We look after a small beef cattle property across the river for the owner who lives in Sydney. It is his hobby farm and he attends every weekend to do all those farm things like fencing, cattle work, tractor work, vegetable garden and enjoying the rural life style before heading home every Sunday afternoon to prepare for the weeks paid work.
He was chasing me by telephone on Friday and it took a few calls before we caught up with each other. He hadn't left a message as to the reason for wanting a chat but I assumed he may have had something come up and needed me to fill in at the farm on the Saturday.
But no, he wanted to discuss replacing the farm ute with a new vehicle. There were a few options he was looking at and wanted to pass them by me. He started by saying we needed a dual cab so that Nikki our dog with a recovering neck injury could sit inside. Now you probably wonder why someone would bother tailoring a work vehicle, which is almost exclusively used by the part time farm labourer, to the farm labourers dogs. As a matter of fact why does a part time farm labourer get a company car? But then that isn't the point of this story.
The deal was done on Sunday with a shiny new 4WD Toyota Hilux to be delivered in two weeks time when the tray is built and affixed.
And did he get a good trade in on the outgoing, nothing wrong with it, 2005 ute? Well no. The out going ute is being kept.
The boss has a friend going back to his school days who is experiencing significant financial difficulty. To make ends meet the friend started a lawn mowing business but someone then stole his ute.
The outgoing farm ute is being allocated to his friend until the friend gets back on his feet.
Why?
The friend had always lived a good and generous life but through bad luck and inexperience has had a number of set backs. At this moment he needs a boost to lift his spirits in a difficult period.
The boss said "you do what you can because you can".
.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Burbles has Passed to the great Free Range Chicken Run in the Sky
With sadness we report the passing of the much loved house yard hen Burbles born November 2003.
After the loss of her life long friend Bootsie she displayed enormous grief and seemed to lose the will to keep going.
The two friends rest in peace together outside our bedroom window.
.
After the loss of her life long friend Bootsie she displayed enormous grief and seemed to lose the will to keep going.
The two friends rest in peace together outside our bedroom window.
.
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| Bootsie in the forefront, Burbles with her back to us speaking with Little Mate. The dogs looking on |
Home Kill Beef - Making Tallow
Preparing the beef cuts for the various cures entailed trimming off all the fat. On the brisket this was huge. It seemed a waste not to make it into Tallow which Jean tells me is very good for you. Being a saturated fat it is supposed to be good for the cell structures in our bodies. See Doctor Bruce Mackie's Abstract here and some further research material here
There is a slight problem for me as I'm a vegetarian. It may be bullet bighting time.
The other uses for Tallow are candles, Soap, Bio-diesel and Lubricant. What a versatile product.
The extraction process involved a small amount of water and the lowest possible heat setting with lots and lots of time. Using a Bain Marie is a better idea. Even my lowest stove stop setting still created excessive bubbling but it still worked out fine.
A by-product of all this was a jelly (after cooling) that will make great soup stock.
If you look at the last picture in the sequence, this is the leftover meat, sinews etc. It went in for a second rendering for another 4 hours with a little water and produced almost as much Tallow on this second run.
The remaining material went to the chickens and ducks although it was a tossup between them, the dogs and Jean. Apparently it was very tasty.
There is a slight problem for me as I'm a vegetarian. It may be bullet bighting time.
The other uses for Tallow are candles, Soap, Bio-diesel and Lubricant. What a versatile product.
The extraction process involved a small amount of water and the lowest possible heat setting with lots and lots of time. Using a Bain Marie is a better idea. Even my lowest stove stop setting still created excessive bubbling but it still worked out fine.
A by-product of all this was a jelly (after cooling) that will make great soup stock.
If you look at the last picture in the sequence, this is the leftover meat, sinews etc. It went in for a second rendering for another 4 hours with a little water and produced almost as much Tallow on this second run.
The remaining material went to the chickens and ducks although it was a tossup between them, the dogs and Jean. Apparently it was very tasty.
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| Simmering on very low heat in a small amount of water. |
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| Chook or dog food from leftovers |
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| Tallow on the top and a thin layer of jelly on the bottom |
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| These leftovers for reprocessing just to extract the last of the tallow |
Friday, June 27, 2014
Home Kill Beef - Making Various Cured Beef Product
While Jean went off to move cattle across the river and do the other chores it was down to work in the kitchen for me. It has been quite a few years since we made and cured meat products and the stirrings inside me led to accumulating a few different recipes over the last couple of weeks in anticipation of receiving the results of the butcher's hard work.
After a lot of research the styles were narrowed down to those that didn't have anything except beef, salt, herbs and spices. Would love to have done some sausages etc but the absence of Pork limited the range.
Still there were six to be made. On day one four styles were produced and then on day two another two. Produced means started not finished. Each recipe requires different steps and timings.
The list is as follows:
Leith's Meat Bible supplied a good Bresaola recipe.
Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn gave another Bresaola recipe from their book Salumi
Culinaria Greece had a Pastrourma recipe but without quantities and required a bit of imagination.
Found a very interesting Pastourma recipe on the web.
And finally River Cottage from an episode aired recently provided the idea for Pastrami and Biltong.
A freezer normally used in wine making has a thermostat set to 4 degrees C and the shelves reinserted. One thing became clear and that was we did not have enough of the right sized containers. Jeans Scone bowl was pinched as were a few salad bowls and other mixing bowls.
In order to keep track of everything each shelf has the product in progress plus a plastic sleeve which contains the handwritten recipe on one side and on the reverse side a tick list with a day per line to ensure all the relevant turning and rubbing and whatever is all done according to plan.
As you can see from the photographs each recipe is different, one requires weights, others are dry salted and herbed and others are soaking in either wine or vinegar.
After a lot of research the styles were narrowed down to those that didn't have anything except beef, salt, herbs and spices. Would love to have done some sausages etc but the absence of Pork limited the range.
Still there were six to be made. On day one four styles were produced and then on day two another two. Produced means started not finished. Each recipe requires different steps and timings.
The list is as follows:
Leith's Meat Bible supplied a good Bresaola recipe.
Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn gave another Bresaola recipe from their book Salumi
Culinaria Greece had a Pastrourma recipe but without quantities and required a bit of imagination.
Found a very interesting Pastourma recipe on the web.
And finally River Cottage from an episode aired recently provided the idea for Pastrami and Biltong.
A freezer normally used in wine making has a thermostat set to 4 degrees C and the shelves reinserted. One thing became clear and that was we did not have enough of the right sized containers. Jeans Scone bowl was pinched as were a few salad bowls and other mixing bowls.
In order to keep track of everything each shelf has the product in progress plus a plastic sleeve which contains the handwritten recipe on one side and on the reverse side a tick list with a day per line to ensure all the relevant turning and rubbing and whatever is all done according to plan.
As you can see from the photographs each recipe is different, one requires weights, others are dry salted and herbed and others are soaking in either wine or vinegar.
 |
| Some of the inputs |
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| Pastrami |
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| Biltong drying |
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Mushrooms - Slippery Jacks
These little gems pop up almost every year just at the top of our driveway beside one of the two Stone Pines. The pines were supposed to produce Pine Nuts, you know those little white seed things that sell for $64/KG. Well so far no Pine Nuts have been seen but the Slippery Jacks are a fine compensation.
Just in case we made an identification mistake the various guide books were cross referenced. These are strange books, the official name varies from book to book but there is some linkage between the names i.e. Slippery Jacks. Some books don't mention whether these are edible or not. One that does specifies removing the skin and the gills (tubes) which was promptly done.
The recipe suggested is Garlic and Lemon juice. The author then describes the taste of the dish as being "lemon and Garlic". We cooked the Garlic a little more and cooked the sliced mushrooms in half the Lemon juice and then added a little more juice onto the completed dish to preserve the vitamin C.
Served on fresh toast it tasted fine. Mild mushroom flavour, good texture. Slippery Jacks have a particular pleasant flavour of their own. An excellent breakfast choice and no hospital trip afterwards.
Just in case we made an identification mistake the various guide books were cross referenced. These are strange books, the official name varies from book to book but there is some linkage between the names i.e. Slippery Jacks. Some books don't mention whether these are edible or not. One that does specifies removing the skin and the gills (tubes) which was promptly done.
The recipe suggested is Garlic and Lemon juice. The author then describes the taste of the dish as being "lemon and Garlic". We cooked the Garlic a little more and cooked the sliced mushrooms in half the Lemon juice and then added a little more juice onto the completed dish to preserve the vitamin C.
Served on fresh toast it tasted fine. Mild mushroom flavour, good texture. Slippery Jacks have a particular pleasant flavour of their own. An excellent breakfast choice and no hospital trip afterwards.
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| Gills or Tubes as they are known |
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Cheeses, Parmesan, Blue, Camembert
For once there is a massive choice of cheeses all perfectly ripe for eating in the cheese fridge. We took samples of these to the Wine Tasting to be shared.
Despite all the background cheese making that occurs at HHF we don't always have a big cross section of cheeses ripening all once like this although probably should be goal.
Despite all the background cheese making that occurs at HHF we don't always have a big cross section of cheeses ripening all once like this although probably should be goal.
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| Blue |
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| Perfectly ready |
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| The larger sized Camembert for slower ripening |
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| Runny cetntres |
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| 15 months of age |
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| Great texture and flavour |
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Home Kill Beef - Bringing Home the Meat
The Home Kill was collected today from the butcher. The final price came to 3.65/KG including purchase of the animal. In addition extra bones for the dogs were provided.
The butcher packed the steaks into parcels of two with labels, although on some cuts the labelling was only in ink and some packets slipped from 2 pieces to 3 and on the Scotch Fillet 4 pieces. The roasts were a bit large and these were cut into 2 or 3 by us and repacked. The offal was cut but in a single bag, as were the dog bones and trimmings. These bulk packs were repackaged into more suitable sizes.
A few large roast are going to be cured with spices and these were set aside for later processing. No sausages or corned beef were requested. Anything that couldn't be steaked or roasted went into mince a more useful commodity for us.
185 kilograms of meat is a lot to pack away and freeze. In the past the whole lot went into chest freezers and then had to be stirred around every day until it all froze. If they are not stirred a solid bloody block of ice becomes a hammer and chisel exercise.
This time two upright freezers were employed. Rather than pack densely all the packages were seated into cardboard trays kept from dog and cat food can purchases. They now get a second life and later will serve a third purpose as blood flavoured compost for the worms. The trays were placed on shelves in a single depth for maximum air flow. There wasn't enough upright freezer space and a few packs went into the chest freezers interspersed with other frozen products.
48 hours should be enough to have them set solid. After that the chest freezers will be employed to hold sample packs of each cut for easy access and a single upright will be packed solid with the remaining meat. The upright will then not need to be opened except to refill the chest freezer with mixed samples every few months. Uprights are notoriously inefficient because the cold air flows out when the door is opened. The advantage of uprights is the easy accessibility to the different products.
In hindsight the upright that was purchased some years ago was a poor choice. A larger chest freezer would have been a cheaper buy price, cheaper to run and stored more product. Some time in the near future it will be downgraded to use in wine making and as a backup to the chest freezers and a large chest freezer acquired as its replacement.
And finally the clean up was performed before retiring to the house to prepare dinner.
The butcher packed the steaks into parcels of two with labels, although on some cuts the labelling was only in ink and some packets slipped from 2 pieces to 3 and on the Scotch Fillet 4 pieces. The roasts were a bit large and these were cut into 2 or 3 by us and repacked. The offal was cut but in a single bag, as were the dog bones and trimmings. These bulk packs were repackaged into more suitable sizes.
A few large roast are going to be cured with spices and these were set aside for later processing. No sausages or corned beef were requested. Anything that couldn't be steaked or roasted went into mince a more useful commodity for us.
185 kilograms of meat is a lot to pack away and freeze. In the past the whole lot went into chest freezers and then had to be stirred around every day until it all froze. If they are not stirred a solid bloody block of ice becomes a hammer and chisel exercise.
This time two upright freezers were employed. Rather than pack densely all the packages were seated into cardboard trays kept from dog and cat food can purchases. They now get a second life and later will serve a third purpose as blood flavoured compost for the worms. The trays were placed on shelves in a single depth for maximum air flow. There wasn't enough upright freezer space and a few packs went into the chest freezers interspersed with other frozen products.
48 hours should be enough to have them set solid. After that the chest freezers will be employed to hold sample packs of each cut for easy access and a single upright will be packed solid with the remaining meat. The upright will then not need to be opened except to refill the chest freezer with mixed samples every few months. Uprights are notoriously inefficient because the cold air flows out when the door is opened. The advantage of uprights is the easy accessibility to the different products.
In hindsight the upright that was purchased some years ago was a poor choice. A larger chest freezer would have been a cheaper buy price, cheaper to run and stored more product. Some time in the near future it will be downgraded to use in wine making and as a backup to the chest freezers and a large chest freezer acquired as its replacement.
And finally the clean up was performed before retiring to the house to prepare dinner.
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