Pig Butchering Results

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Larry Braley

Pork assortment

The results are in and so is the meat!  This week we picked up our pork from the processor.  We got a fairly good spread for the size of our pig, and all-in-all we are very pleased.

He was on the smaller side weighing in at 186 pounds on the hoof or live weight.  This was under the ideal market weight of between 225 to 300 pounds, but our kids were ready to be done with him and we didn’t want to burden our neighbors to take care of him while we were on vacation.  The processor did say that he was very muscular and lean, which is what we like and why we raised our own pig.

His hanging weight, or the weight of the carcass after slaughter with the blood drained, guts removed and head and feet cut off, came in at 125 pounds.  Not bad.  This is the weight for which the processor charged us.

The total weight of the packaged meat came in at 90 pounds.  We got a good assortment, and here is the final inventory:

  • 4 – 5 lb. hams
  • 6 – 1 lb. packages of bacon
  • 6 – 3 lb. packages of pork patties
  • 2 – 3 lb. packages of spare ribs
  • 2 – 4 lb. pork roasts
  • 6 packages of pork sausage
  • 4 packages of pork steaks
  • 7 ½ packages of pork chops
  • Miscellaneous bags of other parts such as neck bone and feet.

This is our favorite assortment, but other cuts are available as well. Sometimes we can also get the lard rendered if the processor provides that service.  This particular processor does not provide lard rendering service.

We are looking forward to some fresh bacon and ham for the Christmas holiday season!

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Homemade Orange Julius

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Larry Braley

Orange Julius treat

One of my favorite drinks when I was younger was the Orange Julius.  This weekend my parents gave us a whole basket of fresh oranges for Christmas and we decide to make homemade Orange Julius with them.  It was a great treat and the first Orange Julius experience our kids have ever had.  They loved it!

A typical recipe can be not too healthy.  Plus we have milk allergies in our family.  So we made a few modifications to fit our family better.

Here’s the recipe we used:

  • 6 ounces frozen orange juice concentrate (we bought a 12 ounce can and cut the contents in half)
  • 3/4 cup fresh juiced orange juice (this is the healthy part we added)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup coconut milk (you can use regular milk but we had to adjust for the allergies)
  • 1/4 cup sugar plus a little more (we would have used Sucanat instead but we ran out; it would have been healthier)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (our kids liked a little bit more vanilla added)
  • 9 – 10 ice cubes

fresh juiced orange juice

Directions:

Put all ingredients in a blender except the ice cubes and start blending.  Add the ice cubes one at a time until you have the wonderful frothy concoction.  Pour in a glass and enjoy!

One secret ingredient our kids added that topped it off for them was a few squirts of whipped cream on top.  What great fun it was.

 

Have you made an Orange Julius?  What was your recipe?

blending Orange Julius

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Family Christmas at Silver Dollar City – Part 2

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Laura

Frosty

Emma and Olivia really enjoy riding PowderKeg at Silver Dollar City.  PowderKeg is a roller coaster that shoots you off at 60 miles an hour and it makes several twists and turns at high speeds before returning to the shed.  It only takes 2 minutes, so I thought I would try it with the girls.  I waited in line about 30 minutes.  I watched as a father measured his 5 year-old to see if he met the height requirements to ride PowderKeg.  I thought, well if a Kindergartener could ride this, surely a 44 year-old Mom of 5 can conquer this ride!!  Wrong!!  I rode with Emma and she said as soon as the coaster shot off I never stopped screaming until we stopped.  For the record, I only opened my eyes one time.  I survived PowderKeg to live another day, but my brains were a little rattled for a few hours!

SilverDollarCitypresents a great variety of shows for the whole family.  The lines were very long for It’s A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol so our family decided to pass on these shows this year.  I have seen Dickens’ Christmas Carol in years past and it is awesome.  I highly recommend it.

Larry and I took the boys to the Frosty show.  It was really cute with lots of audience participation.  The show begins with a young woman checking her mail for packages and she starts to visit with the mailman.  She receives a package that holds the items to build a snowman.  With lots of singing and jokes, they begin to build a snowman.  Bandit, the raccoon, even gets in on the act.  They place a hat on the snowman and he comes to life and sings and tells stories to the kids.  It was lots of fun and the boys really enjoyed it.  The best part for Gideon was to eat his kettle korn while watching the show!  Family fun!

I hope you and your family have a Wonderful Christmas and lots of time together over the Holidays.

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Family Christmas at Silver Dollar City

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Laura

Braley Family at Silver Dollar City

Okay, I admit it, I am a Christmas Freak!!  I love the music, the food and gift-giving, the decorations and most of all the REAL REASON for the SEASON—the birth of our Lord and Savior.  Where inAmericacan you find all of these Christmas treasures?  Why, Silver Dollar City inBranson,Missouriof course.  Last week we spent a few days with our family enjoying the sights and sounds of Christmas in Branson.

Silver Dollar Christmas tree - red

Gideon, our 10 year old, could not wait to see the light show onMain streetat Silver Dollar City.  There is a gigantic Christmas tree made of thousands of lights that keep time to several different Christmas carols.  It is an amazing thing to see. SilverDollarCitybecomes a winter wonderland after dark.  We enjoyed the music as we watched the tree glimmer and change colors.

Silver Dollar Christmas tree - blue

Theodore enjoyed the Silver Dollar Frisco Sing-Along Train.  We waited until dark to ride the train, which was all lit up with different colored lights.  I will warn you, the line for the train was quite long, but so worth the wait!  We sang Christmas carols as the train chugged along the tracks.  We saw lots of lights and lit up snowmen and reindeer along the way.  Then the best part came.  The train stops and everyone gets quiet as an elderly gentleman tells the Christmas story of a baby that was born a long time ago in a manger.  My kids were captivated and we all rejoiced as the birth of our Lord was shared with a train full of complete strangers. WOW!

If you are looking for Christmas ornaments or a special trinket, be sure and stop by Christmas Hollow.  The whole store is lit up with trees and unique gifts for this time of year.  We also made our usual purchases at the candy and taffy shops.  I decided to branch out and try the pecan brittle—yummy!

Come back on Friday when I talk about how I survived a ride on PowderKeg and post some a picture of the Frosty show we enjoyed watching with the boys.  Silver Dollar City is our favorite place to have a fun-filled country family Christmas.

What are some of your favorite Christmas experiences?

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Hog Wrestling (a.k.a. Delivering Pig to Butcher)

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Larry Braley

Stripe the pig ready for butcher

This week we took the pig to the local processor to get butchered. What an ordeal it was.  First some background: “Stripe” the pig was born in April, we bought him as a feeder pig in June and we’re butchering him at about 8 months old.  Not having a scale, I don’t know his exact weight at delivery this week, but he probably weighed between 170 to 200 pounds.  Laura is looking forward to getting some good hams, roasts, sausage and bacon from good old Stripe.

Through the process of getting Stripe loaded for delivery, I have learned that having the right equipment is essential.  We hauled Stripe on our flatbed trailer in a small pen made from cattle panels.  It was quite difficult to maneuver Stripe out of his regular pen and up onto the trailer.  The entire family was involved in this hilarious dance to get Stripe loaded.  He was squealing and snorting at high decimals which frightened the boys and aroused curiosity by the neighbors I’m sure.

Getting ready to put Stripe on trailer

Eventually, I was able to hog wrestle Stripe up onto the trailer and into the pen.  What a show!  We have talked for days about this “event” and the kids will never forget it.  It’s one of those memory-makers we’ll be talking about for years to come.

If you haven’t experienced hog wrestling, you should try it sometime—or maybe not.  For those that haven’t raised a pig yet and delivered them to butcher, my best advice is either get the proper equipment or better yet, have the processor come to you.

What funny stories do you have about pig raising?

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Remembering Past Chicken Butchering Days

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Larry Braley

It has been quiet on the mini-farm this week.  We’re getting ready to gather the annual Christmas tree and preparing the pig for going to the butcher next week.  In the quiet of winter coming on, I’ve been reminiscing on our past chicken butchering days.  Although it was work running our small pastured poultry business and doing our own on-farm butchering, it was good work.  We’ll probably start it up again when Theodore gets a little older to run the operation.

Thinking back on those days, I thought I would share some pictures of the equipment and setup we used during our first on-farm butchering days.

Whizbang chicken plucker

James and the Whizbang chicken plucker he built:

 

 

 

 

Homemade chicken butchering station

 

Our homemade chicken butchering station made from a old restaurant stainless steel prepping table and sink:

 

 

 

chicken scalder setup

 

 

Turkey friers made good scalders:

 

 

 

 

 

homemade chicken killing cone station

 

Homemade killing cone station work great:

 

 

 

dressed chicken in the pot

 

Final product of dressed chicken in the broiler:

 

 

 

 

 

What kind of set up have you used for butchering chickens?

 

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