This is probably obvious, but vegetarians may not want to read this post.
This day is always bittersweet for me. This morning I gave the hogs the last of the vanilla muffins. They were let out into the alleyway and romped happily around there, exploring it.
Sydney stayed in the pasture with Marji. Our butcher shot Sydney, Rosalie and Truffle from over 50 yards away one right after the other. They all dropped dead immediately. I was trying to distract the other animals with apple pressings, but the shots were quite loud and they all were alarmed. The dead animals were removed, and I was able to settle everyone down with food. Here are the 4 remaining cows all back together eating peacefully again.
I am getting better at learning how to use more of the animals’ parts. So the butcher left me this bucket full of bits. I love the label.
So I packaged up the suet, beef liver, ox tail, pig livers, and lard into 1 gallon freezer bags and placed them in the freezer.
I am currently cooking the tongue, hearts and kidneys.
Tom has rinsed the cow’s hide, and it is drying. He will take the best part of it for tanning.
Thomas is taking the cow’s head. I will spare you the photo of it.
So it was a busy and productive morning.
WOW. You are dealing with 3 large animals at once? The largest animal I’ve helped part was a deer so I don’t envy that workload. Do you let them age at all?
I grew up having beef tongue for sunday dinners at my grandparents house; I have since brined them ala Sandor Katz and they make great tacos sliced finely. Or just with horseradish on a meat and cheese plate.
Well done today!
Well. the butcher took away the beef and pork carcasses to age, cut and smoke. We are only dealing with the other parts.
That’s a lot of work! It’s good that the butcher ages it for you. How many freezers do you have?
Have a great day!
It is a lot of work. We are very happy with our butcher, Andal’s. We have 3 freezers. Hopefully they are keep working.
Do you tan your own or is there a local tanner who does it?
Tom tans them. He does a great job but it is a lot of work.