THE SQUIRREL CHALLENGE: Want to join?

[Farmfresh]

I dunno. I LOVE it (scrapple) ... hubby calls it "the other gray meat".

Maybe you have to grow up with it.

Bought half a hog this week. It was a free ranging Duroc. Called the butcher shop today to make my cutting order. I am getting the lard (for soaps), the head for scrapple and the footies as well as all of the other "good parts" yummy! The butcher was kind of amazed - I guess most people only want to keep the meat parts. They will be curing my ham, bacon, jowl bacon and hocks as well.

 

[Henrietta23]

I'm drooling!!

 

[Farmfresh]

I do love BACON!

 

[freemotion]

Jealous!

 

[Farmfresh]

You too can have your own farm raised meat. Just start by finding a farmer (Craigslist) nearby that has his meat processed at a small local processor.

That is how I got started. You actually buy the live animal (on the hoof) from the farmer. Then they deliver it to the processor for you and you pay for the processing.

Cheaper than store bought and about 100% better!

 

[freemotion]

Oh, I wish! It is wicked expensive here, about triple what store-bought costs. And to buy a whole animal or a side....mortgage payment! I am thinking of looking in ME and getting it in early winter when I can just put it in my trunk for the day it takes to get home....

 

[2dream]

Is it too late to join?

Does it only include products/produce etc that your saving for winter?

Its never to late to join. I started reading this thread when it started with the intention of posting. I missed a few days and came back and its 11 pages long. LOL In catching up on everyones doings I found your post #80 at the bottom of the page.

So jump on in with your squirreled stuff and ideas. Being SS is an on going challange and we are all at different levels.

I started squirreling away about 6 or 7 months ago. Had a major stash. Then money got tight and I felt like some of the things I had squirreled back needed to be used up and replaced. So now my supplies are down. Which for me is a good thing because I want to regroup and squirrel my own stuff instead of store bought.

My Squirrel Goals: I plan on canning (instead of freezing) rabbit and chickens. I want to can enough for us to be able to have meat at least twice a week for one year. That means I have to can at least 52 jars of each. ( I also have several different types of canned meats that I have purchased over the last 6 months).

And I love Pams idea of a years worth of meals. I want to make up my own soup mixes and have enough for at least 2 times a week of different soups mixes where all I have to do is add water.

With that in mind I figure with all the veggies I have planted, plus my new interest in herbs and having a good start on lots of different varities, by the end of summer I should have enough canned veggies and dried herbs to keep us from going hungry for at least 1 full year.

Now all I have to do is replenish some of the things I used when money got really tight, like coffee, tea, noodles, etc.

I will start stocking up on canning jars and lids this week. I have about a 100 +/- jars but that won't be nearly enough to can all the stuff we have planted this year.

 

[Beekissed]

Amos wrote:
Is it too late to join?

Does it only include products/produce etc that your saving for winter?

Nah...no rules! Squirrel away anything that will help you survive, help you save money, help you be more SS in the future or right now. Stuff those proverbial cheeks and run for the tree!

My squirreling is not so organized. I just intend to stuff every corner of the cellar with canned veggies, fruit, meat and ACV. All the other spaces will be for storing squash, pumpkins, sugar beets(mangels), garlic, onions, potatoes, apples, cheese and anything else I can lay my hands on. Same with my tiny freezer.

Then I am starting on firewood, hay, dog and cat food(homemade from meat scraps, if I can get them), chicken feed(home grown when possible), kerosene for my oil lamps, etc.

Then comes animals on the hoof or claw. Winter bedding will be collected all year and stored under tarps, colostrum will be collected and frozen, every animal adequately wormed and fattened for winter. The calf will be butchered in Nov. and all the meat either frozen, canned or jerked.

All flowers and herbs for drying will be lining the attic, tinctures steeped and bottled, salves and lip balms developed and bottled/packaged.

Wheat is already stored, yeast to be bought and kept in freezer, honey to be purchased....and plans for my own hive to be advanced.

Vehicles and machinery cleaned, oil changed and prepared for winter. All outbuildings and sheds organized for ease of use during winter.

A winter greens bed planted with succession plantings and plastic hoop tunnel installed over it.

I'll think of more as I go along....but suffice to say, I intend to spend alot of time at home rather than at the supermarket or feed store this year!

Just think....homemade bread, healthy veggies and fruit, grass-fed baby beef and chicken, dried herbs, stored onions and garlic, winter squash, butter, cheese, whole milk, buttermilk, cottage cheeses, fresh lettuces from my winter beds, warm fire....it will be the closest thing to living the Farmer Boy life that I've had since I was a kid!

I can't wait to see all the pics of what folks have stored and squirreled!

 

[Farmfresh]

REALLY - meat on the hoof is as high as that!

We have cattle and animal auctions around these parts. We could just go to the auction and buy at "market" price, but most of the farmers around here sell direct at market price ($/#) or sometimes a tiny bit more.

If the animal is totally grassfed or "special" in another way the price does go up - but still reasonable. Farmers around here figure they are actually ahead of the game to get market prices direct from the customer with no sale costs lost. Farmers are usually on the losing end of the retail game.

Now buying 600 or 800 pounds of meat at a time - THAT can be expensive. If you go by a per pound price it is usually cheaper however. Very few people go into a grocery store and buy 600 pounds of meat at a time.

We try to just save up for our meat purchases.

 

[freemotion]

FD, it is very high on my list to find and buy meat in bulk that is in my price range. I could handle double what I am paying if it is really raised well, but even that is a stretch on our budget! I'm gonna check out a nearby bison farm soon.....And am hoping my silly turkey hen will start to sit on those eggs she keeps rearranging!