Real Food

Homemade Mayonnaise

First time making homemade mayonnaise. I was surprised at how easy it was to do. It tastes nothing like "store bought" and it LOOKS nothing like store bought. Because I used my pastured eggs it came out very yellow, looking more like butter than the mayonnaise we are use to eating. Because I wanted this for turkey sandwiches I put a bit of dried thyme in.

Homemade mayonnaise this is the link where I got the instructions.

My son and I both like it, we're not mayonnaise junkies and this is very mild compared to the store bought stuff. My husband on the other hand, who is a big fan of store bought  is not fond of it. 

As far as I'm concerned it's earned a place in my fridge. I'll take real over fake processed every chance I get.

Of course, not being a commercially processed product filled with preservatives, it's not going to last a year in the fridge. I'm thinking about a week. How long it lasts is determined by how old the eggs are that you used to make it. My eggs were laid the same day. Having to make mayonnaise once a week is a small price to pay for being able to eat "Real Food".

Rendering the Lard

Pig Fat

Do you render your own lard?

I recently found a local source for pastured pig fat. These people also sell grass fed beef, beef bones (for wonderful bone broth), also raw milk, butter, cheese, pastured pork and lots of other things. They have a drop off in town every Saturday which just happens to be the day we go to town. I'm thrilled to have finally found healthy food! I've been looking for grass fed meat and raw milk for a long time.  

Rendering your own lard is simple and healthy. I love it for baking, everything from brownies to wheat bread. All you do is chop the lard into small pieces, put it in a pot on simmer till the bits float. Strain out the bits, jar it up, and put it in the fridge.

Out of just a bit over 5 pounds of fat I got two quarts and almost a full pint. I pay $3.00 per pound of fat. It comes frozen and I keep it that way until I get ready to make the lard. It's a bit easier to chop if left a bit frozen. After chilling the lard will turn a beautiful cream color and become solid.

Lard

 

Now I know that there are a LOT of people who cringe at the thought of using lard for anything. I was the same way a few short years ago. I've done a lot of reading about real food and I would suggest you do the same. My favorite book on the subject is "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon. There is a wealth of good information in that book!

From Grass to Table

40 Pound Pastured Turkey

I said in an earlier post that I would not be raising any more turkey and listed the reason why. I've changed my mind!

This is Stomper, or was Stomper anyway. We killed him last Saturday so he could sit in the fridge for three days before going into the oven. I know it's hard to tell from the pic but your looking at 41 pounds of turkey! He was so big we had to buy a metal garbage can to scald him in before plucking. It took my husband, my son and myself to ready this bird for Christmas dinner. 

I didn't have a pan that came close to being big enough to cook this bird in (neither did any of our friends). My son came up with the idea of making our own pan from aluminum foil which we put on an oven rack. We poked holes in the foil so the juices could run into a pan on a lower rack. Then it occurred to me that this monster may not fit in the oven. On top of that I've never seen a 40 pound turkey much less cooked one. I decided the best way to cook it would be to put it in the oven on 250 degrees overnight. It took 14 hours! I turned off the oven and let it sit for another hour. 

Folks.. this was hands down the best turkey I've ever eaten! Wonderfully flavorful, tender and juicy beyond belief. The drippings were so rich they were almost black. We will get 11 meals from this bird! Soup, turkey pot pie, hot turkey sandwiches..as an added bonus, I'll get about two gallons of rich bone broth as well.

The down side to all this is, I miss Stomper. He was a very vocal bird and more like a dog than a turkey. If I was outside Stomper was right with me, he liked to have his head patted, and was constantly under food. It was not easy to turn him into dinner, not for me, my husband or my son. In fact, he was supposed to be Thanksgiving Dinner, but none of us had the heart to end his life. The thing is he was raised to be food, not a pet. He had a good free-ranging life, and a humane death.

Why am I telling you all this.. maybe trying to work through the seasons and cycles of this way of life. Maybe to let those that don't yet know that this is not an easy way to live, but the most rewarding life there is. In this life you reap what you sew, I've always known this but nothing brings it home like trying to be responsible for your own food. If you don't plant it, you won't have it, if you don't preserve it, you won't have it, if you don't kill it, you won't have it, unless you buy it from someone else, I try to keep that to a minimum. 

At any rate, I was grateful to have raised this turkey and very grateful for the meals he will provide for my family. I don't see how I will ever eat another bland, flavorless, ill treated, antibiotic filled, disease ridden, toxic store bought turkey ever again. So if I want turkey for dinner I have no choice but to raise my own and take the good along with the bad.

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas!

P. S 

As a side note, I checked the price on line for free-range turkey, our turkey would have cost us $280.00 (give or take).

Stomper the Thanksgiving Turkey

Turkey Days

Miss Turkey - Bourbon Red (Heritage Breed)

 

I managed to get four turkey this year! Two Red Bourbon and two Standard Bronze. Both are heritage breads. The above pic is one of the Red Bourbons taking a dust bath in the bed I had just turned to plant fall kale. At one point I let them free-range, then someone told me that if a flock of wild turkey came along ours would join up with them. They now live in a big fenced run with lots of grass and bugs.

I won't be raising turkey like I had originally thought. I learned a few things that does not make it a wise choice for me!

One.. they are smart! Smarter than chickens.

Two.. they are personable, friendly and funny. Not at all like I thought they would be. They like being with people! That means it's going to be very hard for me to put them on the dinner table. Chickens are hard enough and they don't have near the personalities of turkey (in my opinion).

Three.. they eat a LOT and it takes them a long time to get to butcher weight. We like the way turkey tastes, but not enough to justify the extra expense above what it cost to raise a chicken. I know now why free-range, heritage birds go for 8.00 per pound!

In case your interested.. the standard bronze are bigger now than the Bourbon Red and they are two months younger. I can't believe the size difference in the breads.

On the garden front: I'm getting fall crops in, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, snow peas, carrots, kale, spinach and lettuce. I'm planting all the seed I have this year. The spring/summer garden was not at all what it has been in past years, the bugs came early and hit hard. The extreme heat and lack of rain in July didn't do anything to help. I shouldn't even mention lack of rain considering the horrible drought a lot of you are going through! Maybe fall will be kinder?

Croutons

What do you do with your leftover bread?

As I've said before, I don't buy store bought bread. Since I've got effort and time into my bread I hate to give it to the chickens. This is a picture of croutons I made this morning to go with the spring salad we will have with our venison strogonff for supper tonight.

A half a loaf of bread will net about half a mixing bowl of croutons. Simple to make and better than any you can buy at the store.

1/2 loaf of bread cubed

3Tbl of olive oil

3tbl of butter

1Tbl of garlic powder

1Tbl of green onion (dried)

1 tsp of garlic salt

1 Tbl of onion powder.

Mix all ingredients, pour over cubed bread and toss. Cook in 300-degree oven for 15 min. Stir and cook for another 15 min. or until golden brown. If you happen to have your own home-grown and ground spice so much the better.

These are delicious on salad!

I also make bread pudding and bread crumbs for stuffing. I have not tried drying them yet but am told they are very handy to have on the shelf.

I've got my pasta drying and will open a jar of venison I put up a few months ago. Dinner will be quick, easy, home grown, and good for you slow food. When I finish this post I'll be making Angle Food cake for desert. I've got such a glut of eggs right now and since it takes about 12 to make the cake it will reduce it some!

Hubby got 15-5 gal buckets of horse poo home Monday. I spent all of yesterday putting four buckets in the lower garden on one row and pulling weeds. A soft rain has been falling since last nite so it will be well watered in.

On a gardening note.. all the tomatoes and peppers I put in the garden froze! I half expected it but took the chance anyway. All I lost was a little time and a few cents worth of seeds. I have plenty of peppers left in cups and started more tomato seeds so I should be right on time!

Off to get that cake made. I hope you all are having a wonderful Wednesday!

I Love Spring

Dogwoods, Redbud and spring green!