Farm Butchering Day

We haven't killed a beast for ourselves for a long time. We usually have some left over from the markets so we don't really need to do it ourselves. However, we've had a dexter steer that we were given by some friends. They didn't know what to do with him and didn't want to eat him themselves, so they thought that we may be able to put him through the markets. Well.....he was quite a bit older than he looked and we weren't really sure how old, and to top it off he was cut proud. This is a term used when the castration wasn't successfully done and they are a kind of bull. We had no idea what he would taste like, so we decided to do him ourselves and if he was too tough we could just cut all up for dog food. And....Edmund wants to learn how to kill and cut up a beast, so we thought we'd do it.

After two weeks hanging in our coldroom - today was the day. We cooked up a bit of topside, which we use for steak, but most people don't! It was tasty and tender, so after a sigh of relief we got into it.

Ah.....to have steak again! We never have that left over from the markets! This is the rib fillet and it's quite a small steak, obviously because he was a small animal.

As we were doing it ourselves, we could play around and try some different things.

Bone in Shoulder and Bone in Brisket. Meat cooked on the bone is so much tastier! We also kept one of the shin pieces as a whole piece with the bone in......think osso bucco uncut!

These Mini Roasts were Edmund's idea - one is garlic and herb and the other is Moroccan flavoured.

We did mince and sausages. 

To give an example of how small this fella was, a few weeks ago we helped cut up a bullock of Kim's brothers. We did 65kg of sausages. Today we did 15kg's of sausages. We like plain and simple, so we did herb, garlic and chilli and some of Brad's homemade wine.

I like to mix the seasonings into the meat before we mince. I add the liquid after we mince (in this case it was wine, but often it's water) and before we fill the skins.

I only learnt how to tie sausages a few weeks ago helping out west, so mine are a bit uneven.

Our tradition on butchering day is to have rib bones for lunch, usually this follows a breakfast of offal, but we had the liver and bacon, heart and curly gut two weeks ago when we killed the steer. Today we had topside steak and eggs for breakfast. The rib bones I cooked in the oven with some herbs and a bit of sauce over the top. We also had mince patties, which was the mince left in the mincer after we finished the sausages (you can't get all that out). So a very meat filled day......Vegie soup is what we are going to have for tea!

Oh and you may be wondering what curly gut is - it's what it sounds like, the intestines! Kim gives them a very good clean out and then we cut them into small bits and fry until very crispy(think pork crackling).

On a final note. I have just started a Facebook page called Lucy's Kitchen. If you like hearing about food and what I cook on a daily basis, you may like to follow it. Hopefully this link  will work, otherwise search for Lucy's Kitchen - there is a few of them! Mine has sausages as the background photo!

Early May

I can't  believe it's another month....the busier we get the less we seem to get done!

Edmund who works at home with us most times, is going away in June, so he keeps giving us weekends off. So like all good parents, we do as we are told. The down side of having time off of course, is that the jobs that you want to get done, don't. That means that all the things I want to do in my off time (ha ha that's a joke....off time!!) aren't being done, so the garden is still not planted up for the winter growing. Winter is our main season for growing - when I say winter I mean that short period of time when it's not HOT and that usually occurs sometime between May and August. It's been summer up until today! We had a low of 3 degrees this morning, although it did warm up to the mid 20's I think.

Anyway, I might buy some seedlings to plant out next week. I'm going into Rocky for a weekend off this weekend (did I mention how much I love Edmund!) I also need to plant out my garlic. I saved some garlic (200) cloves from Tom who grows garlic at Yeppoon and I'm hoping that I'll have more success with a local variety. I harvested my turmeric today, and was very dissappointed with how much I got. I cooked it and dried it and this is what I have. I'll freeze some of it as I found one year that it went moldy before I got to the end of it and I don't want that to happen.

A few weekends ago, we went camping. It was a lovely weekend spent with friends and family and fishing. Well we ended up with one feed of fish out of it, but the main thing was that it was relaxing and fun and just so good to get away. Did I mention how much I love Edmund!

We've also had another visit from Peter Andrews. I will post a bit more about that another time. Needless to say, it was interesting, informative and inspiring. The little bit of work we've done in our creek since he was here last, has worked really well and it's great to see how easy it is to halt erosion! 

Last weekend, which was another weekend off, thanks to Edmund, we went to Aramac. We visited Kim's brothers place to help him cut up a beast. He'd killed a steer a few weeks ago and had it hanging in a cold room. We haven't done our own meat for a while, but you just don't forget some things. A job like that is so much easier and fun when done with a few people - the time flies while you chat and catch up. This was us making sausage - we did 60kgs, so we had a mincer doing some as well as a sausage filler.

We enjoyed it so much we decided to kill a steer ourselves this week. We had a dexter steer that we weren't sure would be good enough to sell through the markets so we've now got him hanging in our coldroom for ourselves. I want to have a go at some different sausage varieties. I also want to borrow my brothers smoker and have a go at some salami. I will keep you posted!

I love recipe books

This book was given to me by one of my great friends! I absolutely love recipe books and this one is one like I could write! Some bits maybe not, as they aren't really things I would eat, but most of it is! It's all doing it from scratch cooking and using up leftovers and what you have on hand. I love it because she talks about bone broth and ferments - two of my favourite things to make lately! But mostly it's just cooking simple but interesting real food! I haven't bought any of the 'I quit sugar" books, mainly because I haven't really quit sugar, but I've certainly cut back a lot. What I have done though, is just quit buying packaged food. This way you limit sugar, salt and all the other nasties.

I love this quote and it is exactly what is behind my food lifestyle choice! I've only done a few things out of the book so far, but she's inspired me and I've got my cooking mojo back, so I'm happy. The photo below is my fermented roasted garlic. I've fermented garlic before, but raw garlic, so it'll be interesting to see how this one tastes. The raw one is pretty good.

One thing Sarah encourages is doing a flow of cooking - just get in and do lots at once. While I was cooking some oven chips for lunch yesterday, I decided to roast the garlic at the same time as this, I made some seasoned salt. This wasn't one of her recipes, but I think she would approve:

• Himalayan pink salt
• ground pepper
• chopped chili
• chopped garlic
• lemon rind
• oregano 
• rosemary
• dulse flakes

Other things you can add or put in salt are dried mushrooms, dried tomatoes, celery, onion.....it's only limited by your imagination. I chop it all up fine and then put in the oven for about half an hour, so that all the uncooked bits dry and and stop the salt from going moldy.

I'm currently making some tomato sauce with my tomatoes left over from easter weekend. I've just done a quick pasta sauce in the thermomix, which I'll put into the freezer. Pulled pork with homemade tortillas last night for tea. I've baked a couple of cakes and I tonight I think I'll just make soup! This book is currently my favourite recipe book.......what's yours?

Locavore Party

The party of the year was two weeks ago and it was fantastic! Just about all of the food was grown locally. One of my main reasons for having a locavore theme was because I am a passionate supporter of a local food industry and wanted to encourage other people to think about it too.  Benefits of eating locally produced food and supporting local manufacturers, is that you support local businesses, which are usually small business or family businesses. Food grown locally is eaten fresh and in season so has to be better for you, it certainly tastes better than well travelled food!

 One of my friends brought some cheeses and other nibbles from the Sunshine Coast, the meat was all ours and the veggies were either bought from the markets or home grown. Many guests brought either home made things or other fresh produce. Coffee from the Capricorn coast, beer from Baffle Creek and Bundaberg, wine that had been bought at a cellar door when travelling, as well as some home made wine and spirits.

We had a pig on a spit as the main meat, as well as a roast beef and a roast turkey. My sister picked up some local (Bribie Island) prawns. 

Capricorn coast grown vegetables.

We had cheeses made by myself and my two brothers, Chicken liver pate, homemade crackers, pesto dip, capsicum jam, quince paste (homemade by a Western Australian guest). Vegetable sides consisted of white sweet potato bake, stir fried greens, sweet potato spinach bacon and feta salad, ratatouille and a big tossed salad. 

Desserts were delicious! Cheesecake made with home made quark, macadamia flourless cake, pavlova, fruit salad and my home milked and separated cream.

We ate a lot of food over the weekend and mostly local or home made. We actually had about 30 people camping over for the weekend so the meals were a challenge, but no one went hungry. I think there were about 70 at the party itself. It was a weekend filled with family, fun, food and love! It was the party I wanted to have and I feel honoured to have such great people in my life. People travelled from Western Australia, NSW and southern and central Queensland.  

Markets

To be a locavore, one really needs to find their local market, or if they can buy produce in their local town. I live at Baralaba, which makes it difficult to buy local produce. I do remember years ago a family moved here from Victoria and they put a lot of effort into planting grapes, growing asparagus and other vegetables.  Unfortunately they didn't last.....was it to soon or was it just too far  to transport  their product. I do know that I did buy their produce then, but maybe not enough people did. Incidentally some of the asparagus I have in my garden now was dug out of their paddocks long after they left.

Because I take our meat to the markets in Rockhampton and Yeppoon, I am lucky that I go to the markets often enough (every two weeks) to be able to get all my fruit and veg there.

I find that the local market (farmers market if you are lucky enough to have one) is the best place to buy your produce. You can and should engage with the stall holder. Ask them if the produce is theirs, ask them how they grow it, ask them whatever you want. If they are open to your questions (provided they are about their produce and not the meaning of life) then you will be able to make the judgement whether you want to buy their product. For instance, they may not be organics, but may try to reduce and limit the amount of chemicals used.

As a stall holder myself, I know how important relationships are. I know how great it is to have conversations about food. I know that the customer needs to have the peace of mind to know that what you tell them is fair dinkum and that you are farming responsibly. If they aren't completely transparent, maybe you need to wonder whether what they are saying is correct. If your market is not a designated farmers market or if said farmers market allows wholesalers in, you as the customer really need to shop where you feel that you can trust that the stall holder is telling you the facts.

I've gotten to know who is who at the markets and I've worked out who's fruit and veg will last the best. Although I like to support everyone and I just make sure I use the shorter life stuff first! Also keep in mind that some of the wholesalers do also sell local produce, alongside the non local. If they are wise, they will label the local stuff.

And of course don't forget the people that make stuff! It's not just about the food, but supporting local businesses.

Chickens and Roosters

This afternoon we processed 7 poultry. We have had an explosion of chooks over the last 12 months and have been trying very hard to cull them all before Easter. I can just imagine one of our guests walking into their tent (a lot of the family are camping) and standing on an egg, or  a chicken walking in and scaring the heck out of one of the kids......this is what happens when you have real free range chicken. In the past we've really just done the roosters, but numbers are ridiculous, so hens are going too.

Tonight I decided to just put all the feet and necks into the crock pot and I'm going to have a go at a continuous broth. It won't be continuous for too long, probably only about 3 days - I'll see how it goes. I normally mix it up a bit and use chicken carcasses, feet, trotters, pork bones and beef bones. The idea of a continuous broth, is that after the first 12 hours, you start drawing stock off and using it. Then you top up with more water and throw in any bones or vegetable water that you have. Make sure that you cook it for several hours before using it, if they are bones that have already been chewed on!

Dinner was pork osso bucco, stir fried vegies and mashed potato and pumpkin. Potatoes were the only thing not local, except for all the spices etc in the osso bucco. I threw the bones into the crock pot too.

I went to the markets last weekend and stocked up on LOTS of fruit and veg for the party.
My list:
zuchini
button squash
snake beans
guada beans
carrots
lettuce
capsicum
tomatoes
pumpkin
sweet corn
baby corn
cucumber
chilli
eggplant
red onions (this will be the last of them)
avocado
sweet potato - white and orange
pineapple
banana
passionfruit
pawpaw
mango

If I can't prepare a feast with that, then I'm no sort of cook!!! These are all grown Locally, so I'm very lucky to have such good farmers in the area. In my garden I have lettuce, ceylon spinach, kankong, perenial spinach, silver beet (not much of these two survived summer, but what's left is going well now), kale, eggplant and plenty of herbs.

One week of locavore living

Well, a week in - how has eating local been for you? Kim stopped at our not so local roadside stall on Tuesday and yay, we have avocados again! Every week we go to Biggenden and we often come back home through Gin Gin.  This is a small town on the Bruce highway near Bundaberg and so is Part of a large veggie growing region.  It has seasonal produce and has been pretty sparse of late. Last year we were eating avos with everything so I'm looking forward to it. At 6 for $5 it's pretty good value.  He did however forget to stop at the other stall that sells really good corn.

Do you stop at roadside stalls? It's good when you have regular ones because you get to know what's good and what's not. Sometimes you even get to meet the farmer, which is always a bonus.

Traveling is a great way to see what food is growing elsewhere and you can start to work out what should be in season. Seasonal food is healthier than food that has been stored - tastier too. I'm off to the markets this weekend and to do my fortnightly fruit and veg shop. Just in time too, as the fridge is getting a bit bare. The other good thing about eating local and in season is the keeping time. Food lasts longer when you get it fresh.