Sunday, November 27, 2016

Pastured Lamb Breakdown

We purchased a pastured lamb from a local farm for the first time this fall.  We've tried lamb a few times and really liked it, so we figured we'd jump into an entire animal.

The live weight was 130 pounds and we paid the farm $1.50/lb for the live weight.  The hanging weight ended up being 73 pounds which was pretty close to the expected based on what we found online.  At that point we were estimating we'd end up with about 54 lbs of take home meat, but it ended up being less.  The processing fee at Country Pride was $75 flat.  The take home ended up being 47 pounds which meant the total was $5.74/lb for everything we brought home, higher for the cuts we actually will use.  This was lower than expected, especially since we got everything bone in and go the liver and heart.  Not sure if it was just an extra fatty animal or if it was the way it was cut, but the price ended up about $1/pound higher than expected.  Personally I was also surprised by the strong flavor of the meat.  I like pastured raised animal because they have more taste and the lamb we had previously was pastured as well so I am not sure if this was an older animal or was male or what, but the shanks were strong. The kids seemed okay with it though and the stew I made was enjoyed.  I am glad we did this, but am not sure if we will do this again. 

Rib Roast, 1 packages, 2.5 pounds
Ground Lamb, 3 packages, 3 pounds
Chops, 4 packages, 7 pounds
Leg of Lamb, 2 packages, 11 pounds
Rib Steaks, 2 packages, 3 pounds
Shoulder Roast, 4 packages, 12 pounds
Shanks, 4 packages, 4 pounds
Neck 2 packages, 2.5 pounds
Stew Meat, 1 package, 1 pound
Liver, 1 package, 1 pound
Heart, 1 package, 1 pound


Friday, November 4, 2016

Preserving 2016

Another good year!  At recent count there were about 560 jars filled in our basement.  That included all size jars and everything from maple syrup to tallow to tomatoes.  Makes my heart happy to see so much good food in safe on our shelves!  Only about a dozen of regular and wide mouth quart jars not filled and maybe 2-3 dozen pints and smaller.  I could can up some beans or stock just to fill every jar, but I am out of Tattler lids and had to buy single use ones, so until some jars are emptied and lids available I am pretty much done with canning.  And considering how stuffed the freezers are I get a break there while we start eating them down!  This is a list of what I put away, although not complete on the freezer side.

Cannned Items
Maple Syrup from our trees (many quarts from bulk buy too) 4 pints
Wild Grape Juice  2 quarts, 2 pints
Strawberry Sauce 12 pints, 1 half pint
Pickled Garlic Scapes  4 pints  (foodiewithfamily.com recipe)
Mulberry Jam 3 pints, 3 half pints
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jam 4 half pints
Ginger Rhubarb Jam 8 half pints
Vanilla Rhubarb Jame 4 pints, 2 half pints
Cherry Juice 4 pints
Garlic Dill Pickles 10 quarts, 3 pints
Ghost Pepper Garlic Pickles 11 quarts, 2 pints
Bread and Butter Pickles 5 quarts
Dilly Beans 5 pints
Pickled Jalapenos 1 pint, 1 half pint
Rhubarb Sauce 13 pints
Peaches 14 quarts, 1 pint
Diced Tomatoes 20 quarts, 13 pints
Rotel 8 pints
Tomato Sauce 1 quart, 4 pints
Tomato Soup 11 quarts
Tomato 'water' 5 quarts
Addictive Tomato Chutney 10 pints
Garden Marinara 14 quarts
Pizza Sauce 6 pints
Diced Green Tomatoes 4 pints
Zucchini Relish 8 pints
Applesauce 95 quarts (maybe I should 5 more to make it even?)
Spiced Apples 9 pints
Apple Cider 1 quart, 1 pint
Boiled Spiced Cider 6 pint and a half, 1 half pint
Pear Butter 2 pints, 3 half pints
Pears 13 quarts
Salsa 7 quarts
Roasted Corn Salsa 10 quarts
Green Tomato Salsa 6 quarts, 1 pint
Green Beans 13 quarts

Dehydrated
Celery Leaves 1 quart, 1 pint
Apples 4 quarts
Blueberries 1 pint
Cherry Tomatoes 2 quarts +

Frozen
Mulberries 4 gallons
Rhubarb 2 gallons
Strawberries (whole) 3 gallons, 3 quarts (sliced &sweetened) 16 pints
Blackcaps 8 quarts
Red Raspberries 2 gallons
Blueberries 5 gallons, 10 quarts
Peaches 3 gallons
Kale 18 bags
Swiss Chard 10 bags
Beets 14 bags
Garlic Scapes, chopped 7 bags
Green Peppers 1 gallon
Puffball mushroom 2 containers
Patty Pan Squash 3 bags
Zucchini, shredded 10 bags
Yellow Squash, diced 2 large bags
Zucchini Butter 10 containers
Pesto 9 containers
Green Beans 25 bags
Corn 16 bags
Snow Peas 5 bags
Roasted Veggies 1 large container, 9 pints
Pumpkin 12 pints (3 more pumpkins to cook down)

Other items we grew
Garlic 77 bulbs
Onions (lasted until November)
Potatoes 10 blueberry boxes (approximate)


We also purchased a pastured lamb this fall, more to come on that breakdown.  We still have beef from our 1/2 three years ago, the chickens we raised this year, and five layers (and now a rooster!) who are still giving 4 eggs a day or so.  We planted an apple and pear tree, a bed of strawberries, more raspberries and are talking about adding more raised beds.  We are still getting kale, Swiss Chard, spinach, some beets, the last carrots and a few snow peas from a late planted even now in November.  Our honey comes from a close neighbor and our milk from Wundrows. We have been buying a bit of pork here and there from Country Pride, but need to buy another full hog next year.  Our bacon and German Sausage come from Bluebird in Delmont and we love it!  This was the first time we tapped for syrup on our Silver Maple trees and will definitely do that again.  The strawberries were from Skellys and Wunbergs. We picked green beans, raspberries and bought squash from Wunbergs as well.  Currently have a full bushel + of butternut and acorn squash and two crates of apples stored.  This was our first year successfully growing a lot of onions, although we still ate them very quickly.  The garlic we grew was beautiful!  And the potatoes did really well in the raised bed, not as great in the ground garden.  Apples were from neighbors and Aunt Betty in SD and a few from our trees.  Pears were from Orchard Ridge.  Our grocery breakdown will come soon, but it won't be much different than last year!