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

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.

And there is a chicken in that pot 🙂

So that’s pretty much what we ate this week.

Lunches were leftovers of these meals.

I did not buy any groceries this week, so that keeps my total at $89.84 for the month.

We eat pretty darn good around the Z Homestead 😉

What did y’all eat this week?

Till next time,

Lori

Clean Food, Is It?

Choosing a clean food diet is a personal choice. It is a choice that I made to help with my digestive issues, and I’m 100% sure that it has helped me stop the Prilosec.

The Z Man and I are not 100% clean food people, we are probably more around the 75% range. But it is a conscious effort for us because we want to know what we are putting in our bodies. Still there are times we backslide a bit. We are human. But honestly when we do eat something out of the norm for us, more often than not we immediately regret it and wish we hadn’t.

Sometimes even the healthy choices can be deceiving. For example during the busy summer months when I was working 6 days a week I would sometimes swing by the grocery store for a bag salad to have for my lunch.

An entire bag salad complete with croutons, dressings, fruit, nuts (you get the idea) is $3.00 whereas a salad from a restaurant would run around $7.00
Choosing a salad for lunch IS a healthier choice than restaurant food and most certainly healthier than any drive thru food.
A bag salad is quick and easy, just dump in a bowl and eat which is very convenient.

Take a look at these pictures of what actually comes in a bag (caesar) salad.

Take another look at the ingredient list for this bag salad in the second picture. YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Granted that the unwanted ingredients are mostly in the dressing and croutons, but even the cheese has unwanted, unclean ingredients.

That is why I make my own dressing.

A simple but great basic salad dressing is:

1 tsp dijon mustard
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp. honey
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a jar and shake to blend. Done!

Then you don’t have all those unnecessary and unwanted ingredients in your salad, and you are eating clean.

The basics of a clean food diet for us is

Five or less ingredients on the label.
No unpronounceable ingredients. If I can’t say it and don’t know what it is then I don’t want to eat it.
Natural sugars such as raw honey and pure maple syrup.
Cook real food – think of it as what your grandmother or great grandmother cooked and put on the table.
Cook your own food so you know what’s in it even if you have to do weekly or bi weekly meal prepping.
Read ingredient labels, read all ingredient labels even on the simple items. Trust me, you’ll be surprised!
No meals received through a drive through window.

Like I said earlier, eating clean is a personal choice and one I’m glad I’ve made for me and the Z Man.

And if you decide to try it, then I hope these few tips will help you get started. Just remember, it’s not about being perfect it’s just about being comfortable with your choices.

Till next time,

Lori

What’s Cooking and Meal Prep

I did a little mid week meal prepping last night.

Salad in a jar with cucumber, tomato, mushroom, dried cranberries, romaine lettuce, sunflower seeds and a tiny bit of sharp cheddar. The dressing is homemade vinaigrette.

Salad in a jar is all about layering the ingredients to help them stay fresh and keep them from getting soggy.

Salad dressing on the bottom, then layer ingredients that are more tolerant to the dressing like cucumber and cherry tomatoes, then layer the more tender ingredients as you go up the jar like the lettuce and cheese.

Salad in a jar will stay fresh in the fridge for a good five days which makes it a great choice for weekly meal prepping.

This was last nights dinner.