I Cooked a Rabbit!

New Zealand White Rabbit, photo courtesy of laugh45

For a couple of years I have considered raising meat chickens, ducks, or rabbits for a protein food supply. I don't have enough flatish land for larger livestock like a cow or a pig. Rabbits, of course, require the smallest amount of space so they are high on the list.

However, I hadn't any recollection of ever eating rabbit, although I'm fairly sure I must have when I was a young kid. Finding a domestic rabbit and cooking it to check the list became important, and finally I found frozen rabbit about 3 weeks ago in a grocery store in a nearby town.

This was a VERY small rabbit, just a tad under 1.5 pounds, whereas an average young fryer dresses out at 3 pounds or more. Still, I thought it would be enough meat to give it a try, and not much wasted expense in the event I didn't like the taste.

Top of the photo are the belly pieces and the rib cage, which went into the freezer for stock later. Lower on the photo are the skinny forelegs, fatter back legs, and the backbone cut into 2 pieces.

First, I needed to cut up the rabbit, and found several photo tutorials online. There is very little meat anywhere but the hind legs, although I cooked the backbone section and the front legs as well. I'm sure a larger sized rabbit would have more meat on the backbone and front quarters. The "belly" was very thin, and it went into a freezer bag with the rib cage to make stock when I have enough bones, using a mix of rabbit and chicken.

I'm told rabbit fat is as un-palatable as venison fat, so it got trimmed away. (There wasn't much of it anyway.) Most of the outer silverskin had already been trimmed before it was frozen, but after my disjointing there was still a little more to trim.

It actually does taste a lot like chicken, although I thought it had a bit more flavor than commercial chicken. I fried it without any seasoning except salt and pepper so that any added herbs or spices wouldn't mask the rabbit flavor. I just dipped it in milk and rolled it in flour with a little salt and pepper.

My neighbor / friend Buster used to raise meat rabbits and I'm sure he will offer advice and help when I'm ready. If I decide to try raising rabbits, it will only be on a small scale. Timing depends on my health over the next few months, and whether I can stomach the butchering process. (I think I can, but I have to do it to be sure.)

Liver Disease and Nutrition

Six and a half years ago, I was diagnosed with Liver Disease, and referred to the University of Virginia to see some liver specialists. The first thing they did was to refer me to the Transplant Program, where I underwent a battery of tests over several months to determine if the rest of my body was healthy enough to withstand the rigors of a liver transplant.

At the time, I was also having the same intermittent low thyroid symptoms I'd had for most of my life. I show all the symptoms of hypothyroidism, yet the thyroid tests always come back in the normal range. This time, the endocrinologist talked to me about foods that adversely affect the thyroid, most notably cruciferous vegetables and soy products. They are goitrogens, meaning they suppresses thyroid function and the uptake of iodine needed by the thyroid.

Cruciferous vegetables lose a lot of the goitrogens when cooked, but soy does not. I thought I had pretty much eliminated soy from my diet years ago... that is, until I discovered soy masquerades under 40 or more names as food additives. The first thing to eliminate from my diet was any food that came in a package with a long list of chemical ingredients on the label, many of which are soy-based (and from GMO soy).

The next thing to eliminate was sugars, high fructose corn syrup in particular. Fructose damages the liver and causes mitochondrial and metabolic dysfunction in the same way as any other toxin.

Sucrose (table sugar) is 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is anywhere from 42 to 55 percent fructose depending on which type is used. Glucose is the form of energy our bodies are designed to run on. Every cell in our body uses glucose for energy, and it's metabolized in every organ of our body; only about 20 percent of glucose is actually metabolized in our liver. Fructose, on the other hand, can only be metabolized by the liver, because the liver is the only organ that has the transporter for it. 

Since all fructose gets shuttled to the liver, when we eat a typical Western-style diet, we consume high amounts of it, so fructose ends up taxing and damaging the liver in the same way other toxins (including alcohol) do. In fact, fructose is virtually identical to alcohol with regards to the metabolic havoc it wreaks. 

According to Dr. Lustig (an endocrinologist at the Univ. of California), fructose is a "chronic, dose-dependent liver toxin." And just like alcohol, fructose is metabolized directly into fat—not cellular energy, like glucose. So when eating fructose, it just gets stored in our fat cells, which leads to mitochondrial malfunction. 

The liver is the major site for converting excess carbohydrates and proteins into fatty acids and triglycerides, which are then exported and stored in adipose (fat) tissue.  I was advised to cut my carb intake to 50 grams a day until my system got clean, and then keep the intake to under 100 grams a day. 

The last thing to eliminate was any meat and eggs from animals that may have been fed the same soy and grain I was to avoid, as well as avoiding all fresh produce grown in a chemical cloud. That meant local free-range eggs, grass-fed beef, lamb, pastured pork, free-range chickens, and the Farmer's Market for veggies I don't grow.

Well, let me tell you, for 2-3 weeks I thought I would starve to death! Giving up the obvious addictive sugars was hard enough, but giving up bread and pasta was even worse. That's when I really started to delve into Real Foods, and things started to turn around.

Within a month, my energy levels and mental outlook began to increase, and my liver enzymes improved enough in 3-4 months that my liver docs took me off all meds.

I also began to lose a little weight. I learned to always carry a wholesome snack when I was away from home, usually a hard-boiled farm egg, or a piece of raw milk cheese (for the enzymes not found in pasteurized cheese). (Do not believe raw milk cheese might harbor pathogens. By Law, they must be aged at least 60 days before they can be sold, and if there were pathogens, the cheese would be rotten before the 60 days were up.)

Unfortunately, I have fallen partially off the "good diet" wagon over the last 12 months, mostly due to the increased cost of food and utilities versus my income (just a monthly social security check) and partly due to laziness. Eating right requires planning ahead and making time to prepare nutritious foods. In the last 3 weeks, I've had 3 sodas because I was experiencing low blood sugar while away from the house. That's 3 more than I've had in 5-6 years.

It's time to climb fully back up on that healthy food wagon no matter what else I have to give up. (Or continue a downward spiral in my health.)

There are many, many good things I can make from cheap cuts of meat and bones. Slow cooking a crockpot full of bones produces an incredibly nutritious broth/stock that's like jello when cooled.  Stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals.  Bone broth also supports joints, hair, skin and nails due to its high collagen content. In fact, some even suggest that it helps eliminate cellulite as it supports smooth connective tissue.

Cooked long and slow, bone broth also contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons, stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.

The "odd bits" like heart, liver, kidneys, sweetbreads, etc. contain so much more nutrition than the muscle meats, and they are much cheaper to purchase. I just received a Christmas gift of the book Terrine, plus I found a used copy of Terrines, Påtes and Galantines on ebay for under $4 earlier this year. (If you are not familiar with terrines, think meatloaf... and a galantine is just a meaty loaf encased in a pastry shell.)

What else did I eat when I felt so great?? Bacon, eggs, sausage, homemade yogurt, salads dressed with fresh lemon juice and a drizzle of EVOO, cheese, real butter, real cream in my coffee (not UP), fresh veggies, olive oil and coconut oil, sardines, not much fruit because of the sugar content, no legumes, no grains, and grass-fed meats daily. My one daily treat was a half-inch square of an 85% cacao bar at bedtime, and it was enough.

Eating those foods also brought the ratio of my Omega-6 to Omega-3 back into a better balance (about 4:1) than the SAD (Standard American Diet) which is as much as 40:1. 

All the meat and dairy provided the essential amino acids necessary to build proteins (essential because our bodies cannot produce them internally). The failure to obtain enough of even 1 of the 10 essential amino acids has serious health implications and can result in degradation of the body's proteins. Muscle and other protein structures may be dismantled to obtain the one amino acid that is needed. "Unlike fat and starch, the human body does not store excess amino acids for later use; the amino acids must be in the food every day.

I bought some wonton wrappers yesterday and intend to make and freeze some wontons (they contain just 4 grams of carbs per wrapper). A lunch of a wonton or two added to some home canned stock is quick, easy, and nutritious. 

It's a start. Salads will be scarce over the winter because I'm leery of bagged greens, even organic ones. Thankfully I froze lots of green veggies from my summer garden.

Speaking out of both sides of the mouth

The most important opportunity to affect the control the Corporate Agribusiness has over our foods is Proposition 37 on the California ballot in November. Prop. 37 is the Right to Know (what's in our food), mandating GMO labelling.

All Proposition 37 does is require clear labels letting consumers know if foods are genetically modified. We already have food labels showing nutrition, allergy information and other facts consumers want to know. This measure simply adds information telling us if food is produced using genetic engineering, which is when food is modified in a laboratory by adding DNA from other plants, animals, bacteria or viruses.    

I think the California vote on Prop. 37 is perhaps even more important that the Presidential vote. After all, no matter who is elected President, he will still have 535 Voting Members of Congress to deal with anything he wants to change or accomplish. However, if Prop. 37 passes, it will ultimately inform every one of us in the U.S. who purchases food because it will be too costly and cumbersome for corporations to have different food labels for foods sold in different states.

Most of us imagine that anything "organic" (by Law non-GMO) would automatically be on the side to defeat the proposition, yet many large corporations that produce or market organic foods have helped put over $26 MILLION into the war chest to defeat the initiative. How can these corporations market some foods as good for us, yet refuse to label what's in the other foods they market?

        Kellogg’s (Kashi, Bear Naked, Morningstar Farms);
        General Mills (Muir Glen, Cascadian Farm, Larabar);
        Dean Foods (Horizon, Silk, White Wave);
        Smucker’s (R.W. Knudsen, Santa Cruz Organic);
        Coca-Cola (Honest Tea, Odwalla);
        Safeway (‘O’ Organics);
        Kraft (Boca Burgers and Back to Nature);
        Con-Agra (Orville Redenbacher’s Organic, Hunt’s Organic, Lightlife); and
        PepsiCo (Naked Juice, Tostito’s Organic, Tropicana Organic).

On the other hand, there are many smaller organic leaders supporting the Proposition. By enlarging the poster above, you can see the companies donating to the cause. Please support them and their products when possible!  

The current Administration has deregulated more genetically modified foods than ever. From plums to alfalfa and even sugar beets. But it's not just that so many crops are modified (93% of all soy, 86% of corn, and 93% of canola seeds are now genetically modified) it's that there's currently no labeling system in place so that we know what we're buying. 

We are one of the few industrialized nations that doesn't require labeling of GMO foods. In the past year alone 19 U.S. states have attempted to pass GMO labeling laws, but each time Monsanto and biotech lobbyists have threatened to sue. Only Alaska, with its huge wild salmon industry, has passed a biotech seafood labeling law.

Most of us would like to believe that our foods come from nature, but that's far from the case. In 40 countries, including Australia, Japan and all European Union nations, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production of GMOs because they are not considered proven safe.

Update: Giant pesticide and big food companies have so far donated more than $37 million to defeat Yes on 37 to label GMOs in California. Earlier this spring, the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA), of which Monsanto is a leading partner, declared that defeating Prop 37 was its single highest priority for 2012.

Monsanto just funneled another $2.9 million dollars to defeat California’s Prop 37 to label genetically engineered foods. This comes on top of their $4.2 million dollar pledge only weeks ago and brings Monsanto’s combined total to more than $7.1 million dollars!  That’s a huge pile of cash and it’s dedicated to only one thing – denying us the Right to Know what’s in our food.

My Question: Did Monsanto just kick in more $$ because they are concerned the People might actually WIN??

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A Front Yard Garden Victory!

I recently posted about the gorgeous but doomed to be destroyed front yard vegetable garden of a couple in Quebec here.

I'm happy to report not only a victory for them, but a change in the city's new guidelines for urban gardens!

Over 30,000 gardeners took action over the past three weeks in support of the food garden cause. The first and most important was the Drummondville front yard garden case which attracted over 30,000 petition signatures and significant international media. Earlier this week, the Drummondville Municipal Council announced that henceforth front yard kitchen gardens will be allowed, and have even invited the gardeners, Josée Landry and Michel Beauchamp, to help shape the city's new guidelines for urban food gardens. You can see the news story translated here.

It's nice to win one, but a pain in the arse for what we have to do to enable our basic rights.

 

Cooking a Frog

You’ve probably heard the old saying before: "If you want to cook a frog, you can’t toss it into a pot of boiling water because it will just jump out. Instead, you put it in the water first and then slowly turn the temperature up. The frog will slowly adjust to the change until it’s too late."

I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't what's happening to the control over the foods we eat. Rather than implementing strict controls all at once, "incrementalism" makes small changes over time in an atmosphere where people are usually resistant to change. This is especially easy if you add the fear about food "safety" to the mix.

The fear about food safety is now so wide-spread that it ranks right up there with terrorism. The American Public, thanks to government and media hype, has come to believe that even our food and water is subject to a terrorist attack; therefore, we have become hypervigilant and have allowed laws to be passed that curtail our basic food freedoms. In fact, the FBI now can prosecute anyone as a terrorist if they expose animal welfare abuses taking place on factory farms like feedlots, slaughter houses or poultry houses.

Now I am not saying an attack on our food and water could not happen... surely some home-grown malcontent, or even a foreign terrorist, could find a way to poison any water supply, or any fresh produce shipment, but is it prudent to control the entire food supply (and diminish the nutrients) to the extent the government now does, or proposes to do? Where is MY choice for the chemical-free food I prefer to eat?

The Devil is in the Details. "It’s the Farm Bill that largely shapes food and agriculture policy, and — though much of it finances good programs [like food stamps and WIC ~editor] — ultimately supports the cynical, profit-at-any-cost food system that drives obesity, astronomical health care costs, ethanol-driven agriculture and more, creating further deficits while punishing the environment." (Source)

I eat fresh local fruit and vegetables from family farmers I have come to know personally. (I'm pretty sure there are no terrorists among them, nor do I believe they are out to poison me.). So why should that fresh food be subject to the same, and very expensive food packaging mechanization, chemical washing, and handling requirements for the massive produce shippers from several thousand miles away, who must contend with multiple handling of the foods and multiple storage sites of their "fresh" foods for weeks until it finally hits the shelves?

Will the next regulation require Federal testing of the produce I grow in my own garden before I am allowed to eat it?

"If you control the food supply, you control the people." ~Henry Kissinger

ps... I'm almost through ranting about adulterated food... for a while, at least. Soon it will be time to start the 2012 garden and have my own real foods to eat again!

Walk the Talk

As much as I continually suggest we should all eat nutritious, real food... I fell off the wagon a year ago. Actually I didn't fall... it was a very long, slow descent, adding a few empty calories here and there... until the additives (which are designed to addict) took over after a few months. I even lost the habit of taking my few daily vitamins. As a consequence, my energy levels are down and my weight is up. So it's time to get back with the program.

I don't have the disorder known as SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) but I can sure tell the difference in how I feel on bright, sunny days, even in winter. My self-diagnosis is a shortage of Vitamin D3 (the sunshine vitamin) and I started taking it again this very morning. I take about half a teaspoonful of fermented cod-liver oil in a gel that's mixed with a high-vitamin A butter oil made by Green Pastures. Mid-day and evenings I take a less expensive D3 gel cap.

A good breakfast had fallen by the wayside too, giving way to something high-carb and/or high sugar with my 2nd cup of coffee. I picked up 2 dozen farm eggs (from chickens fed NON-GMO feed) and some decent organic bacon this weekend, but not enough for the whole month because I didn't intend to start this until January, after the holidays. (It may still be just half-measures over the holidays.)

I'll need to make another trip to the nearest natural foods store (80-90 miles one way) later in the month to re-stock, plus buy some fresh yogurt to inoculate/make my own. I should order some kefir grains too. Mine were stored in milk in the fridge but unmarked, and I accidentally discarded them. Probiotics are an important part of a good food regime for me.

I don't expect the first several weeks will be easy, and I know that every time I nosh on something not good for me, it will just lengthen the time of adjustment back to well-being. No doubt I'll be cranky as a bear much of the time, but the Vitamin D3 should help.

I can't promise this change won't affect my every-other-day postings for the next few weeks. I will do my best, but they may contain some rants against the food companies where their designed use of addiction additives helped my fall from the wagon.

Bartering and Crop Swaps

Kate, over on Living the Frugal Life, recently wrote a nice piece on bartering, which prompted me to review some "crop swap" information I had downloaded earlier.

Barter Theater, photo courtesy of Southern Foodways Alliance

Bartering achieved some notoriety around here locally (in the next county south of me) in 1933 when the price of admission to the  Barter Theater  was 40 cents OR an equivalent amount of produce. Four out of five Depression-era theater-goers there paid their way with vegetables, dairy products and livestock. (It's still an active live theater today, but I don't think they barter for admission anymore.)

So Bartering and/or Crop Swapping is nothing new, but perhaps our ideas about it deserve another look in the light of the current economy. The USDA now reports that storable foods costs have risen by 60% in the last year. Many vegetable crops are easily stored: cabbages, potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash, carrots, parsnips, beets, rutabagas, turnips, and more. Those should all be pretty easy to grow, store and/or barter. 

It might be harder to barter for sugar, salt, flour, or toilet paper unless you live near a processing facility and know one of the workers who may be able to get "seconds" which are generally packaging defects, not product defects. On the other hand, a surplus of those staples might be quite valuable as trade items if those things really get scarce.

I'd be interested in starting a trial crop swap group on a small scale here where I live... but I don't know enough people who might participate for it to be worthwhile. That's sad, actually. I threw away about 400 pounds of winter squash the first year I had a garden here; the food banks couldn't take them, and I didn't know any of my neighbors or any other place to put them to good use.

Sarah Henry, over on the shareable network blog, has written a few posts on how to set up crop swapping, including one directed at some of the legal aspects. I also know there is a barter section on Craigslist; unfortunately none of them are near enough to me to be to be economically viable. I did trade some cheese I made from goat milk to the farmer who supplied the milk, but it cost me $10-$12 in gas every time I went to pick up just 2 gallons of milk. So it wasn't the best good win-win situation; had he been closer it would have been wonderful.

I'd barter cheese or something else in a heartbeat for frozen free-range duck, even it it meant postage (which is still cheaper than gas). Actually I'd consider bartering lots of things, duck just came to mind because no one local has free-range duck to sell.

Anyone have suggestions or experience with bartering?

Edited the day after Thanksgiving to post a link from a friend on Barter Sites.

Cushaw for the Best Pumpkin Pies!

Cushaw is a variety of winter squash that makes the very best pumpkin pies! (In fact the canned pumpkin in the grocery stores is either just cushaw, or a mix of various winter squash including cushaw.) Note: I wrote about cushaw last year here, too.

I don't grow my own cushaw anymore, even though they keep very well over the winter in a cool, dry space like a root cellar. Mainly I don't grow them because they are too big for one person to eat, unless I am processing pumpkin for holiday recipes. However, I just picked up a couple of 10-12 pound cushaws at the farmer's market last Saturday for only $3 each. I got over 10+ cups of purée out of just one cushaw, the equivalent of 5 or more jumbo cans of pumpkin ($2.99 here) from the supermarket.

 

I cut them in half, removed the strings and seeds from the cavity, and roasted them cut-side down in a 350ºF oven for about an hour and a half, until the thick neck pierced easily with a fork. (I lightly oiled the baking pan, and added enough water to a depth of almost half an inch... once the pan was in the oven.)

After the baked squash was cool enough to peel, I cubed it and ran it through a food mill. In retrospect, I could have skipped this step as these squash were not stringy at all.

Once puréed, I set some aside (in 2 cup amounts) to freeze for pies, or maybe some Pumpkin Pull-Apart Bread.

The rest of the first cushaw I roasted went into the crockpot to spice up and cook down for some Cushaw Butter. Even though I put it in canning jars, I did NOT can it. The USDA now strongly recommends against even pressure canning something extra-thick like pear or pumpkin butter because the heat may not penetrate to the center to guarantee safety.

I used local raw honey as the sweetener, and since honey is antimicrobial, it should keep in the refrigerator for several weeks. (Most of mine will be given away over the next few days.)

While I was roasting the squash, I removed all the good seeds from the stringy innards, discarded the flat immature seeds, and rinsed them well to remove any remaining flesh. Then I soaked the seeds several hours in salted water, getting them ready to roast as snack foods. (Soaking the seeds helps assure the nutmeat inside the shell gets a little salt.)

I dry the seeds after soaking... so the surface is dry enough to coat with olive oil. Lightly oil a cookie sheet, toss the seeds to coat evenly, add some sea salt, and roast in a 325ºF oven until toasted (about 25 minutes, depends on the oven) checking and stirring often after 10 minutes. 

You can add a variety of herbs or spices to the seeds before roasting. Try some ground chili pepper or ground smoked pepper if you like them spicy, or some garden herbs like sage and thyme... or some cinnamon and brown sugar for someone with a sweet tooth. Experiment and be creative!

Roasted pumpkin seeds will keep a couple of weeks stored in an airtight container. Be sure to smell any seeds or nuts before eating those you store, as the oils can go rancid quickly.

All together, my $6 spent on cushaws gave me 12 cups of purée to freeze (will make 6 generous pies or other desserts like pumpkin custard or pumpkin bread), 10 pints of pumpkin butter, and a bowl full of toasted pumpkin seeds. How's that for stretching food dollars? Plus, I know exactly what is in my pumpkin products... no chemical additives, just real food made with love.

Salatin: “Folks This Ain't Normal”

A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People and A Better World

Joel Salatin is the owner of Polyface Farms and author of Folks This Ain't Normal. He is hailed by The New York Times as "Virginia's most multifaceted agrarian since Thomas Jefferson [and] the high priest of the pasture" and is a leading spokesperson for local, sustainable food systems.

In Folks This Ain't Normal, he discusses how far removed we are from the simple, sustainable joy that comes from living close to the land and the people we love. Salatin has many thoughts on what normal is, and shares practical and philosophical ideas for changing our lives in small ways that have big impact. He understands what food should be: wholesome, seasonal, raised naturally, procured locally, prepared lovingly, and eaten with a profound reverence for the circle of life.

From reading the first chapter (link to download it is on the page linked above), I'd say he's right on target about how our general food supply isn't normal (or healthy) anymore.

Insourcing Food

Gouda in process, Photo by grongar

Yes, I've decided that the right term for I'm doing now is... insourcing! I have officially withdrawn from outsourcing as much of my food as I possibly can.

So much of what I have eaten over my lifetime has come from "elsewhere". It used to be that "elsewhere" was somewhere else in my own country, where the seasonal temperatures were different than mine and they could grow things I couldn't, like Florida tomatoes during my northern winters. More and more, the "elsewhere" (outsourcing) is to a foreign country, for whatever reasons (which I suspect includes profit margins). I'm NOT opposed to a farmer in Chile or Honduras making a living although I suspect they are governed by large corporations to the extent they grow one crop only, and perhaps import much of their own food.There's something wrong with this picture.

I'm not overly concerned about the safety of foods from foreign countries, since the USDA seems to be keeping check on imports (and I try not to buy them anyway). I'm just trying to get away from outsourcing in general, and when I do buy food I don't grow, I prefer it to be local. 

My community has become extremely poor in the last few years; all the manufacturing that used to be here has been outsourced to Mexico, or maybe China. The once vibrant local small dairy operations closed, not to send their milk elsewhere, but shut-down entirely, because a small dairy with a small output could not afford the expensive equipment now required to meet government regulations for dairy products. (They now receive subsidies to not raise dairy cows, but I won't go there right now.)

The whole "Eat Local" movement was an excellent start of opening my eyes to the expense our outsourcing actually costs, and while you can say I'm committed to eating local, it's a bit more concentrated than that.

When I say I am insourcing, that means most of my food dollars will be not only be spent locally, but a lot of the end product will be done at home. It is unrealistic to think I can raise my own hog, beef, chicken, lamb... AND garden produce... as a single 70-year old woman with a limited income and living on a few steep rural acres. However, I intend to do as much insourcing right here at home as I can learn and manage to do.

While I may not be able to raise my own cow or pig, I can certainly buy big chunks of the beasties locally, and turn them into edible delicacies, like bacon, corned beef, salume and hams. I can buy a cow share for local milk (there actually are some still around) and turn it into cheese... perhaps not as good as some European cheese, but delicious and healthy never the less. I can eat well, for less. and have a clearer conscious.

Another thing I hope will happen out of my efforts: someone younger will be encouraged to start to learn these age-old techniques, and they won't be lost again.

Resolve...

Photo by Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel

re·solve  (r-zlv)
v. re·solved, re·solv·ing, re·solves
v.tr.
1. To make a firm decision about.

I have but one Resolution for 2011:

"I resolve to further reduce my dependence on the industrial food system, which means producing more of my own food, and/or buying more food I don't or cannot grow from local sources whenever possible."

That seemingly simple goal actually requires a LOT of work on my part:

1. Planning, perhaps enlarging, amending, planting, feeding, weeding and otherwise tending the garden.
2. Better plans for processing, and storing what I do not eat immediately.
3. Processing (see #2) requires some of the things I have written in earlier posts: learning to make hard cheese, and charcuterie to cure and keep meats. For me, it also means learning to grow or obtain, prepare and eat foods not familiar to my generation or younger, but prevalent in earlier times.
4. Storing (see #2) means additional work on the root cellar. It needs new plumbing to free up space the spring water pipes now occupy, better insulation, better shelving, and the fuse box replaced with a breaker box. New and better shelving would be a big bonus!

Let me be clear that my thoughts and plans of action have little to do with the rampant fear of the future that's running amok, except as my general desire to be prepared for disruptions (mostly weather) fits in. However, Supply is beginning to touch the edge of that picture, and that does concern me. Basically I'm doing this because I should be doing it "anyway". Have you read  The Theory of Anyway , or the  Anyway Project? 

Sharon Astyk said, "When in doubt about how to change, we should change our lives to reflect what we should be doing "Anyway." Living more simply, more frugally, using less, leaving reserves for others, reconnecting with our food and our community, these are things we should be doing because they are the right thing to do on many levels."

So, what have YOU resolved?

Venison Braise

It's bow hunting season, and a neighbor gave me 2 deer in 3 days recently... well, most of 2 deer anyway. Just half the backstraps, tenderloins and hams, but all of the rest I wanted. A lot of it is in the freezer now, awaiting fine-tuning into smaller cuts and/or to grind for sausage, but it wouldn't all fit in the freezer.

Usually I can deer meat and it comes out fork-tender, but I just got a new book on braising meats and I decided to try a braise with some tougher parts. I used one neck, 4 shanks and some odd bits that I think were cut from shanks also.

I used a long, slow braise... 20 hours at 200-210ºF, and the results are incredible!

First I removed as much of the silverskin and fat as I could, and browned the pieces in a little olive oil. That was hard to do because each piece was longer than my largest skillet, but at least the meatier ends got browned. Unfortunately I was too busy to take pictures during that process. Sorry. 

Meanwhile, I poured some boiling water over about 2 ounces of dried porcini mushrooms and set them aside to rehydrate.

After browning the meat, I removed it to a platter and lightly sautéed the vegetables in the same pan: celery, carrots, onion and garlic but needed a little more olive oil. I used about 4 times the amount of vegetables shown in the photo below... that photo is from another dish, same day.

In a big pot, I heated 2 quarts homemade chicken stock and 2 cups dry red wine. Drained the porcini through some cheesecloth (saving the liquid) and roughly chopped the mushrooms. To the stock/wine mixture, I added the meat, vegetables, mushrooms and filtered liquid, a dozen or so black peppercorns and a few sprigs fresh thyme from the garden. (I didn't add any salt although there is some in the chicken stock. I prefer to add salt while making a dish since I don't always know ahead how I'll use such a large quantity as this.)

I didn't have quite enough liquid to cover the meat so I heated another quart of stock to add. Covered my pot tightly with foil and placed it in the preheated 200º oven. (The pot has a lid but it wouldn't fit in the oven with the lid on!)

Finally, I went to bed... with delicious aromas wafting through the house... it cooked almost all the next day before I took the pot out of the oven and peeked. Man, what a delicious smell. Sometime before I fell asleep, I remembered my oven runs low by about 10º, so I increased the setting to 210º.

Now I have 3½ quarts of deeply colored, calcium-rich gelatinous stock, and several pounds of tasty, tender meat (there was more meat still in the pot when I took the photo above). I'll freeze the meat in meal-size portions with some of the stock, and freeze (or maybe pressure-can) the rest of the stock. 

I'll use some of the meat for a venison and sprouted-barley stew, made with both hulled and pearled barley. I'll thicken some of the stock for a venison meat sauce to serve over wide noodles, some for "pulled venison" in a BBQ sauce, and I'll use some for a mountain version of paella (sans seafood). I've had a Cuban dish called 'Ropa Vieja' which translates as 'Old Clothes' and would be good with this shredded venison and some yellow rice. 

YUM. YUM. YUM.

Would I do it again? You betcha... but probably not with so much meat at once, and the shank bones/neck cut in half to brown and handle easier.

Edited to add: After eating my fill, I put up 6 containers (16 oz.) of meat with a little broth, and 6 containers of just stock, for the freezer. The braise was so tasty that I used almost the same braise, just different spices) for 2 racks of venison ribs, but only had them in the braise for about 2 hours, enough that they were very tender. Then brushed some BBQ sauce over them and into the 350º oven, cooking just until hot and delicious. (I would have finished them on the grill rather than the oven, except I was out of natural charcoal.)

I'll have more venison preps coming soon, including sausage. Stay tuned!

Appalachian Farm to Family Cooperative

In my recent post "Kicking and Screaming…" I mentioned the difficulty of finding local grass-fed meat. To my great surprise, I just discovered some of the regional grass-fed farmers in my area have banded together and formed a co-op which opens for business in May!

The Appalachian Farm to Family Cooperative has a few members whom I already know and respect, and I look forward to getting to know a few more as they grow and flourish. I'm already working up my first order!

(They are part of a group of local/sustainable farmers nationwide. Take a look at the map and list for one near you.)