BIG CHUNK OF MEAT

Do we eat our own beef?  Lots of people that stay at the farmhouse ask me this.

Yes.  We eat our own beef and lamb and chicken and eggs.  We also grow a big garden.  We like to feed ourselves.

Usually we set one beef aside every year and have it killed at the local meat shop.  Because of lots of regulations it's not as easy as it was 20 years ago.  We don't have a cattle trailer so we have to arrange for someone to come and get it and take it there.  We need to think ahead.  You have to have an appointment for your animal....and it's sometimes months in advance.

So in December we were low on beef in the freezer and we had one 'ready to go' and the earliest appointment would be end of January.

Terry and the boys decided that they would kill and process it themselves.  We haven't done this in years.  YEARS.

The last time was when Johanna was maybe 4 years old and she was certain that she wanted to be a doctor and she went out to watch all the goings on and she came back in the house and said I THINK I JUST WANT TO BE A CHECK UP DOCTOR.

She is now in her second year of nursing!

So anyways....they killed it one day and then let it hang for a couple of weeks.  The weather was perfect.

And then we had some friends over to help with the cutting and wrapping.  And it was a whole bunch of guys in the garage having a party.  They set up the cast iron frying pan on a burner out there and they were frying smoked sausage and beef....and I don't know what else.  I stayed inside and just kept getting them whatever they needed.

My biggest concern was how we were going to get it all frozen.  The meat shop has huge walk in freezers and we don't.  But the weather was perfect.  We had extreme cold North Pole weather for days and we put half of the beef in the trunk of my car and half in Grady's car and it froze up perfect.  Grady didn't even actually know that he was driving around with all that beef for a week or more!

Now it is all in the freezer.  It is yummy.

I got out a roast the other night and I had to laugh.  When the meat shop packages it, it's all labelled with the different cuts....boston roast, sirloin tip, eye of round etc.  I know how to cook it by what it is on the label.  But this time it's a little different.  This is how it's labelled.....

BIG CHUNK OF MEAT.

And the ground beef is labelled 'Burger'.

I know they had a pretty good time that evening in the garage.  It will be interesting to see what other labels I find in there!

Brenda