I have less and less time available for writing and feel uninspired as well. Much of what I do has already been put up as previous posts and I hate to re-hash what you all can find using the search feature.
A few weeks ago our first batch of pastured poultry arrived. I didn't remember to take photos, though. In past years the Hubster and his farmer friend K would raise fryer chickens and those would be butchered at the end of May, but this year the guys decided they liked the personalities of the heirloom breed turkeys better than the fryers and they opted to raise turkeys. So sometime in June we received about 84 pounds of turkey.
The Hubster cut them in pieces and we froze them. I didn't bother to can up any of this batch since we also purchased a second chest freezer. Between the two in the basement and the one in garage I think we're up to 15 cubic feet of dedicated freezer space and we also have the little freezer on the refrigerator.
I made one batch of turkey stock with the carcasses, but have several more to do yet. We bagged and froze the other bones since I temporarily have the freezer space for them.
If you're a newer reader and want the tutorial for canning turkey stock you can find it here.
The Hubster and K will be raising another batch of turkeys in the fall and we'll have those in time for Thanksgiving.
We're trying to decide when we'll order our 1/2 steer this year. The farmer we typically buy from has changed her schedule and we weren't ready for the July steers so we might end up waiting for her February steers. In the past we could always count on the steers being ready in late August/early September and with the poultry coming in May/June we knew we wouldn't have space for the beef in July.
The Hubster is also considering ordering part of a hog this year since we both really have been missing having pork around. For several years now we've just had the pastured beef and poultry, but know of a farmer who raises organic pastured hogs just a county over from where we live and are giving some thought to ordering some pork.
So, as you can tell from this post organizing our meat stores and making buying decisions has been taking up a bit of my time lately.
I love reading about your industriousness in growing your own food. It is so different from our life, and I find the effort and consideration so inspiring.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your kind comment, Jeannine! I think you just made my day. :)
ReplyDeleteI find our life rather ordinary and often feel silly writing about it here because I can't imagine anyone wanting to read about it.