Posted on 11/21/2014 12:57:52 PM PST by greeneyes
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hehehe.
Back from “crashed laptop” land. I finally got a new one - the old one was two months shy of 5 years old so I got my money’s worth. October, prior to the crash, was way too busy - two family reunions and one wedding so we were out of town for 3 weekends straight. It certainly made my favorite month of the year go by very fast.
The garden is all cleaned out. Since this was the first year I was planting in two new raised beds, I was happy with the results - I learned a lot for next year .... and I would like at least two more raised beds! For sure I want a dedicated herb garden - the herbs in pots dried out too fast in the summer heat while everything in the beds did great. I looked out the window the other day & there was a big Red-shouldered Hawk sitting on top of my ‘hoop house’ with netting on it. I was thinking “wow, how gorgeous!” when it dawned on me that the bird had his claws around the pipe ridge pole the netting was draped over & I was concerned he might get them tangled when he flew off! Fortunately, he managed without a problem - whew!
Last night, we processed our 2nd deer using a new meat grinder. Actually, it’s the 3rd deer harvested this season, but we didn’t have the meat grinder for the first one. We’re trying sausage recipes from friends & recipes on the internet. The grinder is a 1/2 horsepower & can process 300 lbs. an hour! This deer had about 30 lbs of meat, maybe a little more - the buck before was much larger. Anyway, I am looking for a really good venison chili recipe - I’ve seen several online that look good, but I’m looking for one that somebody has tried & can recommend. Sausage recipes welcome as well. I made spaghetti two days ago with a package of spicy sausage & it was outstanding. :-)
Thank you greeneyes for Arrowhead 1952’a update.
Here’s a deer burger recipe you might like:
Sunset Burger Recipe:
2 lbs deer burger
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (herbs)
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
about a half teaspoon of red pepper flakes (don’t overdo these)
Mix all this together and fry it up.
Serve on toast with tomato and lettuce.
Thanks - looks tasty! :-)
Good to hear from you. Hubby just bought me a new HP all in one to replace my crashed computer, which I had since around 2006 with windows xp. It was just a cheap Walmart/Dell package with the printer, screen, and cpu for about 400 bucks IIRC.
Still trying to figure it all out.
Those raised beds are addictive.LOL I like them and I like using the retaining wall behind them for pots. I can stand on the patio and take care of the pots and two of the beds without bending over. Easy to water them there too.
What model is your meat grinder and approximate cost. We have been discussing getting one. I like to substitute turkey or chicken dark meat for ground beef in casseroles and soup. Healthier supposedly and cheaper for sure than beef.
Still, in stores it is several bucks per lb. I can get chicken quarters for around 80cents per lb. here, so it should work out cheaper still and I would have the bones to make great soup stock.
Hubby is not a hunter, though he did when he was a teenager, and could if push came to shove. My Grand Daughter shot her first deer when she was around 15 or 16 thanks to all her Uncles helping show her how.
Her Hubby just got a small buck, but she stays home with the kids most of the time now. Three kids under age 5 keeps her busy, and it’s hard to find a babysitter for a week in the deer woods.LOL
Congratulations to you and happy sausage making.
You are welcome. Thanks for posting.
We got a good deal on Bass Pro Shops® Electric Meat Grinders by LEM® Products. It is a #12 which is a 3/4 horsepower - waaaay more power than needed. The smaller one (#5 @ .25 HP) is sufficient .... evidently ‘somebody’ thought we’d be getting elk or moose in large numbers or butchering cattle by the herd! The LEMs are not cheap (#5 on sale at Bass Pro for $239 or thereabouts) but they are well-built & easy to clean - I see they now have an aluminum one, but ours is stainless steel. Basically, if it fits in the chute, it grinds! I read a lot of the comments on the Bass Pro site .... one of them suggested spending the $50 to get the foot pedal for start/stop & I highly recommend that as well - when you have messy hands from raw meat, being able to control the machine with your foot is very handy. Here are two links for you:
http://www.lemproducts.com/category/butcher-meat-grinders
My niece got a ‘small’ grinder at Cabela’s - don’t know the brand, but they’ve gotten two deer this year & are very happy with their grinder.
That is excellent news. Thank you for the updates. Praying that his strength will increase and that he will be able to communicate better as time goes by.
Howdy, greeneyes! Here are a couple of links that some gardening folks might find to be useful.
More great stuff from Paul Wheaton. Diatomaceous earth is a low cost bug killer (see links down the page).
Diatomaceous Earth (food grade): bug killer you can eat!
http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp
Geodesic domes—relatively inexpensive and good for extremely windy places if well built.
Desert Domes
http://desertdomes.com/index.html
[Geodesic dome calculators, instructions and other great resources.]
Constructing Our Geodesic Dome
http://byexample.net/projects/current/dome_construction/
(nice, easy 2v dome for not-so-windy places)
I’m building a 4v dome. It’s very windy here sometimes (over 100 mph).
How To Build A Geodesic Dome: 268 Square Feet for $300
http://diyready.com/build-a-268-square-foot-geodesic-dome-for-300/
[Choose the silly answer about Walmart in the popup to follow the text, pictorial and video instructions for free. The YouTube videos are most instructional.]
Covering such domes can be a challenge. Take plenty of time for designing and building. Have fun. :-)
Thanks for the info. Kinda pricy for me. I’ll keep an eye out in case they have a sale. Might check Cabelas too.
You are welcome. I know he’s on my prayer list.
Here’s an article that might be interesting—one of two in a series. It explains permaculture as applied to gardening and agriculture in general. There are other branches of permaculture, too (energy, technologies related to other efforts and so on). There’s no one political philosophy or anything like that. All kinds of people are involved, and practicality is required (e.g., work).
Permaculture and the Myth of Scarcity
http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-10-02/permaculture-and-the-myth-of-scarcity
Interesting article. Thanks.
My garlic is up and looking good. I need to cover it up with a few inches of stable waste but I’ve wiped out my pile. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to the neighbor’s for a load over Thanksgiving weekend.
We’ve put two deer in the freezer so far. Mrs. Augie got a doe Sunday a week ago and I got a buck on Saturday. I took 40lbs. of meat to the locker plant to have made into slim-jims. They do a jalapeno and cheese mix that is fabulous. I’ve got about 15lbs sliced up for jerky. That will go into the marinade this evening and I’ll put it in the smoker on Thanksgiving after the turkey comes out.
I took advantage of the dry weather Saturday and got a few more dead oaks cut and the logs cut to sawmill length and dragged out of the woods. I worked up the tops and added ten or so loader buckets of firewood to the stove pile. I’ve got another half dozen or so big dead oaks that need to come down yet. Once that’s done I’m hoping to find a logger who will buy and haul them to the mill for me. I can haul logs, but not enough at one time to make the 60 mile round trip pay off.
I’m hoping for good weather this coming weekend. I can get a lot done in three days.
Allied Kenco has everything you need for making sausage at home. http://www.alliedkenco.com/
I can’t tell you how many hundreds of pounds of venison summer sausage I’ve made over the years. I tried a few different varieties of seasonings and settled on the Legg’s brand. It’s a fairly mild mix so I would add a few things to spice it up, but it’s a good reliable baseline to get started.
It’s been several years since I made any at home. There was a tragic smoker accident that resulted in a pile of burnt, twisted, melted stainless steel sheeting and 16 slabs of pork ribs that even my dogs wouldn’t eat.
I’m brewing a plan to build a new smoke shack that will use my Traeger to make smoke but I’m not sure I’ll go back to making my own summer sausage. It’s really easy to drop off bagged meat at the locker plant and pick up finished sausage a couple months later.
Mrs. Augie and I have a long weekend at Big Cedar scheduled in mid-February. We’ll hit Taneycomo while we’re there and see if there are any trout that want to come out and play.
Sounds like fun !
Thanks for the link. We have a recipe for summer sausage that’s ok - really good with cheese & crackers. I think there are 5 in the freezer & they’ll probably disappear over the holidays. We’re still looking for alternate recipes. I was telling someone about having a 10-point summer sausage hanging in the garage!
As we get used to having a nice meat grinder & plenty of ground venison, we’ll be experimenting with a lot of recipes until we find the ones that we want to stick with. :-)
Saw this writeup today on a blog I follow:
The Meat Grinder
http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/meat-grinder/
This model she’s talking about is not the one we have, but she highly recommends it - clicked the link for it in the blog post & it’s on sale at Amazon:
Normal $298.90 Sale: $173.52 & free shipping!
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