Hog Harvest 2016 – Part 1

Following is a post I wrote about four weeks ago… Since writing this post activity on our little homestead for my part has come to almost a complete stop. Soon I will share with you why that is. Until then I hope you enjoy the read.

We harvested one of our hogs and by far this hog was the best harvest and quality meat we’ve gotten from any of our hogs. Don’t get me wrong, they have all been good, but this one is just exceptional.

This year we called on our local processor to help with the harvest and he skinned and quartered the hog for us. That saved us so much time, and I’m glad to support a local small business. Also, with me having a little more experience I’ve gotten better at my butchering skills, seasoning skills and packaging skills. I enjoyed the entire process.

I am so please with our bounty from this hog.

Bacon… Oh the bacon…. My favorite part of the hog! We got about 35 lbs of bacon. Here you can see the pork belly prior to me adding the cure mixture.

Here is the bacon with the brown sugar, salt and fresh black pepper cure. It will cure like this in the refrigerator for 7 to 10 days with me flipping it over and applying another coat of cure to it after the 4th or 5th day.

Then the cured pork belly will go into the smoker for 4 – 6 hours over smoked hickory chips. I truly think someone should package a perfume that smells like bacon smoking in the smoker. It’s the best!

We got 2 beautiful tenderloin, which is actually the back strap, because it goes down the length of the spine at the top. After trimming we ended up with 4 pork loin roast weighing 3 – 4 lbs each.

Also trimmed from the tenderloin was 8 thick boneless pork chops.

And to the left of this picture you will see what is called the fish, which is actually the tenderloin. It is the most tender part of the hog (and the deer for that matter).

All of the tenderloin, chops and fish were brined overnight then dried and vacuum seal packaged for the freezer.

The racks of ribs were trimmed and vacuum seal packed straight to the freezer.

This is a lot of work, but it is one of the most rewarding things we do on our homestead. Our hogs live a happy life on the homestead and the harvest of our hogs or any animal on our homestead is a peaceful and respected process. Knowing where our food comes from is a priority for us, one that we enjoy working hard for.

Up next will be hams, hocks, sausage and boston butts. We’ll be starting the smoking process too.

Till next time,

Lori

Homemade Chicken Stock

You really should be making your own chicken stock. It’s one of the easiest things in the world to do and it is 1,000,000,000,000 times better than anything you can buy at the store.

This is what I did on Saturday and Sunday.

I started with chicken bones I had been saving in my freezer along with some onion, celery and carrot scraps then I let this pot low simmer on the stove for 29 hours. I added extra water to in once.

This is why I love to make my bone broths in the cooler months, because I can cook it on my wood stove and not have my kitchen stove on for 24 hours.

While my stock was cooking away, I got busy using my electric pressure cooker doing 1 whole chicken at a time from the freezer. I cooked the 3 laying hens that the Z Man and I harvested from our flock earlier this summer and I cooked 3 of my Polyface Farm roaster chickens. I pressure cooked them for 20 minutes each then let them cool and picked the meat from them and put the bones in the stock pot.

After all the chickens were cooked and the meat was in the jars, I filled the jars with chicken stock from my stock pot. Then 7 quarts of chicken meat went into my pressure canner at 10 lbs of pressure for 90 minutes. The chicken stock, 25 minutes and 10lbs of pressure for quart jars.

In total I ended up with 7 quarts of canned chicken and 18 quarts of chicken stock.

The canned chicken will be great in chicken and dumplings, chicken pot pie, chicken soups, buffalo chicken dip…. A great easy quick meal no matter what recipe I use.

This is good for you food at it’s best. There are many healing properties in homemade bone broth.

I mean, just look at that beautiful golden rich stock. Mmmmmmm, I can’t wait for some mashed potatoes and gravy!

Canning is not difficult and it’s not dangerous if you follow the basic safety practices. Yes it takes time and it takes work, but it’s something that I find pleasure in doing.

Even if you don’t have a pressure caner, you can very easily make this stock and freeze it in individual containers and it would still be just as lovely.

And why not get extra goodness out of that roasted chicken by using the bones for stock. That’s a great way to stretch a dollar.

Till next time,

Lori

I’m A Paper and Pencil / Pen Girl

I have a lap top, a tablet, and a smart phone yet I always turn to my paper and pencil for most everything I do.

(In full disclosure I would like to throw my laptop out in the yard, set it on fire, then run over it with my car…. I’ve never felt that way about one of my planners, just saying)

I’ve always enjoyed writing and some say that I have a dramatic hand writing because it sways and curves a lot.

I just think there is beauty in writing. Just imagine if we still wrote notes to each other instead of texting.

My planner…. I’ve tried many planners from the expensive Franklin Covey big zipper binders, to making my own 3 ring binder with multi colored tabs.

What I am certain of is that if it’s not convenient, I won’t use it.

So I got rid of all the bulk and condensed everything down to a simple little day planner that is about 8.5″ x 5″ that I carry in my bag.

I keep track of my budget in it
I track my spending in it
I record bills due and paid
the obvious of birthdays and anniversaries
I keep my coupons in it, passwords, notes, to do list

I ordered my 2017 planner and I decided to get a pretty one for next year.

I’ve already begun thinking about new years resolutions… My thoughts keep going toward putting more beauty in my life. It’s an idea and desire that I’m working on a plan for 2017. More on that later 😉

Anyway, I carry a bag with me (All… The… Time…) My sister gave me this bag that I’m carrying now, it’s the perfect size and everything is a nice fit in it.

Here are some of the things that are currently in my bag. Journal, recipe notebook, planner, sticky notes, to do note pad, pencil, pens, highlighter.

I think I got this from my Dad because I can remember him always carrying a bag with him too. Of course his wasn’t all sparkly with paisley and glitter trim. 😉

Like me, He also enjoys writing and I can remember him leaving my Mom little love notes on the kitchen counter.

The Z Man and I do that too, leave little notes for each other, maybe on the counter or the bathroom mirror.

No matter what it is, I think when you put it in words on paper (or the bathroom mirror), it just has a little more special meaning to it.

Are you paper and pencil or do you lean more toward technology for your needs?

Till next time,

Lori

What Was Cooking This Week

Breakfasts were…

Smoothies for breakfast, well smoothies for my breakfast, I haven’t been able to convince the Z Man into it yet.

Right now I’m also enjoying a mushroom scramble and a apple on the side for breakfast too. This isn’t a great picture, but it was yummy. This particular one I added homemade salsa on top.

This is what the Z Man likes to call “Somma” which means some of this and some of that. I took this picture before adding the bow tie pasta and fresh grated parmesan cheese. I served it along side grilled venison tenderloin. Very healthy and one of our favorite meals. It’s also very good with homemade pesto mixed in.

Another one of our favorite meals is enchilada night.

This particular week was venison and black bean enchilada with homemade guacamole, homemade salsa and homemade yogurt. We always use yogurt in place of sour cream. I love that most all of this meal is grown and / or harvested by our own hands. But then again most of our meals are.

And I roasted some veggies this week too. Carrots, turnips, butternut squash, potatoes and onions. I love roasting veggies, it’s such and easy side dish for any meal.