It was pretty exciting. Obviously.
Okay, so I went with the MiL to a going-away party for her brother, who is leaving with his wife for Belize in a couple of weeks for a stint with the Peace Corps. So not exactly club-hopping. But I DID go out, leaving A. behind on Cubby-duty. And as unusual as my going out at night may be, that's not what we're going to talk about. No, today we're going to talk about meat. Again.
The brother who is going into the Peace Corps is the same brother from whom we get our beef, you see. And he's leaving for over two years. PANIC. How will we survive without our family beef hookup? I do not know. Though we're starting by getting 3/4 of a cow before he leaves.
Luckily, A. is at this very moment picking up another chest freezer from a friend of the MiL's who doesn't want hers anymore, so we'll have plenty of space for the meat. Maybe we'll get a pig too. It's been a really long time since we've bought a pig for slaughter, and OH is that pork good.
Even with 3/4 of a cow and a whole pig in the freezer we still won't make it two years, though. We may have to--GASP--buy a cow from someone we're not related to. But we won't think about that yet. No, for now we'll just focus on the 750 pounds of meat that will shortly be in the deep freeze at Blackrock.
A heady thought, indeed.
10 comments:
What is he doing with his cattle while he is away? Perhaps you could cow sit in exchange for beef? Mary in MN
Don't cow-sit.... too much "bovine drama!" I know, because we raise them. And I totally understand the excitement of new meat in the freezer. We buy our pork on the hoof from a co-worker, organic chickens from a well-known acquaintance and raise our beef. The occasional wild game from a friend and locally farmed trout make up our freezer. If I could find someone who raises seafood, I'd be set! Not an easy thing in a land-locked fly-over state.
No chance of raising a free range tofu on Blackrock? Snicker.
don't laugh. these days you have to be careful where your tofu comes from.
people think it's all responsible and stuff, but unless it's organic tofu, it's probably been processed with benzene.
So, uhh...you should totally ask your brother about the monkey accessibility in Belize for me. I'm planning a vacation and Belize is on the short list - but there must be monkeys by decree of the husband.
Does he have any young cows, old enough to be away from momma cow, but still young? I'm sure with all your critter experience, you could manage raising one until it's big enough for slaughter.
You do have generators, right? Cause that's a lot of meat!!
Have the butcher use the shrink wrap packages that way the beef will keep for 2 years with out getting freezer burned. There is always lamb! or more road kill venison? Maybe you can take up raising some meat birds... turkeys, chickens. That way you can stretch out the beef till your supplier returns.
Holy crap! Buy beef from someone you're not related to?!? Please don't let that happen! Start getting some extended cousins married off to cattlemen quickly. When my mom told me Daddy had decided to retire and sell off half the herd, all I could think was NOOOOO. I *will not* eat boughten hamburger. Luckily, we found an amazing co-op that does local, organic beef that actually tastes like cow, not cardboard. Best wishes on your beef supply!
word verification: sommoc, as in "Sommoc gonna happen iffen ah don' get my real beef!"
Strange meat? GOOD LORD.
Frankly, I love that you guys are so close to your food that you not only know the name of the rancher who provides your beef, but you're related to them. As you know, the majority of the US lives the opposite life and that life makes me sad.
I'm just glad we know the name of our rancher and have been able to visit the cows on the ranch because the thought of buying strange meat packaged in Saran at the grocery store makes me shudder.
Totally get a pig!
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