Comments

Episode-1603- Expert Council Questions and Answers for 7-3-15 — 25 Comments

  1. Did… did she just say Pineapples are low acid?

    If you read this Erica, was that an error, or is the acid of pineapples somehow damaged by the canning process?

    • Hi Lukkas – the issue is that there’s a huge range of pH for pineapple. Special strains are bred to be low acid, and acidity changes depending on ripeness, etc. So while most pineapples are probably fine to can without further acidification, some will be above that “cutoff line” of 4.6 and us home canners have no reliable way to tell which is which.

      Here’s a link from the FDA which lists the pH of various foods. If you search for pineapple, you’ll see it listed as pH 3.3 – 5.2, a HUGE range. This is why pineapple is treated as “borderline.” I hope this helps!

  2. You are all so comfortable now, while we the listeners are struggling.
    Good for you but back up to the beginning … most of us had to survive in the city and did not have your disadvantages. Some of our fathers worked in an office for the insurance company and came home and drank wine before the nap. Our fathers did not teach us negotiating skills or how to run a business. They were employees of corporations. In suburbia. We The Kids didn’t learn squat,

    Yup, do an episode about why people like me have no excuse for working our asses off all our lives and making no progress. Both barres please 😉
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M__oK-2KCRE

    • You know man over the years you have bitched at various levels of this meme and it is as old now as it was 5 years ago.

      From a monetary stand point there has never been a point during all these years I didn’t have it as most would call it “good”.

      The truth is I still earn far LESS than I did in those “Jetta Days”.

      I don’t know what to tell you, GET off your ASS and build something, works, if you don’t like it you know what, who cares, it still works if you do.

      But it sounds like you are asking for an ass kicking? Sort of a thank you sir may I have another sort of masochism? If so I am sure it will happen at some point but the truth is feeling like you are going to do, only does so much, sooner or later you must do.

      But you want both barrels? Keep telling a guy that grew up in the coal region as a poor ass kid with an alcoholic father and a drug addicted mother your problems. Keep telling a guy that had to move out on his own at 15 your sob stories about how hard it is to grow up in the burbs with a daddy that had a good job and drank wine and relaxed at night how bad it is for you, you might get a Drilling shot at you, look that up!

      Nothing I got was easy and there was no fucking internet to learn on either man. I had a few good mentors coming up but guess the fuck what you EARN mentorship by proving you are worth it first.

      I can’t fix your shit and you can sit around blaming mommy, daddy, the school system, etc if you wish or you can fix your shit. Let me tell you though, you can’t do both, long as you blame mom and dad or the times or anything you won’t get shit done.

  3. Thanks Jack, great show…Question on rural security – the MURS i have is not reliable, goes off when it should not, sometimes doesn’t go off at all, etc – any other better way to have a rural property entry alert?

    • There are a few keys to getting MURS to work well.

      1. You must have a good reflection point.

      2. You need it LEVEL, not level to the eye, level with a level.

      3. Battery must be kept charged. I know this sounds obvious but I have found there is a reliability drop at 25% of charge remaining. Real small solar and replacing with a solar battery pack solves this.

      4. Sensor should be high enough to detect people but not smaller animals.

      1 and 2 are the MOST important, 2 far more then you think. Used right they are very effective, I have a body count on coons that looks like the movie 300 to attest to it.

  4. do you ever think about doing an expert’s show with just one expert and a bunch of calls for him? I would like more shows on the economy with John Pugliano.

  5. Some additional thoughts on low-carb/Paleo/etc. food concerns on the trail:

    1) Larabars — These bars are made of nothing but nuts, dried fruit, and spices (sometimes), and we love to take them with us while camping. You don’t have to special order them. We buy ours at Kroger or Walmart.

    2) Seafood in pouches or cans — Take some condiment packets with you to up the calories.

    3) Off-the-shelf freeze-dried meals — You really don’t have to go with the expensive, harder-to-find stuff like Gary talked about. There are some pretty good options from Mountain House and others if you keep your eyes open.

    Other options that come to mind are things like hard-boiled eggs, olives, no sugar added applesauce tubes, cheese (depending on how you tolerate dairy), pork rinds, and homemade items. (My husband loves these coconut cookies that I make that hold up really well while camping.)

    There are lots of options. You just have to keep an open mind.

  6. The automation trend makes me think of the episode with Toby Hemingway. How Toby talks about hill people (verse flat landers or valley people) being resistant to the state and more self reliance even if it means more labor, hard work, etc. With automation, we become more dependent and have less choices and don’t know always what were are getting. Automation that makes things better for a small group, or tribe can be very benificial and keep things local. As energy supplies get less reliable in the future, getting local will certainly mean a lot more than it does now.

  7. Is anyone else having problems with the playback? At two points in the show it jumped to another section of the show. I’ve had this happen for the last couple of shows of Jacks. My other podcasts do not have this problem, however they are short, however I’m not sure if that affects anything. I download via Wi-Fi so I would not think this would be part of the issue.

    Thanks Matt

  8. It is so exciting to have Geoff Lawton be a part of the show every week!!

  9. Just listened through this last night and I have to say, good God what a great collection of information! It was like some bizarre roller coaster ride of information from the first to the last. Every bit of it as interesting as it was valuable. I really wasn’t looking forward to the new program with the dedicated council show (mostly because ‘I fear change’), so i guess forcing that upon me was helpful too!
    Major kudos to Jack and all the folks who called in for this show. It was fabulous!

    Mick

  10. One note on botulism risk – once a food has become tainted there is no safe way to make it edible once more. For example, if you canned something and learned after the fact that you should have followed a pressure canning process, you should not try to save that food by boiling it to kill off the bacteria. While it’s true that you can easily kill the bacteria at that point, I want to reiterate what Erica said that it is the *toxin* that harms you, and I’m not familiar with any way to remove the toxin once it is produced.
    Happy canning!

    • Hi Adrian,
      The toxin itself denatures fairly quickly at boiling temperatures, actually, (reference) but I totally agree with you that people shouldn’t try to salvage improperly canned foods. I mean, honestly, do you want to be handling and opening glass jars that are potentially full of the most dangerous neurotoxin in the world because you skipped safe canning procedures in the beginning? And then rely on potentially uneven heating to maybe, hopefully destroy the toxin? The rule with canning is, “When in doubt, throw it out,” and that’s what I recommend if folks aren’t sure their low acid foods were properly processed.

  11. Jack and Michael Jordan,

    Thanks for taking my question. I listened to Michael’s response about 10 times and took some notes. I’m doing it. It’s funny how I have been lucky by accident in beekeeping and have used my swarm / superseder cells when they appeared. Now I know what to do. Thanks for motivating me to make this happen. I still have trouble finding my Queens as both are unmarked. I have a good network of Beeks and also have a decent mentor. I did have some setbacks from my local association with small hive beetles my first year.

    So far this year, there are no hive beetles. My Carniolans do a great job of guarding the opening and have surpassed my expectations on nectar gathering. I want to keep this genetic line going as long as possible. I am considering taking a few frames of honey in the fall, it will be my first. expect a report back on the Queens!

    Thanks,
    Jim
    MSB Member

    • Jim, glad your doing good with a swarm colony. Good local genics are a must. To find a queen-> pull up frames slow, and hear the pitch of the hive change. If more active the pitch more then likely it has a queen on that frame. You can do a door March too find queens. Place a white painters tarp in front of the hive so it goes to the hive door. As you pull frames you can give them a quick shake over the tarp. Watch the bees March back in the hive looking for queen. Keep the frames just one foot above the tarp so the bees do not fall far.
      For hive beetles look at 3/4 pvc pipe for hive doors with a 45 on the end facing down And close off the bottom door. Beetles can not fly in the hive. Large openings is what beetles and mites love.
      Keep us up too date on your queening.