Corn and black bean salsa

I want to make salsa with corn and black beans. I have your canning book, which I love. Can I add some corn and beans to the “Salsa” recipe? How much? How long would I process them? Would I pressure can these, due to the corn and beans?

Bea
St. Paris, Ohio

No, I wouldn’t do that as adding the corn and beans probably wouldn’t make a nice tasting salsa. Instead, what I do with corn and beans is to make a corn and black bean salsa that tastes like fresh and can be added to Mexican dishes like you do tomato salsa. I usually use both!

Use the corn relish recipe on page 97 of the canning book, substituting 2 cups of black beans for 2 of the cups of fresh sweet corn in the recipe. I also add 1/2 cup of chopped onions and do not add the turmeric. This cans up very nice and pretty, too. — Jackie

Cracking grain for chickens

I really need a grain mill that will crack grain or beans for my chickens. I then want the same grain mill to make wonderful flour from the wheat that we raise. The mill I’d like to have is the Grainmaker, a great USA made mill. But it is just so expensive! Would you know of a mill that will last and do the things I need without breaking my budget? Chicken feed is getting so expensive, and I can raise some of the feed that they eat. So I would love to feel the satisfaction of making it myself.

Barbara F.
Bakersfield, California

Chickens really don’t need their grain cracked; they have eaten whole grains for centuries. If you plan on feeding beans, limit the amount as too many beans can be unhealthy for chickens unless cooked. You can buy a Country Living grain mill, which is the mill I’d like to own some day, for about half the price of the Grainmaker. It’s a nice mill and can also be converted to run off of an electric motor if you have electricity. Besides grinding grain, you can also soak it to soften it and thus make it more digestible. More digestible feeds are more completely processed in digestion and you won’t waste feed. If you have a lot of chickens, you might be able to pick up a used hammer mill, which runs off a tractor or motor. This cracks grain in larger amounts and is what farmers have used for years. — Jackie

Canning chicken and rice soup

Many people say you cannot can chicken and rice soup…something about not having an industrial canner? Can rice be canned? I know that chicken can but have heard so many times that rice cannot.

Judy
Warrenton, Oregon

I add rice to many of my canned foods all the time. The key to using rice is not to use too much and therefore make too thick a canned product. If the canned food is too thick, the heat during processing may not reach the center of the jar and thus the food may not be heated through for long enough during processing to be safe. Do not cook the rice before canning as it tends to get mushy. Brown rice cans up nicer, because it takes a longer cooking time; it stays more firm than does regular long grain white rice. Be sure to process your chicken rice soup for the regular chicken soup length of time. — Jackie