Lard, Composting, & Stocking the Barn for a YEAR - Pantry Chat Q&A

[@tealeaf4451]

This is fast becoming my favorite way to start the morning. It feels like chatting over coffee with friends.

[@HomesteadingFamily]

Thanks for watching!

[@bevsurbangarden]

Looking forward to the pantry tour and hearing your plans. Thanks for all the great teaching you do on your channel!

[@paulamcminn2532]

I feed most all of my bones after I make my bone broth to my chickens. I simply remove the broth after its complete and then add more water and make another batch. Sometimes I may need to run it through again. The bones then can be mashed with your fingers, very soft. My chickens love it!

[@ceegee6625]

Good to know

[@rnupnorthbrrrsm6123]

Mary’s nest and homesteading family together….that will be amazing!!!! Blessings

[@ceegee6625]

Two of my favorites together!

[@idahohoosier8989]

I so love Mary. She is so calm, knowledgeable and super kind, just like all y'all. Thank y'all for all y'all teach me. Hugs and blessings, julie

[@helenaurelius-haddock4695]

We live in south West France, and black sunflower seeds are a huge part of the local crop harvest. We're so lucky that in our next village (2 miles away) we can get organic sunflower oil, colza (canola) oil plus there are local walnut grinding mills for wonderful nutty walnut oil. Thanks for sharing

[@tealeaf4451]

How wonderful!

[@suemagyari2992]

Would love a pantry tour. It ias amazing how enjoyable it is to see the abundance of everyone's hard work! So satisfying, even when it is not my own!

[@brianadixon8995]

I love it as well because it gives me ideas and inspiration.

[@HomesteadingFamily]

Great idea!!

[@sminer8257]

I just started 'composting'. I save my kitchen scraps and bury them in my 2 raised garden bed. What I learned was that I got dirt in a few weeks! What seems to take more time is the egg shells. It's a fun science experiment for me. Lol

[@RoseFelton]

I also put my kitchen scraps into my raised beds. I'm terrible at trying to make regular compost, so I added worms to my raised beds and feed them the kitchen scraps. I now have great soil from not only the scraps but also from the worm castings.

[@twinkleblink3073]

You can use egg shells on top of the soil around edge of the garden bed to discourage slugs. Also, you can put a collection of dried egg shells in the blender to powder it. You can store the egg shell powder in a glass jar. Banana peels can be slow cooked on lowest setting in the oven to blacken and dry. They tend to stick to pan so use parchment or something. Then snap banana peels into pieces and blend into powder as well.

[@michellel5444]

Yep. Also pile up leaves. The earthworms love it. Unfortunately so do pill bugs and slugs but hey life is better than dead dirt.

[@milkmaid4077]

Spin your egg shells in a tough blender or coffee grinder into fine powder and you can just top dress with them. Rinse them out and keep them in the oven on a tray to dry out with the pilot light orwhen ready 150° for a few minutes to dry them thoroughly before grinding

[@proverbs3147]

FREEZING IN GLASS JARS: Also, leave lid ajar to allow the air to escape. Air has mass. I lay my lids on top and leave rings on my counter to prompt me in the morning to place rings onto jars once product is fully frozen..

[@bevdixon9615]

In my soil science class the professor would say “dirt is what you sweep off the floor and soil is what you grow in”. Unfortunately the property we live on has dirt. This is our first year here and we built raised beds to garden in. We have a lot of work ahead of us to create a good soil in the rest of the garden and pastures.

[@kelleeendres510]

On the bones for bone meal. I make my own chicken broth and cook it for about 36 hours. If, u can smash the bigger bones with my fingers I know its ready. I strain as usual and then put all of the bones in my dehydrator. When they're done I grind them up. I end up with about 2/3 of a cup from 1 chicken carcass.

[@MrTopherJR]

For bones / bonemeal, I put chicken leg bones in the pressure cooker (instant pot) to make broth and then separate the bones, then squish them with a wooden spatula as after 3 hours or so at high pressure they are very soft, then you can spread the paste out and put them in the dehydrator. The final step is to powder them as desired in a smoothy / coffee ground blender. For larger bones you may need to pre-break / cut them and then pressure cook for longer.

[@barbararuthsmith2882]

I find it's easier to just leave the jar lids off when I set the jars in the freezer and then when its completely frozen I set the lids on and then there is no problem with jars breaking.

[@anitawitt84]

Excellent idea!

[@wholeheartedhomestead]

For freezing jars, I do it in phases: In addition to watching the head space - Let it get to room temperature, then put it in the fridge to get colder, then put it in the freezer.

[@jennifercoats3800]

Im so excited to hear about your sunflower oil press!

[@brendamossey9321]

It would be really cool to see how you end up doing the oil with the press. Also I love watching Mary's nest and would love to see a video on you all.

[@tdewtx]

Woot woot I love love love pantry tours.

[@trishapomeroy9251]

We got kune kunes this year too! You might be surprised how the bacon on those looks. I bought one to go right in the freezer and two for breeding. The one in the freezer is so lovely! I will want many many more. Thankful that one of my gilts was heavily bred and I now have a nice litter of babies too. Such a wonderful breed!

[@mcdc101201]

Aww love Mary from Mary's nest! So great. Can you share some recipes for the game you catch/process please?

[@bobrice2441]

Vacuum sealing our flour in 6 cup portions, as I listen in. Thank you for all the great tips!! Next is the sugar!!

[@doriegeorge6686]

Love Mary's Nest, can't wait for that interview!

[@kimberlyblake8705]

I need to do a deep clean too. Going to give the dehydrator a deep deep scrub now that it's not running non-stop. Need to give the canners a deep scrub as well.

[@gerdalodewijks6835]

hi in the Netherlands at this time of year we make stewed pears and pot them. Gieser Wildeman. Red wine Gieser Wildeman sugar water cinnamon stick it's delicious

[@myzdidi]

Good morning from New Mexico ❤

[@kimcritchfield5796]

Thank you for the detailed lard discussion!! I was just rendering 7 year old lard. Us city folks don’t know how to use it until we watch you guys. I got it out to render, and it’s smelling odd. I’ll oil tool handles!!!😂

[@jennifercoats3800]

Thank you for answering my question.

[@victorenecahill9013]

I mulch compost and mulch again for winter in my garden. Works great for Spring.

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

Oil press experiment!!! Good! I've been waiting for someone with the financial ability to do that experiment!!!! Can't wait!!!!!

[@myriamvalentin4]

A few years back I made the mistake of topping my garlic bed with hay that had seed in it. What a mess! The shoots from the hay looked like the shoots from the garlic and they were all coming out together! I ended up having to over-winter the garlic this way because I would pull the garlic out by mistake otherwise. Lesson learned on hay with seed!

[@reneenewfrock5743]

Pressure cook those bones! I'm getting ready to pressure cook some whole chicken. When it is done cooking I put the chicken in the blender (bones and meat) and puree it. I portion it out and freeze it for daily/weekly servings for DOG FOOD! Yes, she is spoiled but healthy.

[@victorenecahill9013]

They used to put a lime and milk paint inside the milking barn to disinfect the walls and stalls.

[@Vienna1902]

Talking about blood and bone meal, it reminded me of an old way our grandmothers in my part of the world (eastern Europe) used to use chicken blood in Depression and WWII time - they let blood of freshly butchered chicken coagulate in enameled plate, pour out the remaining liquid and throw the solid part into the stock pot when broth is hot and already almost finished. It is done in some 15-20 minutes, then they served it either as is, together with other meaty pieces from the broth, or mash it finely and mix with semolina and eggs to make dumplings for soup. I had it once or twice as a kid way back in70's while my grandma still had chicken and remember that the taste was quite neutral, nothing strong. In poor areas of my country nothing was thrown away. I don't know if people still do it in rural areas.

[@TheOldGloryHomestead]

I'd love to hear about your homeschooling routine! We are beginning homeschool after Christmas break this year and we're so excited! What curriculums do you use and love?

[@saoirse_flies]

Idk about Josh and Carolyn, but my family has had great experiences with A Beka, Accelerated Christian Education (ACE), and Tuttle Twins. We supplement with a variety of parent-approved reading materials, as well. For example I'm collecting plant and animal identification guides like Nicole Apelian's works and the mushroom book "All the Rain Promises And More," the writings of people like Thomas Paine and Mercy Otis Warren, Thomas Sowell, the complete works of influential ancient authors, etc. Our oldest is eleven and interested in veterinary medicine so we are also giving her books about nutrition and anatomy and how bodies work to be healthy. Meanwhile I'm also slowly working to get rid of our "empty carbs" books, the type which are written purely for entertainment and contain all the informational value of a glazed doughnut, because everyone in my family is more likely to read "The History of Europe" if the shelves aren't packed with Star Wars and The Wheel of Time... As much as I love them, there's too much good in the world to be read that I'll never get to if I don't limit my access to the junk.

[@victorymeadow4073]

Great way to start the morning listening to you two!

[@HomesteadingFamily]

Thank you for watching!

[@nancyseery2213]

We were away from home for about 5 weeks and I am just catching up on my favorite KZbin channels, especially your pantry chats. I just watch the one about cleaning the garden in the fall. I loved the idea of planting the potatoes and maybe tomatoes in the fall. I'll let you know how well this works in TN. I'm not planning to do it until the first of Dec because of our "warm" falls. You are talking about oil from your sunflowers and that will be very interesting to see. I'm going to do sunflowers for chicken and turkey feed. I'm wondering if after press the seeds for oil if the left overs will still have enough nutrition left to be feed??

[@kathybridges3343]

Good morning ❤ this was so informative, thank you 🙏🏻

[@reshelleconnelly1620]

Thank you!!!

[@HeatherNaturaly]

For a salad oil, have you ever considered sesame seeds? They are quite a beautiful flower, seem to be easy to grow and the seeds are 40% oil. You already have the press.

[@user-nw5cr1tl6j]

Love watching your videos with a cup of coffee. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@HomesteadingFamily]

Thanks for watching!

[@mariasmith8433]

Please a pantry tour! ☺️

[@karenheider4138]

I have seen a video of pressure cooking bones to make them easier to pulverize into bone meal.

[@eileen3475]

Good morning from wet and windy UK.

[@lindastritzel4729]

I would LOVE to see your pantry 😊

[@KatrinaM1234]

Carolyn, I saw on one of your videos how to quick chop onions, but now I can't find it back. Could you do a video of how you cut them quickly again and if there are any other quick chop hints you might have?

[@fruitsofmylabors7879]

Our Kunekunes have created AMAZING bacon for us over the years! We’ve never had better!

[@butterscotchgrove6151]

Will you be posting your visit with Mary? She's great.

[@Ourlittlehomesteadlife]

I'd love to watch an apple cider making video... I've been watching you for years, don't recall seeing one ever. But I always hear you speak about cider... definitely curious. I've only made juices. Never cider.

[@ashleigh-jadesutherland9404]

Over there cider is juice, hard cider is the alcoholic version. :)

[@happynanna4749]

Good morning. Always a good day when I get a new video from y’all The camera angle today was somewhat weird because I felt like I was sitting on the floor looking up at you. It felt awkward. I don’t want to seem critical but I felt like I should let you know that in case you wanted to consider changing back to your usual location for your videos. Have a great day!

[@tealeaf4451]

I am really interested in seeing how your oil experiments progress.

[@cynthiapratt3175]

I am 66 with aggressive RA. I would like to clean my house and can some pumpkin. However, my body seems to be in a stage rebellion. I may have to hire a maid service since there's no one around to help and I am still taking care of my Mom. I am going to do what I can today but I don't know how much I can do.

[@KathysTube]

Thanks 🤗❤️

[@vickismallwood2082]

Great video

[@wandah8225]

For those who live in windy areas, what are your experiences in keeping mulch on the garden? This year we used wood chips and 90% of the chips blew away! We live in Southwestern South Dakota and it is very windy here -- 20 mph to 40 mph+ sustained winds beginning in fall and lasting through winter and even early spring, with occasional 60 mph+ gusts!! The area we live in also has no trees to act as windbreaks. We had a very difficult time in keeping the mulch on the post-harvest garden soil this year. The mulch AND compost blew away this year and we had to add compost and some soil before planting. We are currently trying to build a healthy garden base (Soil is bentonite clay mixture). We thought about staking down cardboard to the walkways, even so, I can see the wind ripping that off and blowing it away. Looking for some other viable options to get that mulch to stay put...any advice??? Thanks to everyone here sharing and offering very valuable advice and solutions!!!

[@MFV77]

I’m n the Black Hills. You are not joking about the wind!

[@coleenmesserschmidt6323]

Our white onions went long too! Interesting to hear. Ours were not large though lol.

[@hrdanigier]

Good morning.

[@rachelholdt6840]

We've had a lot of nice weather here in Nebraska, so I've been working on mulching some long berms along the north and south sides of my greenhouse with a thick layer of leaves and used goat bedding on the top to weigh it down. It's the first time I've done this, but I'm hoping it'll keep the weeds down next year and give me some good nutrition to grow squashes and melons in. We have really tall weeds like pigweed, lambsquarter, hemp, and sunflowers that grow very quickly and are hard to keep up with in such a large space!

[@saoirse_flies]

At least three out of those four weeds sound lovely!

[@victorialg1270]

I hope the sunflower seed oil press will be an upcoming video.

[@RoseFelton]

As always, a great Pantry Chat. This always makes my week!

[@HomesteadingFamily]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@bhavens9149]

So do you have a real hard building greenhouse, not a plastic covered one planned at any time? one that you can heat and cool? just wondering because that far north seems like two of those would be nice, one that you have toms peppers in summer that you can over winter your layers in, and a second one for winter veggies, that you just make sure you can keep up to 45 or 50 for the winter guys and a bit warmer when you start your Toms. anyway just wondering seems like the best way to grow peppers and toms up there.

[@tonichatwin6150]

Have you tried buttering eggs for storage? Curious how it compares to water glassing.

[@harblinshaven6303]

Question, on the compost, we have added processed animal blood, and things to our compost because we have sand, in on florida, still building our SOIL and also found feathers useful. We grew great tomatoes, green beans,squash but zero potatoes and corn. What do u add for those? This year's sweet potatoes I went raised beds those did fine. Any advice would be helpful.

[@BeccaS1]

Sorry, just want to make sure…when you’re talking about using the lime solution around the house or chicken coop….are you referring to the used lime from water glassing or fresh made lime solution?

[@Greens5511]

Lots of lard storage questions/comments. I thought I had it all figured out, but now I mentioned not storing the bulk lard before it is rendered in a refrigerator freezer. I always store my rendered lard in glass jars in my extra refrigerator freezer. Is that not really going to keep it as long as a deep freezer??

[@sheilamerrill2856]

Can you use a freeze dryer with the bones to make them easier to pulverize?

[@justlittleolme7977]

😂😂😂 Just before Carolyn mentioned that the “d” word was a trigger word for Josh, I was triggered by it and thought, “No! We want soil not dirt.” Also, autocorrect just tried to change soil to soul and it made me think that “soil has soul” could be a good saying. 👩‍🌾

[@michelemarkie9930]

I love your homemade recipes Is there one book or resource that holds all this wonderful knowledge? Thank you

[@HomesteadingFamily]

Hi Michele, you can always check our website for lots of recipes as well as some classes that we offer on there. www.homesteadingfamily.com

[@LadysFarm]

❤❤❤

[@georgiagirlinmaine8591]

We are blessed with an incredible amount of lard.... what else can I do with besides cooking and baking?

[@HomesteadingFamily]

There are so many amazing uses for lard. It can be used to make soap, season cast iron pans, frying/cooking, pie crust and so much more.

[@reneenewfrock5743]

I make soap with extra amounts that I have.

[@vondablackford1384]

I didn't know you could ferment citrus fruit. Can you explain in detail from start to finish?

[@HomesteadingFamily]

We have more on it here: homesteadingfamily.com/preserved-lemons/ and homesteadingfamily.com/preserved-limes/

[@brettemarcum3645]

What varieties do you plant?

[@tanarehbein7768]

I grew sunflowers for oil this year and the mice got 80%of them. How do you deal with rodents.

[@mariannereno8501]

💖

[@cjphillips90]

What do you think of groups such as FFA, 4-H, Trail Life USA, American Heritage Girls, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts?

[@mamaAimEC]

Just be very careful with the hydrated lime. I have heard several stories of people whose animals got chemical burns after using it in their barn.

[@karynellinger769]

Why couldnt you freeze dry the leftovers from bone broth...instead of the dogs?

[@cindybehn9801]

Could you send the CC’s so I can listen and hear what you say, please

[@stephencameron1709]

Does canning cider destroy the good bacteria for the gut?

[@shermdog6969]

Yes

[@robinm2457]

No picture black screen

[@kimberlyscrivner9373]

I really love the pantry chats. But there is something about this room when you do lives or videos that you freeze up a lot. That includes the lives in the SOTS. Otherwise, I never have any issues. Strange.

[@mommadseachoneteachone3711]

Grazon …..

[@littlecougarkitty3063]

I really wish you would re-evaluate and organize the Pantry Chat video taping time. It has been the norm of late that you rush through the PC to get to another (or the same) appointments.

[@richgetz]

720P? Really?