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Pickling
Pickling is a great way to preserve homegrown produce while saving money. Nebraska Extension Educator Cindy Brison says you can safely pickle a variety of fruits and vegetables from your garden. She shares tips for making sure your pickled products are both safe and delicious.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
Most of our home gardens have given up their produce for the season, and it's always nice to have fresh vegetables for your meals during the season.
One tried and true method of preserving your homegrown produce is pickling.
On today's almanac, extension educator, Cindy Bryson talks about how to safely pickle just about anything that comes out of your garden.
[Cindy Brison, Nebraska Extension Educator]
So pickling is preserving by using an acid, and it's usually some form of vinegar.
So you can make quick pickles where you, for example, you make pickled onions, you mix vinegar and a little sugar and some salt, pour them over sliced onions, put them in your fridge, and within a couple hours, you have pickled onions, cheese and your pork sandwich.
Um, they last, you know, they probably last about a week in your fridge and they're okay.
You can do pickles the same way quick quick refrigerator pickles.
We mix up the brine, you pour them over the the spiced cucumbers, you leave it in the refrigerator for a couple days, and and then you have quick pickles, but again, they're not gonna last, you know, all year long.
We make fermented pickles where people put them in crocs, and they um, you know, let them ferment for long periods of time and then they can them or they or they just can pickles, but the biggest thing, use fresh produce, nothing damage, make sure you're using 5% acidic vinegar, doesn't matter if it's white vinegar, could be flavored vinegar. That's fine.
The most important part when you're pickling is that you're using 5% acidic vinegar.
Um if if it's not, it's not going to be safe.
Um, the ingredients you use are important so making sure that you use fresh produce use pickling salt when you're when you're pickling.
If you use table salt, it'll still work, but because of the iodine in the table salt, it's gonna make your pickle brine very cloudy, and it's not gonna look pretty and you're gonna think that they're not okay.
Use pickling salt. Be just fine.
Making sure when you're canning you're using the appropriate headspace.
So once you put your pickles in and you put your liquid in, you know it tells you to leave X amount of headspace at the top.
Follow the directions, if you leave too much or too little, um either the jar won't seal or you will have something that is unsafe, so make sure you, you're following again, following a research based recipe.
Never alter the amount of vinegar, food or water proportions.
Um making sure that you know you're you're following those because you're setting up a certain pH inside your jar and you want it to be saved.
Make sure your jars are in good shape before you use them run your finger around the top.
Are there any small mix or chips in it?
Have you put pickles in before or other things and run a knife down the side of your jar to make sure you got all the air out?
Are these, are your jar scraped?
Sometimes those grape marks on the inside of your jar can cause them to crack during a food preservation and you don't want that to happen either.
Making sure that you're cutting off the blossom end of your cucumber when you're making pickles.
Um, if you don't, the blossom in releases an enzyme that actually softens your pickle, which is the biggest complaint we get.
People don't want they want crispy pickles like they're buying plastic pickles at the grocery store.
Well, when you can pickles at home, they're not going to be that way, but there are things you can do to me- help make them crisper.
Um, you can use soft water, soft water helps with firm pickles.
Um, we don't recommend pickling lime or necessarily alum anymore.
Refrigerating your pickles prior to opening them can help with the crisp crispness too.
There are some commercial firming agents out there.
You can buy, but these are all things that you want to again, follow the follow the instructions, making sure you're doing them um, appropriately and um, and following, following a research based recipe.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
For more pickling recipes, visit UNL's food website at food.unl.edu.
That's food.unl.edu.
For Nebraska Extension Almanac.
I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IA&R media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
New Farm Bill Obstacles
The United States has been operating under the 2018 Farm Bill for years, as efforts to pass a new bill continue to face obstacles. Nebraska Extension Ag Policy Specialist Brad Lubben says lawmakers face several challenges in reaching agreement on the next farm bill and its policies and programs.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
Congress has made significant progress in coming up with a new farm bill, but getting it passed is an entirely different matter.
Extension specialist, Brad Lubin says, a farm bill has passed the house, but policy issues and political uncertainty has begun to bog it down in the Senate.
He begins today's program by looking back at where the farm bill has come, and some of the frustrations that might prevent it from moving forward.
[Brad Lubben, Nebraska Extension Ag Policy Specialist]
The road has been long and frustrating for sure.
The current farm bill that still technically exists is the 2018 farm bill that was expired in 2023.
When we didn't get something done in Congress, It was extended for one year to 24.
It was extended another year again to 25.
You noted some of the policy changes that were dealt with in the budget bill in 25, but the rest of the bill expired yet again.
Another one year extension gets us to 26, And here we are again, waiting on congressional action to try and get a farm bill done or yet wondering if it's destined for another extension.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Brad details how the House of Representatives passed a bill back in April, where it had bipartisan support.
Brad says, the Senate has to take a different approach to make it past any possibility of a filibuster.
He says one of the major problems is the upcoming election that could possibly destroy any plans of this bill passing the Senate.
[Brad Lubben, Nebraska Extension Ag Policy Specialist]
Yeah, the Senate has moved a bill out of committee, but it still faces an uncertain fate on the floor of the Senate.
It's worth backing up, though, to what the House did back in April.
The House did pass a farm bill, out of committee, and across the four, with bipartisan support.
It basically reauthorized what we call the skinny farm bill, the parts of the bill outside of commodities, crop insurance, conservation, and snap, the parts that were addressed in the budget bill last year.
The Senate has to take, arguably, a more by the Senate has to take a more bipartisan approach than even the House, because it has to figure out how to get over a 60 vote filibuster threat on the floor of the Senate.
The bill that came out of committee does make some overtures to the necessary bipartisan support.
It included an amendment to delay some of the proposed cost shifts in the snap program, cost shifts from the budget reconciliation bill that would shift part of the cost of benefits and the snap program to states based on error rates.
Well, the Senate farm bill does include language that would include a one year delay in that shift.
That was not enough to get any bipartisan supporting committee.
And so it came out of committee on a 12/11 party line vote.
How it gets across the Senate 4, where it does have to find some bipartisan support to get past the filibuster, is still a real challenge.
And in fact, that challenge won't even happen until after the election, in a lame deck session of Congress.
By that point, the election results will also matter.
They may dictate, well, they certainly will dictate who will have power in the next Congress.
And that may either dictate a more congenial discussion and compromise here in the lame duck session of Congress, or it could also basically propel the partisanship and the desire to try and push off the decision yet again for another year, so that a renewed debate could start again in the new Congress.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Stay tuned for future programs where Brad discusses more on this issue.
Next time, Brad will talk about how the snap food assistance policy has always been a sticking point when it comes to passing a farm bill.
For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans.
Go to extension.unl.edu.
The Importance of Wildlife and Gamebird Habitats
Wildlife and gamebird habitat can provide important benefits on the farm. Nebraska Extension Habitat Management Specialist Andy Little says agricultural operations should consider conserving unused or difficult-to-farm areas for wildlife, which can improve habitat while making productive use of less profitable acres.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
Sustainability, soil health, and water quality are key components to every farm and ranch operation.
Extension habitat management specialist, Andy Little, says conservation and sustainability can include areas on the operation that promote wildlife and game bird habitats.
He encourages farmers to look into taking unused or difficult to farm areas, and try making these habitats which may lead to a future revenue stream.
Well, I can say personally my passion. Is around how do we help landowners optimize their operation.
And so I'm, my driving force every day I wake up is how can we, with this research and extension, because I'm also an extension specialist at university.
Um, how can we take this information, get it into the hands of landowners so that it actually is helping them make more informed decisions on their operations?
And particularly, as I alluded to earlier, the Stackable Enterprise arena.
That is where we're, I'm very invested because we, what we are seeing in the state of Nebraska and many other states, as we're seeing obviously sole health issues.
Um, we've seen water quality issues in particular across the state of Nebraska, you look at Iowa's and other illustration.
Um, a lot of challenges there.
And so every farmer that I've met with is insure it wants to ensure the long-term sustainability of their operation.
And so I come back and say, okay, if these, what are the friction points, if you want to say, for you and your operation, how can we make that easier and finding ways to adopt some of these practices and usually what I hear, especially on some of the conservation programs is, hey, it just doesn't pencil out financially.
So then I can't really, in my role, I can't change conservation programs, but I can totally find other ways to help them, think about other alternative opportunities beyond maybe a conservation program.
And maybe it's a conservation program plus something else, like a hunting lease or plus something else in your operation where you have a little diversity.
And it's not asking to convert massive amounts of acreage.
It can just be small amounts of your property where, and that's one of the things always also tell people a lot about is just try something small.
Just take, say you have just a couple acres and you're like, hey, let's just try this out and see how it works. Know, do a little experimentation.
We have the one farm research network at university.
It's another great opportunity to collaborate with them, um, and test out some ideas as well.
And then you get some of these folks will help you out and designing something research project around your questions and be able to implement that.
And so really, the the value to me is, I'm looking at the future legacy and what we're leaving and how can we take and leave that lasting legacy to our kids or grandkids in one down the line by establishing these holistic operations where we're balancing out conservation and production.
And there is really no cookie cutter approach, and now you're going to get it done. Everybody's going to be different.
But finding innovative ways that we can help landowners optimizer operation from that profitability side.
Because if we can't do that, it's going to be a little harder to, you know, look at, hey, I'm putting taking land out of production to your earlier and put it into something else.
Well, we need to say if it pays, it stays.
That's just the reality of it.
So if it pays economically for you by diversifying, um, through stackable enterprises, that's part of what my lab's doing right now or helping to address those risks and helping to develop basically pathways so that landowners can actually, they're, again, reducing these friction points so that they can say, oh, okay, I have somebody can kind of help me along this trajectory to diversify and look at something a little differently on my operation.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
For Nebraska extension almanac.
I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans.
Go to extension.unl.edu.
Past and Current Trade Issues
Global agricultural trade is vital to the success of American agriculture. Former Nebraska Governor and U.S. Trade Secretary Mike Johanns discusses the importance of staying competitive in international markets and the role trade plays in creating opportunities for U.S. farmers and ranchers
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[Mike Straub, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
On this week's episode of Nebraska Extension Almanac, former Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johannes, speaks on the importance of trade and relationships with trade partners.
[Mike Johanns, Former Secretary of Agriculture]
In the last 18 months or so, I've been in Brazil twice. 25 years ago, my message was, look, these folks are doing some things we need to pay attention.
They're going to be a big competitor.
Kind of the response I got from some was, well, they don't have any roads, they don't have railroad systems.
They don't have ports, you know, so they're not going to be much.
Well, they're a powerhouse now.
They truly are a leader when it comes to soybean production.
And if you go to Brazil, they make no secret about it.
Corn is on thorizon.
They want to be a leader in their Safrina corn crop.
And in some places, many places in Brazil, they can do a couple of crops.
So it's a real challenge for the United States.
And we see it with our relationship with China.
You know, we get in a spat with China.
Does that leave China shorter and soybeans?
No, they go to Brazil.
And if you talk to folks in Brazil about the relationship with China, they don't get all tangled up in the politics of what China may or may be doing at a given time.
They will tell you, disappoint blank.
Our job is to sell soybeats.
Um, and we're going to do everything we can to sell soybeans to China and anywhere else that we can sell soybeans.
So, like I said, if we really want to be competitive, not only do we have to be competitive in that international marketplace, but we have to be competitive in what we're doing here in the United States.
And if you're not emphasizing biodiesel ethanol, I think we're missing out on a great opportunity for corn producers, soybean producers.
You know, President Bush was very clear to me, and it was very clear to the United States trade representative.
He told us, I want you out there together.
I want you to be the team.
And I want you to build trade relationships.
I want you to get trade agreements.
He was just very, very forceful about it.
He believed that trade was an opportunity for us to win.
He would maintain, and I said the same thing, level of the plane filled, and Nebraska farmers and ranchers gonna win.
U.S. Farmers and ranchers are gonna win, because we produce just unbelievable products in this state and in this country.
What I experienced in talking to ministers from other countries, whether it was Canada, Mexico, or India, or wherever, was that they wanted predictability.
China was the same way, you know?
China wanted to be able to rely upon the fact that they had a trading partner that was predictable, that they could get their soy beans from our country.
Let's not be mistaken about this.
There were trade irritations all the time.
I mean, that was constant.
I spent a tremendous amount of my time as secretary D line with those kinds of trade irritations.
But at the end of the day, I felt very, very strongly that if farmers and ranchers were going to be successful.
I had to lead the way to open up markets and to level the playing field.
And it just was extremely important.
When I became Secretary, There were 145 countries or something.
We can sell our beef.
Here we're raising this unbelievable product.
And literally, we've got no place to market it.
And so, you know, work very hard to get that straightened out, but, again, that was just a piece of what I did.
So, I'm a believer that you can fight for fair trade and negotiate good trade agreements for farmers and ranchers.
But there has to be a predictability about what we do that's extremely important.
Our trading partners need to rely upon the fact that today and tomorrow, that market will be open.
[Mike Straub, Program Host]
For Nebraska Extension Almanac.
I Mike Straub.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media, and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
Farm Bill and SNAP
The SNAP food assistance program is a major part of the federal farm bill, and disagreements over SNAP have been one of the challenges in passing new legislation. Nebraska Extension Ag Policy Specialist Brad Lubben discusses the current status of SNAP and how it factors into the ongoing farm bill debate.
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[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.
On a recent almanac program, Nebraska extension ag policy specialist Brad Lubin laid out some of the problematic issues with passing a new farm bill.
One of the biggest obstacles that this and older farm bills has had is the snap benefits issue.
Brad says this is always the most contentious issue, and this new proposed bill is no different.
[Brad Lubben, Nebraska Extension Ag Policy Specialist]
The snap issue has been a fundamental challenge.
It's been at the heart of the Farm Bill Coalition for decades. Supplement nutrition assistance programming, what we long ago called food stamps.
That's the food assistance portion that brought the food interest and the urban interest together to form a coalition to help pass the farm bill with the farm interest.
So you had farm and food policy, or farm and food programs, as part of that coalition effort.
Well, for decades, that was the formula to getting a farm bill done in bipartisan fashion.
When the farm bill didn't get done in 23 or 24 and the language was moved to the budget reconciliation bill in 25, the budget reconciliation process is a much more partisan process, because the reconciliation rules don't require overcoming a filibuster in the Senate.
So you can imagine language or legislation moving along party lines.
The budget language that was included in 2025, increased commodity program supports, increased crop insurance supports, basically reallocated some of the conservation program dollars to establish more of a long run budget baseline, and substantially either cut or reduced snap spinning.
I say cut or reduced.
It depends on which side of the aisle you're on as to which word you want to use there.
But it substantially reduced the total expectant level of spending on Snap by establishing tighter eligibility rules, by shifting costs to the states, by proposing a revisit of the calculation of benefit rates.
All of these things look on paper, like they would reform a program, and maybe reduce errors, and reduce assistance going to ineligible individuals, but it still fundamentally looks like a cut to food assistance.
And so if the argument is about any dollars being cut from food assistance, relative to what were, in fact, dollars added to the farm site, that got through on partisan lines in a budget reconciliation process, it's not clear that that keeps the coalition together. To try and get the rest of the farm bill through on a bipartisan basis.
So Snap's a critical part of the farm bill, it's been key to the coalition that's gotten a farm bill done for more than 50 years.
It's not clear as to whether that coalition is willing to put the rest of the farm bill across the finish line.
[Brad Mills, Program Host]
There is much more to cover on this important topic.
Next time, Brad talks about some of the political obstacles to passing a new bill.
You can read a detailed article or listen to the entire interview by visiting UNL Center for Ag Profitabilities website at cap.unl.edu or download from Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
For Nebraska Extension Almanac.
I'm Brad Mills.
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension.
For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.