Posted on 04/02/2022 7:31:47 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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“I’m getting very serious about sourcing my own food.”
I don’t care for mutton, either, so they would be for mowing and wool. ;)
Weber went to ‘The Spa’ on Thursday. *SNIF* He finished pit at about 1,200# though! Yikes!
One of my BFFs and her daughter are buying 1/4 from us, so that leaves 3/4 for the two of us, my sister and my Mom. We’ll give some to Amanda and our foster son, Mick, too, but that’s STILL a lot of meat.
It breaks down to about $3.50/pound for all cuts, which includes processing and packaging. They do a nice job where we take them, and they give you many options as to how you want things done. Beau would take ALL steaks, if that were possible. ;)
He found a bunch of t-bones that were WAY at the bottom of his ‘fur freezer’ so I’ve been cutting out the steaks for us and then baking the bones for broth, then the dogs get them after I’m done. It’s working well.
I’ve been making an oven-baked roast a week (finally got it perfected - don’t use your rock pot!) then those leftovers are made into stir-fry, beef chunks w/ gravy and/or Fajitas...all within the Weight Watchers suggestions. SIX pounds down on a mainly meat and veggie diet. :)
I still have about 2 weeks before I need the freezer emptied completely to hold Weber.
$3.50/lb is excellent! So exciting to have all that good meat!
My niece had 2 steers that she raised from babies - got them from a dairy at about 3 weeks old. The dairy breeds a lot of the Holstein milk cows to Angus bulls & sells the calves at a very reasonable price. Some cows are bred to a Holstein bull - females are for replacement purposes - males are sold as well. My niece’s were half Angus. They had to sell their place last year to build their dream house - the new owners didn’t want the steers so they went to market. This was a huge bummer for me - their “spa” date was to have been January & I would have had beef for the year. They are currently putting up fence for cows so maybe next year. They did just get pigs & meat chickens are coming soon so that should happen this year. Both will be pasture raised & thus lower PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids - Omega 6) than commercially raised meat.
Still working on the idea of hens for eggs - it’s an uphill slog.
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DONE! :)
OK, I want to plant some of my potatoes this week.
What should I use as fertilizer? Should I put bone meal in the trench or the bottom of the bucket?
Do you have any meat you can pressure can for soups and stews later on?
I use round for that generally, but sometimes sirloin.
FWIW, I was listening to Joe Bastardi’s Saturday Summary and he says that the next couple weeks are going to be nice, but he is still expecting a rough week weather wise in the form of some severe weather outbreaks for the week of April 14 - 21.
He didn’t state what kind, whether it wold be in the form of tornadoes or cold, but he implied it would be a cold weather thing. He did mention being careful about what people are putting out early.
Look for a 5-10-10. LOW in Nitrogen, and higher in both Phosphorus and Potassium (aka, Potash.)
So, bone meal will be good, but also add Muriate of Potash. Most garden centers will sell either of these components separately, or have a blend of fertilizer specifically for root crops.
You can use the same combo on anything ‘root crop’ such as carrots, potatoes, onions, kohlrabi, turnips, etc.
Even a liquid TOMATO fertilizer would be OK for growing potatoes in a pinch - they’re both in the Nightshade family.
Just remember: as little nitrogen as possible for potatoes. Too much and you’ll get beautiful, lush plants but little or nothing BELOW. :)
I am going to invest in a pressure canner this season - still researching them and waiting to present my findings to ‘The Chairman’ to see if he’ll buy me one for my birthday. It takes so little to make me happy.
I am the PERFECT ‘wife.’ Diamonds? Heck, No! I have plenty. Buy me land, ammo, that 30 gauge over/under shotgun I want, or anything else that helps in my quest towards increasing my self-sufficiency, Baby! :)
The more I can have canned and NOT have to rely on a freezer the better, IMHO.
It’s another skill set I need to add...and these days seem like the perfect time, for sure.
Re: Joe Bastardi
Love him. We’re still in a Solar Minimum, so I’m trying very hard not to jump the gun here in Zone 5b. It’s hard, LOL!
We’re in for a week of rain, but nice and sunny on the weekends. I can live with that weather pattern.
That said - the plants must know SOMETHING because I had lousy germination on my pepper plants (inside) and had to start 12 more of them, today. Tomatoes are doing OK, but of COURSE, the few cherry-types I need are being jerks, too.
Anyhow, I’m also having NO germination on lettuces out in the greenhouse, which is weird. I’m going to pull those trays in and start all over again on them, as I made space in the grow rack today by moving spinach out to the greenhouse where it’s happy no matter what the weather.
PM!
Thank you, Diana! :-)
Wow! Thank you for the welcome. I’m delighted to be on your thread and learn from everyone. :-)
I have one of these.
https://www.allamericancanner.com/All-American-Pressure-Canners.htm
I think the one I have is the 15 quart one based on the capacity given.
It does 6 quarts comfortably or about 12 - 14 pints, which can be stacked.
It’s as big as I can reasonably handle. I doubt I could manage the 21 quart size. Those suckers are heavy.
My peppers have not germinated yet, but the onions, cabbage, radicchio, and romaine has.
But they are going to have to wait to be put out if the weather is going to be that bad. They are too small to put out now anyways. They need a couple more weeks and by then we’ll know what we are in for.
I just started my tomato seeds late last week and nothing is up yet. I planted some 9 year old chervil seeds and they are coming up already.
We’re looking at two beautiful days here of sun and warm before it rains again for the rest of the week, so I will be spending as much of the time outside as I can. Then it will be back indoors and picking up on the quilt again.
Mostly cool and damp here in Central Missouri over the past week, and this week looks to be more of the same.
Garden soil is still too wet to work, but the seedlings in the greenhouse are mostly doing very well. We had a couple of very cold nights last week, and in spite of the underheat mats, I lost a few tomato and cucumber plants. Everything else seems to be fairly happy so far. Still waiting on the birdhouse gourds and stevia to germinate.
I finished up rigging the new trolling motor and chart plotter on the boat. Wife and I took it out yesterday just to shake it down and get familiar with the new gear. Everything worked as expected. Now I just need to manufacture some time to go fishing.
Thank you! That pressure canner in the running, for sure! I think Ellendra got one recently? Can’t remember...
“Now I just need to manufacture some time to go fishing.”
Somehow, I see that happening a LOT! :)
I’m hoping things turn out that way.
It’s also time to start pounding the woods in search of the elusive morchella. ;-)
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