March updates

The weather this year has been oddly warm. Most of my MN friends are hesitant to plant anything because they can't believe spring is already here. The trees and grass have given up on winter and are putting on their spring outfits. I did put some peas and radishes (that sort of thing) into the garden. I just got finished with putting in a new compost/garden bed and planting seeds. I'm really not very good at starting plants from seed, so we'll see how that works. I've got apple trees arriving next month and lots of other plants to put in the ground, put it seems a bit early for MN.

rendering out the lard

I did something today I've never done before-- I rendered out lard. It was really simple and I feel very frugal. The local grocery store sells the fatty bits of pork for really cheap. I cut the meaty bits off and ground them up into sausage. The fatty bits I put through the grinder and then dumped them all in the crockpot. I left the crockpot on low for a few hours and the fat melted out. It was really easy and now I have both lard and sausage meat in the freezer, all ready to use. I love finding another thing I can do myself.