Daily Bacon

Recently thanks to GF on the forum we have got into curing our own bacon, and even if I say so myself its the best bacon ever, you don't get any of that white scum when cooking it and it tastes like bacon is suppose to taste.

Bacon is surprisingly easy to dry cure and it is cheaper than the best bacon in the shops,


this is the cure we have been using, I bought a whole loin for £20 to make some back bacon, we cut it into 3, 1 joint was used for roasting and the other two went into the cure, I made up a double quantity of the cure as I had two big joints to do. the cure after being made up was divided into 5, and a 5th of which will be applied each day after emptying the drawn liquid from the meat every 24hrs for 5 days. Using a non metallic dish for it to sit in, it'll reside in the bottom of our fridge while the liquid is being drawn out. I'll also turn the meat each time I apply the fresh "cure".

200g Salt
200g Dark brown sugar
6 bay leaves
12 juniper berries
1tbs mixed herbs
1tps black pepper
After 5 days the meat will be rinsed off in cold water, and hung for a further 5 days to air dry.
 


once it was finished hanging about it was time to slice it up

 I was all packed in vac pak bags of 6slices enough for us to use at a sitting and then went into the freezer, there is enough there for about 6 months.
Although we have been giving some to friends to try so it might be about 4 months.
If you want streaky bacon then use belly pork.

Food Storage

 

As food prices rise there is more need to store and preserve what we grow, so canning (bottling) is one way I have been laying down stores along with dehydrating.

Canning is done in the All American Canner I bought some time ago.

 I bought some time ago, so far I have canned, chicken, turkey, carrots, stock, baked beans and fruit. Its a great way of preserving food.

so far I have canned, chicken, turkey, carrots, stock, baked beans and fruit. Its a great way of preserving food.and there is nothing more satisfying than a cupboard full of preserved food.

Dehydrating is also a great way of preserving food, when I see fruit or vegetables reduced I will buy them up and dehydrate them, everything gets dehydrated, oranges lemons bananas pineapple strawberries, carrots potatoes tomatoes leeks mushrooms in fact anything including left overs.

I will add some more posts on the dehydrating and canning process as time goes on

Plans Are Taking Shape

After a week of tending to the boys they have got used to us, as soon as they see me coming into the field in the morning they come trotting over to see what I have for them, they follow me happily to there feeding station, and as you can see we have now harnessed them and got them walking on a lead. Next step is to get them use to traffic, so in a couple of weeks that's the plan.

We have now bought a horse box to transport them and had a tow bar fitted to Martin truck.

We have also had an offer on one of the properties we have for sale, so when the sale seems definite we will be heading off to Wales to start viewing some properties, we have got details of 6 small holdings we are interested in, fingers crossed we will be moved before the summer.

I got a couple of knitting projects finished this week, some socks and some fingerless mitts, neither took long to do but at last they are finished and ticked off the list.

The weather has been terrible, rain wind rain wind, today we got a break from it, it has been cold but no rain, so after seeing to my woolly wonders, it was cleaning out the chooks, I let them out to have a scratch around in the veg garden, also dug up the last of the raspberry canes, I have potted up loads to take with us, some have been sent of to new homes.

I have also been taking up fruit bushes and the dwarf fruit trees, so at the moment the garden is filling up with pots and containers, I am really reluctant to plant anything into the ground never knowing when the move is going to take place.