makin bacon

Now that I have our hog slaughtered and in our freezer I made my first attempt to cure and smoke a pork loin.  Which is another way to say I tried to make bacon.  The curing is insanely easy.  I used 2.5 part kosher salt 1 part sugar and a generous grinding of black pepper.  I rubbed it all over the pork loin and let the loin sit, uncovered, in the frig for a week.  Every day I'd pour off the excess liquid and rub in more of the salt mixture, as needed.  Curing=easy   Smoking=hard    After a week I attempted to smoke it.  First I rinsed the surface salt off and used paper towels to dry it off.  Then I put it in the grill with a little fire off to one side and the pork loin smoking on the far side.  I do have a thermometer and I know how to use it, but at the same time let's just say the entire thing was difficult to ruin. I tried.  I just couldn't keep the temperature even in our outdoor grill.  I was aiming for just under 200 degrees, but after a couple of hours of waaaay too hot alternating with waaaay too cold I gave up and brought it in the house.  I carved off a bit of the overcooked pieces and it is absolutely delicious.  We sliced it as thin as we could (it is still pretty thick for bacon) and fried up the slices up for BLTs with our fresh garden tomatoes.  Fabulous.  Randall had some in the morning with his fried eggs and said they tasted like mini pork chops with his eggs.  Home made bacon it an amazing treat.  It's only been a couple of days and we've eaten more than half of the pork loin.  It is so yummy.

old people with guns

Randall and I went out to visit our son Carl.  He's just back from being deployed in Afghanistan.  He took his old parents out to the shooting range and attempted to teach us how to shot.  It was pretty entertaining!  I was easily the worst of us three.  Carl is instructor-level good.  Whatever the opposite of instructor is, that's what I am.

happy pigs

We bought one of his pigs.  It'll be slaughtered in the fall.  I'm glad the animal we eat gets to have such a happy life (as opposed to factory farms).  You can't see it, but they have already tilled up some of the pastures.  These are some happy animals.

happy cows

One more picture from the farm visit.  Happy, healthy cows!  It was just like from a dream, the beautiful weather, the green pasture, the cows softly mooing, the birds flitting around.  So much fun.

Hog heaven

Some friends and I went to visit the most delightful farm.  It was the best day!  See the baby pigs?  The young farmer is really trying to make a "go" of farming pasture raised livestock. Notice these pigs are given lots land to till up and get to stay with their mothers for an extended time.  All of his livestock was extremely healthy.  My camera gave out after just a few pictures of one set of the pigs, so when I get picture of the other pigs wallowing happily in shady pool, and of the cows out in the green pastures I'll post them.  They all looked like they belonged on the cover of a magazine.  SO happy looking and SO healthy.  I purchased one of his pigs and it will be processed into meat for our family.  I feel very strongly that I want the animals that sacrifice their lives for me to have a happy life and a quick death.

disco balls

Disco balls hanging down from the rabbit run.

Chickens in their shady run.

Here you can see how crazy the squash is growing.  It is giving the chickens and the rabbit shade and is trying to take over the rest of the yard, too.

My garden is doing really well.  The empty spaces were growing bush beans.  I'm in the process of putting in fall crops.

lacto-fermentation

What I've been playing with lately--- lacto-fermentation.  I love learning a new way to do things myself.  Sauerkraut could not be easier.  The hardest part is finding a crock appropriate for fermenting.  You can do it in a quart mason jar, but it is usually done in bigger pots.  Look at the thrift store for a straight sided ceramic cookie jar (or something similar).  Shred up the head of cabbage, salting it with sea salt and pounding it down into the crock with a meat pounder.  The released juices should rise above the shreds if you keep pounding long enough.  Add some whey (from making regular yogurt into "yogurt cheese") a few tablespoons.  Weight down the cabbage so that the shreds are below the juices.  This is generally done with a plate and a rock on top of the plate.  If your juices don't quite cover the cabbage add some distilled water until the juices do cover the shreds.  Put a cloth cover over and hide in a dark place for  few days to a few weeks.  When it is done to your desired level of fermenting put in the fridge.  Our first attempt tasted, dead-on, like the kimchi we got from the Korean restaurant.  Seriously, this is easy.