Sausages and Meatballs.(raw meat Photos)

On the last trip to the farm, we had so much going on that I have decided to break it up into specific posts covering  each separate  activity we did.
Shortly after arriving, hubby got in and butchered two  big weather sheep that need butchering, we did them straight away so that they could hang in the coolroom for a few days before we had to process them.

After about 3-4 days we then processed the meat, we saved the legs and shoulders off both sheep and cut the balance up into chops( we eat a lot of grilled chops,one of our favorites,quick and yummy)
We placed the legs and shoulders in the fridge and froze the chops. Our little freezer up there was packed to the top. I even gave some away to make room.

Then we set to work boning out the legs and shoulders, hubby does the rough cutting off the bone and I trim and dice further. We enjoy doing this, gives us a chance to sit and chat and relax.

We then  grind up the meat, and the fat that we  saved when butchering the sheep.

This is then added all together(sausages usually have a 70% meat 30 % fat ratio)
To this we then added the  chosen herbs and spices, we chose, our own dried rosemary,carrot,radish,tomato and celery powders, along with sage, garlic salt and pepper, and a good slurp of homemade plumb sauce.  We also add iced water to moisten the mix then chill the whole lot for a few hours.

That's when we hit a huge hurdle, The casings that I had purchased on the coast turned out to be small, not the large I had asked for and no where near enough to complete the job.The small casings wouldn't fit on the large stuffer nozzle of our  grinder.
Then hubby remembered that the band saw had a grinder attachment and  we found that it was smaller. So we continued the process up in  shed on the band saw, which was painfully slow , using what casings we had.

As it was Saturday afternoon and the shops were not open, we decided to freeze the remaining ground mix until Monday and drive to Coonabarabran and hopefully purchase more casings.
Unfortunately we could only get small ones, and after thawing the meat and making a painful few more kgs of sausages we gave up and decided to convert the rest of the mix into meatballs to can.We also realized that as the mince had  been frozen, we then had to cook the 2nd batch before re-freezing them.

The mix made great meatballs,but the only issue we had was when we cooked them pre-canning was that because of the very high fat content we had to keep draining of lots of fat as they cooked.
I decided to use my Fowlers Vacola preserving jars as they are wide necked, meatballs pack and release well .

I chose to cover them with  lamb stock that I had previously canned and pressure canned them at 11lbs pressure for 90 minutes.

We tried them with gravy and vegetables a few nights later and they were delicious.
While we were there I also canned a load of carrots and a load of potatoes and  a load of the ever handy pantry item, dried beans and chickpeas.

When we traveled to Dubbo for the day, a friend of my mother's who lives in the same retirement village passed on to me a couple of boxes of Fowlers Vacola Jars, that she used to use when living out on a farm before retirement, when sorting them out I found these beautiful small blue ones which are quite an uncommon jar, maybe even collectable. She told my mum that she still has several more boxes to bring in. I am so excited to see what  will be in them also.

Just before we headed home I gave one of the pantries a bit of a sort out, checking seals, rotating and organizing. Hopefully this will be the last time  before we relocate it all onto open shelving.

Overall, we had a great time away, with some great successes and some not so great, but have shared them all, as that is the only way we learn, by our mistakes .
So, that's it for now,
Hope you all keep safe until next time,
Cheers,
Jane.

Many hands make lighter work of the chicken run.

We have just had a  couple of great weeks up at the farm, our main concentration this time was to get the outer chicken run completed if possible.
We headed off with the trailer loaded up again as usual, this time with two 1000 litre water cubes and a pile of recycled metal poles and a few recycled rolls of chain link mesh.

At our normal coffee break stop, there is a tree that we have been watching for years. It has a beautiful native orchid growing high up in the fork. We always check as soon as we drive in to make sure it is still there. It is truly beautiful, I hope that no one ever takes it.

We arrived at the farm, and got the fire lit straight away as it was rather chilly, Tilly the old Blue girl loves to lay in front of it, it must really warm her old bones up(I know it does mine ).

The first night in the middle of the night I was awoken suddenly, (I use a CPAP machine,so you notice straight away), when the power goes  out . We are off grid and this is unusual. Hubby started the generator for the rest of the night .
Next morning he had to run a check on all the big batteries, he found a dead cell in one and replaced it with a spare one we had up our sleeve.(now we need to buy a new spare.) !

We did a day trip to Dubbo and caught up with our daughter and beautiful little granddaughter who is growing way too fast, 13 months and very ,very cute.We had a belated birthday lunch with our daughter, albeit at the local RSL club so that my Mum could join us(the  access is best there for her).
We had a lovely day.
Some good friends of ours who come regularly to the farm were coming  so that Ken could help my husband with the chicken run work, but we  had to get quite a bit of work done first before they arrived.
We had selected a lovely shady area under trees, but reasonably protected from cold  Southerly winds, but we had to remove quite a few  dead and straggly trees from the area to make it  more suitable for the purpose.

We spent a few days, clearing and dragging all the  trees and stumps to a big pile(I feel a bonfire coming on), what we couldn't  pull out, we burnt out, sitting  having drinks by a few  fires over a few nights, It was a lovely relaxing way to end a hard days work.
Next my man started digging holes for the main corner posts and gate posts.

Next he had to  cut off some of our recycled metal posts as they were way too long for what we needed.

Then he had to concrete those metal posts in and let them set for a couple of days, while that was happening he also drove in the in between star pickets.

Then all was ready for when the help arrived to finish the job.

When we had all hands on deck, they attached the three horizontal plain wires and then rolled out the chain link mesh fencing.

Brian's brother from next door also popped over to lend a hand, and the old saying"Many hands", certainly rang true, they accomplished a heck of a  lot in a short time.
In no time at all they had most of the  outer yard up.

The photo above is the first half completed, we would have got more done but bad weather set in and the boys retired to the lounge room and the TV  to watch some well earned football and beers.

The next day they completed the  fence and even  trenched all around it and connected and buried foot netting to hopefully deter the foxes.
We are really pleased with the yard, especially as most of it was constructed out of recycled materials.We ended up with a 17 X 12 metre yard.
We wanted to get the gate (also recycled,an unused metal  security door) on, but simply just ran out of time. Next trip up hopefully.
All in all we had a very successful and enjoyable trip up and it finally is starting to feel that we will be living there soon.
Until we meet again,
Cheers,
Jane

Three Fruits and Cordial.

While wandering in the supermarket the other day as I tend to do  while  here on the coast to fill in time while Brian is away at work, I noticed that pears and grapes were reasonably cheap, so decided to add a few pineapples  and can up a canner  load  of 3 fruits.
Firstly I top and tailed the pineapples and sliced them into rings, then peeled them( I decided about this time to reserve the peelings to attempt to make cordial/syrup) I then diced the pineapple after removing the cores.

Next I  pulled all the grapes off the bunches and set aside then peeled and quartered the pears and soaked in water with a good squeeze of lemon juice to keep them white , I later diced them.

I then added the fruit altogether into a big pot and mixed together.

I then filled all my jars with the mixed fruit,topped them  up with extra light syrup, released air bubbles with a plastic chopstick,adjusted the syrup levels, and wiped the rims with a paper towel soaked in white vinegar. I then placed on my lids that I had heated to simmer point,turned off and let sit in the hot water until ready, and screwed the bands on finger tight.

Next I placed all the jars into my electric water bath canner, Mine is the Fowlers Vacola type  (it holds 14 pint jars), covered them with water by an inch or two, and brought it up to boil point,which I maintained for 20 minutes. After the allotted time, I turned off the  canner,removed the lid and let the jars sit a further 5 minutes in the water before removing them onto a towel covered bench out of the draught.

While the 3 fruits were processing, I got on with making the cordial/Syrup. I had never made this before so I looked up a recipe that was on a Blog by Sally Wise for Pineapple cordial and adapted it slightly.I really had to double it all as I had  quite a bit of peelings ect.
Firstly I roughly chopped up the pineapple peels( smaller than in the photo below, as this didn't chop  the 1st time) ,cores and tops and tails along with the pear cores and peelings and placed them in a food processor and  processed until  fairly fine.

I then added this into a pot with about 4 cups of water, brought to the boil and simmered for about 15 minutes.
After this, I then strained it through a colander pressing down firm on the pulp to extract as much liquid as possible.,The pulp  is discarded.

I  Then poured  the   resulting liquid back through a much finer sieve. I then measured this liquid out and for every cup of liquid there was I added 1 cup of white sugar. I then placed this back on the heat and brought it back up to the boil and boiled for a minute or two only.Immediately on removal add the juice and grated rind of a large lemon( 2 for what I did) and 2 tspns of Tartaric acid( I had none and it was late, so I omitted it and added extra lemon juice and stirred  this in. Allow to cool, strain again through a fine sieve and bottle..

I then wiped rims clean and added my new caps for my 500 ml juice/sauce bottles and then placed these along with my remaining six  3 fruit jars that didn't fit in the first load,covered with water  and processed  for 20 minutes again in the electric preserver.. These really only required 10-15 minutes but it did them no harm to stay as long as the 3 fruits needed.
After the allotted time I observed the same routine as before and allowed the jars and Bottles to cool on the  bench.

The final product looks great and I have tasted it and is lovely. It is recommended to be mixed 1 part cordial/syrup to 4 parts water, soda water or sparkling mineral water, which is what I used. I will certainly use my peelings and other bits for this again. The amount of sugar is high, but if used in moderation I see no problem.

There was a fair quantity of pineapple and pear pulp   after I had strained the liquid off so I decided  that I would put it into the worm farms  so that they could have a treat and that nothing would really be going to waste., I'm sure they are enjoying it at this very moment.

The 3 fruit combination is something that I have canned a few times before, always popular and doesn't last very long in the pantry, and it is something that I will probably make over and over again. The cordial/syrup I will make again, but it will vary  according to what I am canning at the time as to what flavours I will do.
So until we meet up again,
take care everyone
Cheers,
Jane.