melting and your jars heating.

After putting your butter into the heated jars, take your rings and seals out and “lid” your jars. Then you’ll start hearing the pings, of your jars sealing.

Once you start hearing the pings, you will then shake the jars, again this is after you’ve heard them seal, but cool enough to not burn you, holding the jars. This will remix the ingredients of the butter back together. Repeat this until the butter retains the same appearance in the jar.

After shaking, but while still warm, place the jars into the fridge. After the butter sits a while in the fridge, shake once again. At this point the butter should be beginning to look like butter again, and start beginning to set up. Every few minutes lightly shake the jars again until the butter looks as if has setup.
That’s it.

Once more, if we’re not doing something correctly, or you have differing opinions or methods, we’d love to hear back from you. In this way, by combining our heads together, we can insure the best product for everyone, and that’s exactly what we want, right?

I feel very strongly in regards that this can be truly beneficial for everyone. It gives us all one more way to become a little more self-sufficient, in case of no power, plus increasing our storage space in our refrigerators and freezers.

Link

Thank you again Chris, and keep on freezing and dehydratin, but we feel you’d enjoy incorporating some canning into your storage as well. Try it…you just might like it! Any questions, just give us a holler. If we can’t answer it for you, I guarantee one of the other readers can!

This next comment comes from Elleta, and is in regard to canning ground chuck…

“Question: So, you do not use a canner, just the oven? I am assuming that this is safe, since you are still alive. Are there other food items that can be canned this way?”

“Thanks for all of the good advice you share.” Elleta

Hello there Elleta. Thanks for droppin us a few lines, we appreciate you reading, and yes ma’am, I’m still kickin!

Actually we do some of each, but mostly we can it in the oven. I say we can it in the oven, but that’s actually not true. We are in reality re-warming the hamburger and jars prior to taking them out of the oven to lid and seal.

The hamburger is FRIED first. We fry it in the skillet well done, take it out, rinse under water, lay it on paper towels to dab as much grease as we can off it, re-fry it for just a few seconds, put it in our jars, slide them in the oven for 10-15 minutes, then take out and seal.

We also pressure can it. We only brown it just a little, then we jar it, add hot water (leaving a 1 inch headspace), and pressure cook it in our pressure cooker. You want to pressure cook hamburger meat for 75 minutes in pint jars, then 90 minutes for quart jars.

So you see, you have a couple choices in doing this.

Elleta, thank you again. God Bless.

A link…

Next we have Jill…

Wow!! I found this website through the Canadian Free Press website on your canning butter article. What a great website, I can’t wait to sit down and go through the contents of it. I had done mostly freezer jam for “canning” but my husband and I moved to Washington state in an area where we are an hour from a grocery store. So I began buying meat in bulk and pressure canning it. Also have done stew. I was interested in your method of canning the ground chuck by putting it in the oven instead of the pressure canner. Interesting and always looking for new methods(well, new to me!)
My question is this: for my liquid on the burger I used a beef broth reconstituted from a mix. It gives the beef a taste like Dinty Moore Stew(no slam against DM we have eaten a lot over our 50+years) but was trying more for a “fresh” beef taste. What do you use for the liquid on your hamburger? I can’t wait to try canning butter. Thanks for the great website.” Jill

What a great comment Jill, thank you! We sure appreciate it!

Thanks goes to Judi and Brian at the CFP for all their help. Those two are great people, running a great publication, and have been just a ton of help to Deb and I! This was Miss Judi’s brainchild! Thanks again to ya’ll at the CFP!!

As you saw earlier in response to Elleta, Deb and I can it two ways. One with liquid, this is done in the pressure cooker. You know, I believe you’re on to something with your broth for a different flavor. Huh, I’ve never considered it before. I bet even something like a Lipton soup mix would work well, wouldn’t you guys think so?

Prior to your suggestion Jill, we’ve only used water, but we will be putting some more hamburger up here shortly, and I’m tryin this out! As you said…it is new to me! Thanks!

Also look too at the oven method. This works well, but again, this is fried well done first off…then a couple other steps. You don’t start with raw hamburger in jars, in the oven, as I know you’re already aware.

Jill, thanks again so much, and have a great day!

This one is from Jerry…

“Hello, I heard you can, can butter this way! I my-self have canned corn-bread this way, works with cake recipes also. Enjoy….” Jerry

What’s up Jerry? You know, just like with Jill, I just learned something here. I guess that this just knocks the “you cain’t teach an old dog new tricks!” I say this cause this old dog is getting on up there age wise! Shoot, next July, why I’ll be…hmm…let’s see here…35! Keep believing that, okay?

Canned corn bread…it never crossed my mind. We’ve done plenty of cakes and sweet breads, but no cornbread.

Thank you Jerry for your input, it is appreciated. This is what’s great about Deb and my doing this column. We’ve met so many good, good people who share so much with us. You all have been outstanding in your input, and sharing of your own ways of doing things. Deb and I are blessed to be associated with people like you guys!

One more example of your government doesn’t need to, or have to, help people as they’d like you to believe.

Governments need to govern, not become entangled in our daily lives. People help people…right from the goodness of their own hearts.

This one from Mikki and Butch…

“We love your food storage building. Right now we are using a back room in our basement. We sold our house, to save money on taxes, insurance, and upkeep expenses. We rent now so we cannot build a building outside, but have been giving thought to one inside our 3-car garage in one corner. A window air unit could be added also. I’d like a way to save garden crop seeds also, any ideas? We have 5 adult kids with families so we are going to ask them to contribute to garden expenses so we can put up enough for all of us with their help of course. My canner pan is starting to rust so will be replacing it this fall. I have even put up some dry dog food in canning jars for our pups. I vacuum-sealed dog food in bags, put it in canning jars to use if we need to for our 3 pups. Got a 6 month supply so far, our dogs are toy breeds and only eat 1/4- 1/2 cup of dry kibble at a time. Made up 12 quarts of an easy low calorie gravy to mix in 1/2 tsp. in each dish to make it somewhat softer for them. They are part of our family. Some friends think we are off the deep end a bit, but we shall see.”

“Thanks for you insulation ideas.” Mikki & Butch

Thanks guys! We sure appreciate you reading our column, and then taking the time to drop us a line!

Our food storage room…yes, it works well for us. I think a “room within a room,” your garage as you were saying, is a great idea! The 110 unit would be just right. Our original room was 12’x12’, and that unit cost, I believe $108. Last month, it had been there for a year with no problems at all, but the key…insulation

After we insulated as heavily as we did, throughout the construction and finishing up, we kept cans of the aerosol insulation you get at Lowes, and sealed every crack. Again…insulation is the key.

Your seeds…We haven’t put up any seeds ourselves, believe that? But, we will (famous last words?), probably in the spring. We always overbuy and this carries us through their initial planting, plus it does a large part of our spring or fall planting, dependin on what we’re planting at the time. We then overbuy once more, but seed storage and the harvesting the seeds from your own vegetables is a great idea!

Our brother-in-law, JH, is a gardenin fool! The man can do it. What he does is leave them in their original bag, put them into ziplock freezer bags, and then put them in the freezer. JH says he’s used seeds before, that were 4-5 years old.

Hope that helps, plus if anyone else has some input as to how they keep their seed storage, or advice on how they prep their seeds prior to storage. I’m curious as well.

10-4 on the kids helping out with the gardening expenses, and getting a new cooker.

Your pups and their food storage? Even a low-cal gravy mix to make the Kibbles soft for them? Jill, those pups may not realize it…but those guys won the lotto!!! We love ours too! Thanks Jill.

Well, that’s it for today. You guys take care and God Bless.

Dub and Deb

No, seriously, we’re glad you’ve been enjoying the reads, and we really appreciate you taking time to express this! If you liked this one, you ought to really like the next two.
One is how to can sweetbreads and cakes, with some pics, and the next will be on canning soups, etc. This article will be by one of our readers, and truly a friend, by the name of Miss Bonnie! Excellent info, and she’s “the Master!” We hope you enjoy them both!

Listen, if you have any recipes, or would even like to share a story or two, shoot, just “step up to the plate,” and let `er rip! We’d all enjoy hearing back from you!

Thanks again for your time, and drop back in soon!

Dub and Deb

From: Connie
Hi Deb and Dub,
This is Connie —- your Nebraska Husker Fan. I wrote to you about your gardening article.

Connie

**Thanks for the help Connie, and it’s good hearing back from you again, too! We were wondering where you’d been hiding? LOL!

We really had great response in regards to our dehydrator dilemma, but thanks to everyone’s help we’ve made our choice…the Excalibur. Too many saying that’s the way to go, plus Deb and I knew nothing at all about them. Now, if I can get Deb to give me the money to get one, that’s the big “hump in the road,” at the moment!

Tell your son, we appreciate very much the offer of him talking with us in this regard, but he sure could send us a couple of jerky recipes!

Connie thanks for your help, and please come back and visit any time you’d like…we love having you!

Dub and Deb

From: lanahi

When using your dehydrated foods, you should reconstitute them first in hot water.  Just pour boiling water over the dehydrated eggs and let it soak up the water for 15 minutes or more before cooking or until it appears the right texture.

Fruits and other foods will not discolor so much if dipped first in lemon juice or ascorbic acid powder mixed with water.  There is nothing wrong with dark fruit, it just looks better if they don’t darken! And, of course, vitamin C doesn’t hurt the end product at all.

Excalibur is the Cadillac of dehydrators…also most expensive.

I should mention too that sometimes when you add spices before dehydrating a food, the spices will get stronger.  I prefer to add them later after the food has been reconstituted.  This gives you the option of using that food for more than one type of meal, too, like one meal is sweet with the addition of cinnamon and sugar, another food is “hot” with peppers and hot sauce, etc.

**Hello lanahi, so nice to hear from you. We appreciate you taking the time to comment, and what great advice it was.

Please feel free to come back anytime and we look forward to hearing from you again! Thanks!

Dub and Deb

Regards,
Ken

** Ken, listen, thanks so much for the input on the dehydrator, but I’m very sorry to hear you’re no longer with us!

That was a good line! Thanks!

Please come back and visit again!

Dub

Dave, thanks for the effort you put out in schooling Deb and I. You spent a little chunk of your morning doing so, thanks my friend!

You gave us some great info that I’m sure we’ll use many times through the years in regards to food dehydration! Please come back and visit with us soon!

Craig, you’re never at a loss for words, and if you’re not inquiring about something, you’re giving your two-cents worth. Don’t ever change, buddy! Thanks for dropping by and we appreciate your input as always! How old are you now…73, you said? Take care old boy!

Wendall, and JeffinTx, thank you guys for thinking enough to write Deb and I in regards to giving us a hand, and a few “heads-ups,” about dehydrators! Honestly, there are not enough people like you guys, and many more of our readers, out there today. Thanks to all!

To some of the others who commented to us, and you know who you are, thanks to you guys, too! It’s nice to know we have friends like you, and we hope we bring a smile to you guy’s faces, every so often! Come back and see us anytime. You know the door’s always open!

Dub and Deb

From: Dave


Hello Dub and Deb,



By sheer coincidence I was reading your article this morning while enjoying my bulk-bought, organic, hand-flaked oatmeal with my home-dried plums added. Even as I was cooking my oatmeal this morning and reconstituting my dried plums I was thinking how grateful I was to the person who gave us a big batch of plums last summer, and how wonderful it is having my Excalibur dehydrator to preserve them with.



I love eating fresh plums, but without the dehydrator to take care of the large batch we received probably a lot of them would have gone to waste uneaten, or fed to the goats. The dehydrator allows me to enjoy “fresh” plums all winter long. I love it.



My 9-tray Excalibur does not have a timer. In my mind a timer is unnecessary. The reason why is because your dried items are finished when they are done, not by a certain set time taken from a recipe book. There are a lot of factors that can make the “done” time variable — for example, the ambient humidity and temperature, the amount of moisture in the item being dried, how many trays full you have, etc.



Besides which, if you set the timer for your items to be “done,” say, in the middle of the night, you’d have to rehydrate them again in the morning before you could take them out and store them because they would have picked up a lot of ambient moisture while the dehydrator was off.

Also, dehydrating is not “cooking.”

Your temperature should not be at such a high setting that it cooks the food. For fruit and vegetables, low and slow is the best. I’m talking 105 degrees. That’s why it is no problem at all to leave something in for a few hours extra, like overnight. How much more dry than “dry” can you dry something? You can’t “overdry” something that is already properly dried. As long as it isn’t at cooking temps, a few extra hours don’t matter.



Meat is different, and requires slightly higher temps, but still below the “cooking” level.

A few tips from our experience:


Make sure when you turn off the dehydrator and remove your items you get them into an airtight container as quickly as possible. Dehydrated foods begin to pick up ambient moisture at an alarming speed. You don’t want to put your dehydrated items into storage with ANY moisture at all!



We put our dried foods into glass jars, preferably the canning type with sealed ring lids. Then we use a hand pump to draw the air and remaining ambient moisture out of the jar. We use a cheap gadget called a Pump ‘N Seal. Works great!



Don’t use Ziplock bags. Believe it or not they are porous to ambient moisture, and your dried foods will eventually spoil.



As we use items from the jar, like my plums this morning, we repump again before placing the jar back into storage.

 The reason why low temps are the best for fruits and vegetables is because you don’t want to cook off all the nutrition in your food item. Enzymes can survive low temps, but are destroyed at cooking temps.

Also you don’t want to caramelize the sugars in your fruits. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I’ve read that dehydrating preserves more of the healthy natural goodness in food than any other preservation method. Nearly 100% retention.



I’ve never done eggs, but have dried a lot of jerkies and hamburger. We’re mostly meatless, so most of our drying is done with fruits and veggies. We do make jerky and dried hamburger, however, for camping and backpacking.



When you get a supply of different vegetables in, you can cut them up into real small pieces, dry them, and then make a “soup mix” out them. We make extensive use of drying garlic and onions. One tip: Do not mix garlic and onions with other items in your dehydrator unless you want garlicy apricots, for example.

The big, big advantage of dehydrating over other methods, besides the nutrition boost, is that you get much more food per storage shelf space. And, in a pinch, if TEOTWAWK I hits, you can carry off a whole lot more nutrition per boxload if you have to bug out suddenly.



Just some thoughts. 

Dave

From: Craig
Hi Dub,

Just read your column and I have some thoughts.

First the Excalibur.  I think this is the best model and a better idea than the round ones.  With the Excalibur warm air flows across all the trays.  I really like that it is made in the U.S. A.  It is nearly sending me over the edge when I buy just about everything and find out it is made in….well, you know where!  And a lot of times it turns out to be junk.  I totally agree, it is over regulation, unions, high taxation that has created this mess.  In other words, Big brother is to blame.  Sorry, I got a bit off track there.  It happens when my blood starts to boil.  The model with a timer or without?  Depends what the cost difference is.  You can always buy a timer that you plug in and then plug in the appliance to that.  Bingo!  You have an appliance on a timer.  Depends on the cost.  Timers can be bought probably for $20 or less.  I do think the 9-tray model is the way to go for you. 

Are dried eggs safe?  If they are properly cooked they are.  Even with the wet dry method you still end up cooking them which would kill salmonella.  I’m not concerned in the least about their safety.  I think I’ve mentioned this but I will say it again.  On their web site in the videos the woman said it is important to make sure the work area and work tools are disinfected so as not to contaminate the food we want to dehydrate and store.  So, I spray down the counter, cutting board etc with bleach. 

I look forward to my next effort and am hoping for better success.

Take care Dub and our best to your other half.

From: Wendall
We love ours!
We did a lot of research on this. Excalibur
is the only brand to buy. Get the eight
drawer. Your don’t have to use all the drawers
and there will come a time you’ll need all eight.


The timer is absolutely a necessity!
Don’t buy it without a timer!



Regards and Good Luck!


Wendell

 From: JeffinTx
Dub and Deb,



I have used the NESCO food dehydrator for years to dry London Broil meat as Treats for my dogs. I have used it for some fruits such as Pear and Apple. I cut the Broil across the grain after trimming off any fat in 1/4 – 1/8 inch slices. Depending on the humidity, complete drying takes anywhere from 3 to 5 hours.

Basically the thinner the food is sliced prior to drying the less time is needed. Trial and error.

Never thought about dehydrating eggs, but if might be worth a try. Incidently, meat and fish should be dried at 160 Degrees.

From: Kunoichi
“Make butter by putting some “half and half” milk in a jar, salt to taste, put the lid on and shake the jar “

I’ve never tried with half and half; I don’t think it would have enough fat in it to make butter.  Use whipping cream.  You can shake it in a jar (filled to a quarter or perhaps 1/3rd, but no more – it needs room to expand), use an electric mixer or even whip by hand.  

When it’s done (you’ll know when you see it) pour it into a cloth lined colander over a bowl – keep that liquid!  Gently squeeze out as much liquid as you can (if you can, pull up the ends of the cloth and hang it over the bowl to drain for a while, as if you were making cheese), then rinse the butter in cold water several times.  


Drain and squeeze as much water out as you can, then add salt to taste.  Knead or mix in the salt thoroughly while getting rid of any remaining liquid (a press is useful, but they’re not exactly common anymore).

Use the reserved buttermilk for baking.  Awesome flavour!

** Thanks so much Kunoichi! I appreciate so much your info, and quick response!

I thought Dale must have known what he was talking about, to an extent, and not knocking him in the least, but people tend to forget or leave out things, and this is one reason I asked? A let me ask and be sure question, and sure enough you stepped up and gave some good quality advice. Sounds like you might have done this a time or two! This is very, very appreciated by us, and I’m sure everyone else as well! We’ll be trying this!

Thank you so much for dropping in to see us number one, and please feel free to come back and “shed some light” anytime!

Dub and Deb

We’re making progress.

**Thanks for coming by again Craig! We appreciate hearing from you anytime. Yes, let me know how the eggs turn out. If you feel this works out good for you, get back with us as I’d sure like to do some of that myself! Also let us know about the cheese too.

I don’t know if this works or not, it may be an old “wives tale,” but I’ve read I believe, that if you give the hens some warm water to drink, instead of tap water, the egg production will pick up. Again, I don’t know for sure. Ask her to attempt it, who knows, it may work. They’ll probably pee more for sure! LOL!

Listen Craig, thanks again buddy, and I’ll be getting back with you!

Dub
Re: Canada Free Press
From: MizVonderW
My Mother & Dad lived in Central Northern Arkansas.  As the plants grew larger (tomato plants reached a height of 6′) it was more difficult to water.  Mother came up with an idea!  She bought an inexpensive square sprinkler (it was a square garden), Dad clamped it to a tall step ladder & hooked a hose to it, placed it in the middle of the garden.  Turn it on and you have your own rain.  An adjustable oscillating sprinkler, adjusted to water just the width of of the raised beds was used.
P.S.  They had their own well.
My husband prefers a drip system.

 **Hey MizVonDerW, how have you guys been? You always help out with some good advice for everyone! Thanks for dropping back in, we appreciate hearing from you guys. I do something similar in our bigger garden. I use the back and forth fan sprinkler, but I set it on a table to get it above the plants…works good. We’re on a well system. I move the sprinkler…Deb moves the table!! Took years to get her to understand she had the “easy part!” LOL! She’s downstairs with our youngest granddaughter….so I can write whatever I want! Just between us, right?

Your husband is probably right in regards to the drip system. Less water usage, and it all goes straight to the roots if placed right…very little waste.

In the orange groves down here, we use a microjet system. Runs from 1” tubing to each tree where a little jet sits on a stand maybe 12” high. It sprays a fine mist right at the base of the tree. They’re also very good cold protection. The orange trees form a big canopy. During the cold weather, they’re run all night. The 70 degree water keeps the tree warm up under the canopy. You can literally see if you have a grove that only partially has microjet. The ones that do are obvious versus the ones that don’t. Night and day difference!

Thanks again, and ya’ll come back, you hear!

Dub and Deb

From: Craig
Hey Dub,
I wanted to comment on a couple of things you mentioned.  In one email you mentioned cheerios.  I was eating those as a snack food before you were even a twinkle in your mother’s eye!  Yesterday you mentioned in your article about gardening tomato sandwiches!  Oh crap, I haven’t heard of those in many years.  I somehow forgot about them.  Oh ya’, get out the salt and pepper.  Besides peanut butter on toast another good one is toast with cinnamon sprinkled on top.

Today is my birthday which is no big deal to me.  In fact, when my brother turned 50, his daughters had a surprise get together for him at which I said I was celebrating because I wasn’t 50.  Look at me now on a wild rip for 60!  4 more years and still sanding floors.  I was greeted by my wife this morning when I was waking up with “guess what today is?  You’re 73!”.  smart a..!  I think I must try a tomato sandwich today.
Cheers.

**Hey Craig…don’t you ever work?? Naw, I’m just picking at you, you old fa..! I want everybody to know that Craig, is one great guy, but old, very, very old…but a great guy! I’m still “jerkin your chain!” Craig knows this, but I wanted to make sure everyone else does!

I only showed this comment because I’d like for everybody to give Craig a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Though at his age, I’d just as soon nobody knew I was having another one!

I heard that when Rachel lit all the candles on Craig’s cake…the Fire Department showed up at his house! When I mentioned the tomato sandwiches you’re speaking of, I literally had you on my mind. They’re really easy to eat when you’re losing your teeth!

Alright, I’m through picking at you, “Birthday Boy!” You know it’s all in fun, and I’m very aware I’m in for some payback…and soon! We love you guys Craig, and ya’ll really seem to be good people. We feel blessed knowing you guys and enjoy hearing from you every time!

Thanks for being the guy you are, and Happy Birthday, and hope you have many more!! Enjoy your tomato sandwich, buddy!

Oh…it almost slipped my mind! My birthdays is on…forget it, buster!

Dub
 

A real honker

Now these two fish were 50 and 55 lbs. respectively. The first one is of Andrew holding his 50 pounder. The second one is Mike holding the 55 pounder.  Now these two fish were caught within 5 minutes of each other in the same honey hole in November.

Best advice anyone could ever give a father is to share the American traditions of hunting and fishing with your children. The memories that are shared experience are forever ingrained for life and will provide the closeness that American families need these days.

Now just imagine sharpening your fillet knives extra sharp and slicing down the thick slabs of meat from these babies and having a fish fry or slicing 2 inch wide slabs off a fillet and then slicing them down the middle and stuffing them with a crab meat, cream cheese, bread crumb stuffing mix and baking it with a light basting of garlic butter. Mmmm! Mmm! Enjoy!

A real honker

**Roger, honestly here in Florida, we bait our hooks with fish that size, or is that what you were showing us…the baitfish you guys use?

No seriously, those are two amazing catfish!! What kind of bait do you use? I’m guessin’ the reels weren’t Zebco 404’s, am I correct in that assumption?
Andrew and Mike must have had an absolute ball catchin’ those two suckers! I know you mentioned us going catfishin’, but evidently when I was pastin’ these pictures, I must have accidently deleted your offer, sorry. Please resend!
Yes sir, you guys did the freezers some good this day, no doubt. For those of you who’ve never eaten catfish, they are delicious, really, really good eatin’ fish! Deb and I love `em!

You’re right in regards to the memories as well Roger, of a Father and son outing, and catching these two is merely icing on the cake. Spend time with your children folks, they grow up way too fast!

Thank you so much for sharing this with us my friend, and it’s great hearing from you again! Take care and come back soon!

Dub and Deb

Your friendly reader, Teresa

** Well hello Teresa! How have you been doing? It’s good hearing from you again. We were asking each other about you just a couple nights ago. We’re glad you’ve settled in to your new home and getting your ducks in a row with your food storage.

You just keep doing what you feel in your heart you need to do and go with that. Don’t worry about the recipes at all. You go ahead and get your garden started, and whatever else needs doing. It’s a job keeping a place on 10 acres up.

Teresa, thanks for stopping back in, and come see us anytime! God Bless you!

Dub and Deb