And I still have half of another turkey to do! Yesterday I went to the processing plant and picked up our pig that we had butchered. Our Red Wattle gilt developed mastitis on farrowing this summer and unfortunately, you can’t treat pigs effectively for it. She only ended up with two functioning teats so that was a bad deal for her, having only one alternative. We felt bad, but that’s how things go sometimes. At least our other gilt is fine and is (hopefully) now bred back for a spring litter to Richard, our Red Wattle boar. And we kept one of Lucy’s gilts to replace her, as well as several others we didn’t get sold. They are all growing like weeds! (No, we aren’t going in the pig business. They just eat too much grain for a homesteader!)

Now I’ve got to get that turkey canned up so I can start on pork. My son, Bill, and his wife, Kelly, are buying half of our pig and that’s still a lot of pork so I’ll be canning for a while. We had the first pork chops last night. Boy, were they ever good! But I’ll admit I had a few “poor Lucy” moments.

15 COMMENTS

  1. Carol,

    Way to go! Isn’t canning fun and tasty! Now you have all that pre-cooked meat available at the drop of a hat and don’t have to worry about freezer burn, a power outage or eating it all up within a year’s time. Way to go girl!

    Jackie

  2. Marlene,

    We don’t have any butcher pigs to sell, although we do have three 125 pound gilts for sale and will be selling half of a butcher pig in about a month.

    Jackie

  4. Thanks to faithfully reading your blog in my inbox, I dug out my pressure canner and processed 18 pints of whitetail venison last week. I followed your advice and partially roasted it and added a tsp of dried beef broth per jar. It’s super tasty.
    Also nine meals of steaks and chops in the freezer.
    And… have 15 large plastic yoghurt containers of cooked dog food. All from that 1/2 a deer! Very satisfying, even though it took me two afternoons to do it all! :)

  8. Sheila,

    Yes, you can either can them plain or with sauce. You can use any recipe you wish as long as you process the tamales for 75 minutes for pints or 90 minutes for quarts at 10 pounds pressure. I’ve found that wide mouth pints seem to work best for mine.

    Jackie

  9. My question is about canning tamales. I seen that you have canned them before. I’ve been canning now for about 20 yrs. I’ve canned meat, fish, fruit, jam, vegetables, juice, and soups. I now want to try and can tamales, and want to know if that is safe to do. I did read that you can them just the way they are but can it be done with the red sauce? Can you use any recipe for tamales and the sauce or where might I be able to find one for them?
    Please help me if you can….Thank you

  10. While in Nevada we raised 6 pigs, 3 each year the first 3 were breakfast, lunch and dinner. The last 3 were bacon, ham and sausage. The kids could not understand whay they had such names, I said you have a dog we don’t eat it, we eat pigs so they have food names. They had no problem eating the pigs.

    Glenda, buy Jackies growing and canning book for yourself for Christmas. It makes pressure canning so easy and the way she writes you feel like she is right there in the kitchen walking you through it. I have canned, meat, beans and meals in a jar thanks to Jackie’s encouragement. My older kids and even my mom, she is in her 70’s, are amazed at what I can now, they even enjoy eating it. My oldest son was tickled when he was able to take my soups to the mountain for hunting season.

  11. When my children were young, I did not let them name the amimals except with names like Pork Chop or for a young heifer, we called her Dinner. Chickens were never a problem because we always has a bunch of them. They learned early that our animals were for “dinner”.

  12. Glenda,

    I PROMISE you won’t blow up your canner or kitchen!!! Please try it. Do something dead easy like chicken or turkey and broth. You’ll LOVE canning different things with your dried beans. And having them is so much better than store-bought canned beans! If you have ANY questions, just ask and I’ll help you along the way.

    Jackie

  13. I truly admire your energy and efforts. I am still looking at my Pressure Canner hoping I can learn to use it and not blow up the kitchen :). I’d love to start canning some of the huge stockpile of dried beans we have, but haven’t mustered up the energy or courage yet….Energy is in short supply in my mid-60’s, but it’s never too late to can food, preserve, or to take stock of life and be prepared. I’ve water-bath canned and dehydrated for years.

    We have 1/3 acre, in town, and are trying to become as self-sufficient as possible within the circumstances. I canned 200 pints of conserves, pickles, fruit, and pickled vegetables this past summer. We have an abundance of fruit in our yard and many raised garden beds.

    I’m sure it was hard for you to have Lucy processed.

    I remember going to my Great Aunt’s ‘in-town’ farm, as a young child, and she asked me if I’d like fried chicken for supper. I loved fried chicken and so, of course, I said yes.

    She had a fenced off area where her chickens roamed freely. She grabbed one, broke it’s neck, and proceeded to pluck it. I was the child of parents that owned a grocery store and had never given any thought to where my chicken came from. The result was I didn’t eat chicken that night or for the next entire year. True story….

  15. What a great feeling it is to finish something like that and be able to look at your accomplishment. I feel the same way when we finish harvesting our honey each year. Its even better in a few months when you are enjoying what you canned. Your jars look great, by the way! Of course the best part is that you know exactly what went into your jars- with no chemicals that no one can pronounce!

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