I took some real nice photos and entered them onto my computer. But, lo and behold, when I went to blog today they were GONE. All of them! Oh well, if aliens got them they’ll know how much we enjoy our good homestead feasts! We had a full house. David and his girlfriend, Bill and his family, Javid and an elderly lady who lives at the assisted living where he lives, and of course, Will and me. Our big table stretches out pretty big and we all ate plenty — probably way too much. No one had room for five pies and two cheesecakes until later on. Now I have the rest of the turkey to get canned up.

I sliced up one of the Gila Cliff Dweller squash and was really impressed. There are two main types: one a round, white, pumpkin-shaped squash with speckled green stripes and a butternut shaped white squash. The one I opened up this time was a butternut-shaped one. The neck was all fragrant light yellow meat! It was good sliced fairly thin and fried with onions and a bit of garlic. Yum! Unfortunately, I have few mature seeds this year. But enough to grow it again and maybe next year I’ll have a bounty of seeds besides tasty and pretty squash. (By the way, Glenn Drowns at Sand Hill Preservation Center has seeds!)

CliffDweller_9858

We’re gearing up for a snow storm tonight that’s supposed to drop around 6 inches of the white stuff on us. Will went to the auction barn Saturday and picked up four young, weaned Angus calves cheap. They’re pretty darned thin and have snotty noses. So we started them immediately on antibiotics and are feeding them everything they’ll eat and keeping them in the goat shed so we can keep a real close eye on them. I hope they’ll survive and thrive. Will was also able to buy two 300-pound butcher hogs REAL cheap. Pigs weren’t bringing anything! So we will have our pork even though we didn’t raise any pigs this year. We need to get a butcher date; our butcher’s calendar is pretty full for several weeks. Oh well, for that price I’m sure things will work out fine. I can taste the pork chops and bacon now! — Jackie

6 COMMENTS

  1. gen,

    I love having bacon dices canned up in half pint jars. It’s so handy! I also do ham and chicken dices for the same reason. Hopping John? Now I’m drooling. Darn

  2. deborah havey,

    Yes, I know what you mean. First there was the euthanasia of thousands of baby pigs by big breeders because they couldn’t get $20 apiece, which is the “break even” price for baby pigs, then there was the baby pig virus that killed thousands of piggies. After that, pig prices did, indeed climb. Last spring, 8 week old baby pigs were selling for $150 each! Then it slowly declined. Will said at the sale barn, baby pigs were selling for $17 each! Pig prices go up and down quite fast as it only takes a year for raisers to get “into business” due to the breeding age and gestation time of sows where cattle prices are slower as it takes two years to raise a heifer to breeding age and nine more months before she has a calf…and another two years before the calf is butchering size.

  3. As to cheap pork, I noticed the same, but with the droughts out west, it’s either sell low, or just destroy and cremate. I think some cash flow coming in to the farmers is better than none, but with business practices, one never knows. My grand daughter loves pork chops smothered in cream of mushroom soup, so I’ve been stocking up for her. I’ve also been getting more bacon than normal, and dad and i have been canning REAL bacon bits in half pint jars, I’m a happy camper! Hopping John for New Years, with some ham and smoked sausage diced into it, I just might have to make some before then.

  4. hi. i love the winter squash to eat raW IN SLICES.

    I WONDERED WHY PORK WAS SO INEXPENSIVE AT THE GROCERY STORE.

    [sorry abt. caps. errant little finger.]

    pork has been very low here in ne ohio. after that pig virus scare a couple of seasons ago i thought pork would be harder to get.

    God bless you!

  6. I canned 6 quarts of turkey and 4 quarts of broth. Yum!!! 4 quarts of potato soup. Potatoes, onions and celery canned and ready to heat and add milk and butter, salt and pepper. Again, YUM!!!

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