Happiness is Homemade

If you have been following me on Instagram you will have see my posting of homemade sausage.  My family owns a small hobby farm where we have been experimenting with homesteading.  This winter, due to my pregnancy, I was forced to suspend my usual efforts.  The garden lay fallow and I only added one new aracauna hen to my flock.  I was unable to add upgrades to my hen house but have added a dog run off the back to keep them safe.  That is another post all together.  I did however, plant six tomato plants in front of the house and instead of ornamental plants I opted for cabbage along the side of the porch.  We have had a very mild winter this year so my tomatoes have done remarkably well.  We are now eating fresh tomatoes picked almost daily.  The cabbage is slowly forming heads and should be ready in a few weeks.

Our last experiment before I got pregnant was taking in two little piglets from a friend.  He has a large piece of property that backs onto a wilderness preserve.  He often catches wild pigs in traps on his property.  His last catch was a pregnant sow who had her babies in the trap.  He fed and cared for her until her piglets were weaning age.  We picked two from her litter and raised them with our large domestic pig already at home.  We kept them in a small pen separate from big pig until we sure they would be safe to mix together.  In the mean time we cleaned them and deloused used using food grade diatomaceous earth.  The powder is safe on the animals and effectively removed the hordes of fleas and ticks living on our little pigs.  Big pig took them in and showed them how to use the hose bib for drinking and kept them warm at night.  Often they would escape through the fencing since they were small enough to climb through the holes.  We at first worried they would run away.  One night we searched for them with flashlights and fishing nets.  None of that was necessary.  They were so loud we could hear them grunting in the tall grass and brush just outside their pen.  Big pig would call them back to safety every time.

Eventually they were more accustomed to life on a farm and when they dug holes under the fence they wouldn't stray far and would come running back if I called for them from the back porch.  Food was a motivating factor for them.  Although they were wild and ate a stray pullet or two who unfortunately wandered into their pen we treated them like any domestic breed.  Just this week they were slaughtered and butchered.  I was unable to participate this time since I had to care for the baby.  My husband was concerned they would be gamey in flavor and perhaps not have been worth the time and money invested into their care.  On more than one occasion, usually after mending another hole in their fencing, he swore he was going to release them back into the wild.  I would usually talk him out of it.  Our last conversation was that there is no such thing as a bad pig.  If their meat wasn't worth our eating it we still had three hungry dogs who would appreciate it.  With that he processed the pigs.  One for us to eat and one donated to the friend who helped clean and butcher.

My mother had been researching for weeks what to do with wild boar meat.  We settled on sausage.  After tasting a tenderloin we found that the meat wasn't gamey at all.  They also had beautiful white fat.  Perfect for sausage making.  A local butcher sold us the natural pig casings since we had no desire to clean our own.  My husband cut and sorted all the meat but the two loins, ribs and two shoulders.  The hams, belly and odd bits were chopped and put into two large aluminum pans and frozen for better processing through the grinder.

The next day my mother joined us for a full day of grinding and stuffing.  This was the first real test of the workability of our new kitchen.  We had two kitchen aid mixers going with grinding attachments and stuffing nozzles to handle the approximately 32 pounds of meat.  We made Mexican chorizo, sweet Italian, hot Italian, sage, and maple flavored breakfast sausage.

Each variety had to be cooked and sampled for quality control.  For dinner the first night we had chorizo and eggs, from my chickens naturally.  It was so good.  We ranted and raved over our success.  The next night we had homemade papardele pasta with hot and sweet sausages and red sauce.  Again we couldn't say enough about how good it was.  I can't wait until we try our breakfast sausage in patties and maybe biscuits with gravy.  Yumm.  My mouth waters at the thought.  We divided up our share of the goods and sent everyone home with a bit of everything.

I can't imagine living any differently now.  As the world reels wondering what is in their food I have peace.  As the adage says, happiness is homemade.