How blessed are we.......

To have a refrigerator FULL of meat?
Everything wrapped in paper is heading to the meat shop to be cured
and smoked, possibly today. The zip lock bags( a dozen of them,
weighing approx 10lbs each) are the meat Cortney and I will be
making into loose sausage. I think we'll start tomorrow and work on
getting two batches a day ground, mixed and wrapped. This will leave
us time to do laundry, clean house, cook, chores, etc....

This is our second batch of fat for rendering, we cut the fat into smaller

pieces, they seem to melt quicker that way. If you click on the photo

you'll see the 1 tsp. of baking soda on top of the fat, this helps to give

a nice white lard.

We start it off on a trivet, until it gets melted some, then we place it on

a cooler spot on the wood cook stove, so it doesn't scorch. You'll want to

stir this often, to prevent the meat and bits( that settle to the bottom)

from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

I didn't get pictures of how we strain it, but what we use is a colander

lined with a loose weave muslin, or a cheese makers cloth,( NOT store

bought cheesecloth, it's to loose and will let settlement through) The

cheese makers cloth is held in place with cloth pins, to prevent

slipping down when you are pouring the hot lard. After it is strained,

the remaining fat and cooked bits(cracklings) are left to cool and

thoroughly drain. Once cool enough to handle, gather the cloth and

squeeze any excess lard out, then lay the cracklings out on wax paper

to finish cooling, then we place in containers and freeze.

This is the hot lard in a sterilized gallon jar. We also use wide mouth

quart jars. This is left on the counter to cool, before refrigerating.

Disclaimer: Don't add a hot glass jar to a cold frig or freezer it will

break!

This is after just 3-4 hours on the counter and is now cool enough to

refrigerate. See how nice and white this lard is?Let me tell you, you've

not eaten pie crust, pastries or homemade donuts as good as when

using this lard.

Click on photo for a closer look*wink*

Okay next blog will be step by step sausage making with recipes!

On a side not, let me share that our hens are now picking back up in

their egg production, we've gone from 2-3 eggs a day to up to 10 a day,

YEAH! , and the egg customers are glad for it too!

Yesterday was so.. exciting for Cortney and I, we've been checking

Addy, for any movement of her calf. Some days you think you feel

movement or was it just gas, LOL! Any way yesterday we both

without a doubt felt it moving, in fact it kicked Cortney's hand when she

gently pressed. Now we are so..... excited for Addy to calve mid to end

of April. Our last calf born here was still born from our old Jersey cow,

Bessie, so in the back of your mind you worry, or at least we do.

This Spring is going to be so fun, with a new calf and this year we'll

be ordering chicks and the possibility of Cortney raising bum

lambs until weaned too. That is one reason I look forward to Spring,

how about you? Maybe it's to early to dare ask this but, won't you please

share what you look forward to with the coming of Spring?