Rosie and I where having a conversation about our trials and tribulations on the homestead and we wanted to shatter some ideas people have about how awesome we are.
Rosie and I learn a lot by trial and error, OK mostly by error. While we may give the impression to the unenlightened that we are akin to homesteading gods and we need merely wave our dirt stained hands to cause mead and cider to flow from the rocks and manna to fall from heaven in the form of delicious goat and pig meat. In reality we screw up just about every project attempt. But in doing so we learn what works and what does not work, our success are built on the smoking ruins of our failures. If you are thinking about starting a little homestead or just trying to take more control of your food source I hope you are able to learn from our mistakes and emulate our victories. There is nothing wrong with making a mistake, even a really big one, as long as you are willing to learn from that experience and keep working at the tasks ahead.
Here are some of the lessons we have learned:
1) Goats are bastards, they would rather eat your new trees than all the weeds in the world.
2) Build the fence THEN bring home the animals. Lest the animals smash threw the temporary housing and lay waste Visigoth style to your homestead before you are able to build them a cute little chicken/goat/pig/sheep/duck house.
3) If it may go bad, it WILL go bad. Plan accordingly.
4) You will never know what can or can not grown on your land until you dig a hole and plant the seeds yourself and see what happens.
5) The best lazy garden is made by pigs; they do all the digging, composting, ferilizing, and planting themselves.
6) It is NEVER too late in the season or in life to start a garden.
7) Rack off your home brew at least twice before bottling.
8) Rabbits are jerks and eat your garden but are delicious breaded and fried along side mashed potatoes and collared greens.
9) No matter how abused your trees or shrubs are, with a little care they can be brought back
10) There will ALWAYS be more to do, take a little time out to relax.
There is nothing wrong with making a mistake or doing something badly at first, the only way to never fail is to never try.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Goat meat
Goat meat has recently become somewhat of a staple of our diet here on the homestead and I am frequently asked "What does goat taste like?"
Well goat tastes like ...um.... Goat.
Here we use the highest quality goat meat from organic, free range, happy goats (yes, happy changes the flavor). If you look to the image on the left you can see the meat is a dark red color due to the goats getting exercise outdoors and living as goats should live. The meat is well marbled and quite tender and moist. Goat has a distinct and very pleasant flavor. If I had to describe it I would say that is it like a mild and tender venison. There is a good meaty flavor without the strong "wild" or gamey flavor deer often gets. Also due to the sedate lives our goats live the meat is very tender. Our goats run and play for their exercise and unlike deer, our goats never need to run for their lives and they always have enough to eat.
The goat in this image was used for a Muslim style yellow curry served over rice. Be sad you missed it.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Rural Culture on the Homestead
I wanted to talk a little about the misconception of rural culture and life on our little farm . There is frequently a perception that farm life requires you to be a slack-jawed, hay-chewing, redneck, inbred, quasi-idiot, this is far from the truth. At our homestead culture abounds, there is no country music playing 24-7, there are no velvet paintings, deer antlers and mounted heads do not feature heavily in our house and we have yet to paint a mural of a bald eagle an American flag or a cowboy.
So what do we have? Simple decorations fowling the precepts of feng shui. Books feature heavily in every room, and plants help keep the air calm. At our last slaughter party after the day of work we served tea in the middle eastern fashion alongside home brewed cider and mead and had a discussion on the utopian/dystopian cultures fetured in books such as 1984, Brave New World and Ferinheight 451. Not exactly a beer swilling redneck ho-down.
People will be drawn to the culture that speaks most strongly to them and here we cultivate a culture of respect and intelligence. While we may describe ourselves as "Redneck-geek-hippies" it would be a gross mistake to define ourselves or our people that way. So for those who do not know us well or those who just happen to stumble into our company; Any one can be a modern homesteader, all you really need is respect for yourself, a love for others and a desire to live the best life possible.
Of course a good pair of boots helps too.
So what do we have? Simple decorations fowling the precepts of feng shui. Books feature heavily in every room, and plants help keep the air calm. At our last slaughter party after the day of work we served tea in the middle eastern fashion alongside home brewed cider and mead and had a discussion on the utopian/dystopian cultures fetured in books such as 1984, Brave New World and Ferinheight 451. Not exactly a beer swilling redneck ho-down.
People will be drawn to the culture that speaks most strongly to them and here we cultivate a culture of respect and intelligence. While we may describe ourselves as "Redneck-geek-hippies" it would be a gross mistake to define ourselves or our people that way. So for those who do not know us well or those who just happen to stumble into our company; Any one can be a modern homesteader, all you really need is respect for yourself, a love for others and a desire to live the best life possible.
Of course a good pair of boots helps too.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Goats VS Pigs
The other week we had another slaughter party, this time we slaughtered a goat who had started to become too aggressive with the other animals and with some people as well. We are really getting a pretty good system going for our slaughters and the entire process is becoming quicker and quicker, here is a quick out line:
We bring the animal from the pen and over to the slaughter area. We try and remove any stressful possibility's from the slaughter area as a calm animal is far easier to deal with. The animal is restrained either with alcohol for a pig or by holding the horns for a goat. Then we use a .22 magnum round point blank to the head to drop the animal instantly. Then I use a good sharp knife to slash the throat and allow the blood to drain. If you cut the throat quickly after the killing the animals hear is still beating and the bleeding is very fast. You need to watch out for some postmortem neurological activity (generally expressed by kicking) as the hooves of both pigs and goats can slice you pretty bad. Then we hang the carcass on some hooks and begin to dress and split the body. After than the two halves are brought into the kitchen and we butcher the carcass into cuts of meat.
This last week the entire process from start to freezer took about 2 hours for one good sized goat with three people working.
I wanted to do a little comparison between goats and pigs from the point of view of a modern homesteader.
Lets start with the goats, Goats are herbivorous ruminants (plant eaters who chew their cud) who can and will eat nearly anything that they can get to. If you have a good large pasture of mixed plants a small herd of goats will clear it in just a few days or weeks. The goats will eat everything down to the nub and turn your brambles and bushes into desert. In fact in Africa goats are referred to as "Desert Makers" because they will eat and kill all plant life in the immediate area. Goats will not only eat grasses and bushes but they will chew the bark off of adult trees and kill the trees, if confined in too small a space goats are very destructive. Goats do need a good variety of plants to eat to maintain a healthy diet, most goat breeds will not do well on just grass, they need shrubs, bushes and trees to eat as well. On the plus side goats are not very picky about what they eat so they eat everything. Goats also produce good quality milk, meat and generally produce offspring with no difficulty. Goat hides can produce some very nice leather. Goats are also quite easy to slaughter, producing a nice lean meat.
Pigs are true omnivores, they will eat veg, meat and unlike humans, grasses. Pigs are easy to feed as they will eat nearly anything and much of human history has been fueled by the eating of pork fed off of the cast of food of people. Pigs can be destructive but unlike goats they will not eat everything they will just "play" with it, until it breaks so keep your pigs penned up. Pigs are a little more difficult to slaughter than as goat as a pig has a lot more fat on it than a goat and that fat needs to be rendered down into lard for cooking and/or burning as a fuel. Pigs require less space than a goat and will produce more meat with less food than a goat. Pigs also will get much bigger than any goat and this is something to keep in mind for slaughtering, a big goat may weigh 100lbs where as a big pig can weigh up to 800lbs. I could slaughter a big goat without help if necessary but there is simply no way for one person to process a big pig alone. Pigs also breed faster than goats and this can be very important if you plan on providing all your own food. Pig can give a littler of 10-20 piglets twice a year, where as a goat will kid up to two kids once a year. If you are not careful you can find your self up to your eyeballs in pigs in no time. Pig meat can be well marbled and takes to smoking and brining better than goat meat and thus can be stored longer.
Over all I lean more toward pigs for the modern homesteader, the take more work but they provide a disproportionately larger pay off than a goat. More work but more meat and easier to feed. Pigs can also be raised in much smaller places than goats as pigs to not need to graze to maintain healthy weight. When you look to history (with the exception of Muslim and Jewish cultures) pigs played a bigger roll in the production of food than goats. While the production of milk from a herd of goats can not be minimized you may get better production from a single dairy cow and have less impact on your pasture than a herd of goats.
If you are thinking about a pig or two let me give you a few pointers. If you can choose between a pure bred pig and a mutt go with the mutt every time. Mutts will be cheaper and easier to raise, pure breeds tend to be too inbred and loose some of their health and vitality through poor genetics. Also avoid any pig that is light colored, pigs can get awful sunburns if they have white or pink skin so stick to blacks/browns/reds. Stay away from potbelly pigs, they will get just a big as any other pig and with their short legs they have trouble keeping warm and dry in the winter. This sounds silly but be nice to your pig, feed them by hand when they are little and maybe even sit in the pen with your piglets and read a book every once in a while. Socializing your pigs from a young age will make them more friendly and safer to be around, it will also make slaughter time quicker as the pigs will not be jumpy when your are around and a relaxed pig is easier and quicker to kill. A quick kill is a more professional kill and a more humane kill.
Hope to see some of you at the next slaughter party.
We bring the animal from the pen and over to the slaughter area. We try and remove any stressful possibility's from the slaughter area as a calm animal is far easier to deal with. The animal is restrained either with alcohol for a pig or by holding the horns for a goat. Then we use a .22 magnum round point blank to the head to drop the animal instantly. Then I use a good sharp knife to slash the throat and allow the blood to drain. If you cut the throat quickly after the killing the animals hear is still beating and the bleeding is very fast. You need to watch out for some postmortem neurological activity (generally expressed by kicking) as the hooves of both pigs and goats can slice you pretty bad. Then we hang the carcass on some hooks and begin to dress and split the body. After than the two halves are brought into the kitchen and we butcher the carcass into cuts of meat.
This last week the entire process from start to freezer took about 2 hours for one good sized goat with three people working.
I wanted to do a little comparison between goats and pigs from the point of view of a modern homesteader.
Lets start with the goats, Goats are herbivorous ruminants (plant eaters who chew their cud) who can and will eat nearly anything that they can get to. If you have a good large pasture of mixed plants a small herd of goats will clear it in just a few days or weeks. The goats will eat everything down to the nub and turn your brambles and bushes into desert. In fact in Africa goats are referred to as "Desert Makers" because they will eat and kill all plant life in the immediate area. Goats will not only eat grasses and bushes but they will chew the bark off of adult trees and kill the trees, if confined in too small a space goats are very destructive. Goats do need a good variety of plants to eat to maintain a healthy diet, most goat breeds will not do well on just grass, they need shrubs, bushes and trees to eat as well. On the plus side goats are not very picky about what they eat so they eat everything. Goats also produce good quality milk, meat and generally produce offspring with no difficulty. Goat hides can produce some very nice leather. Goats are also quite easy to slaughter, producing a nice lean meat.
Pigs are true omnivores, they will eat veg, meat and unlike humans, grasses. Pigs are easy to feed as they will eat nearly anything and much of human history has been fueled by the eating of pork fed off of the cast of food of people. Pigs can be destructive but unlike goats they will not eat everything they will just "play" with it, until it breaks so keep your pigs penned up. Pigs are a little more difficult to slaughter than as goat as a pig has a lot more fat on it than a goat and that fat needs to be rendered down into lard for cooking and/or burning as a fuel. Pigs require less space than a goat and will produce more meat with less food than a goat. Pigs also will get much bigger than any goat and this is something to keep in mind for slaughtering, a big goat may weigh 100lbs where as a big pig can weigh up to 800lbs. I could slaughter a big goat without help if necessary but there is simply no way for one person to process a big pig alone. Pigs also breed faster than goats and this can be very important if you plan on providing all your own food. Pig can give a littler of 10-20 piglets twice a year, where as a goat will kid up to two kids once a year. If you are not careful you can find your self up to your eyeballs in pigs in no time. Pig meat can be well marbled and takes to smoking and brining better than goat meat and thus can be stored longer.
Over all I lean more toward pigs for the modern homesteader, the take more work but they provide a disproportionately larger pay off than a goat. More work but more meat and easier to feed. Pigs can also be raised in much smaller places than goats as pigs to not need to graze to maintain healthy weight. When you look to history (with the exception of Muslim and Jewish cultures) pigs played a bigger roll in the production of food than goats. While the production of milk from a herd of goats can not be minimized you may get better production from a single dairy cow and have less impact on your pasture than a herd of goats.
If you are thinking about a pig or two let me give you a few pointers. If you can choose between a pure bred pig and a mutt go with the mutt every time. Mutts will be cheaper and easier to raise, pure breeds tend to be too inbred and loose some of their health and vitality through poor genetics. Also avoid any pig that is light colored, pigs can get awful sunburns if they have white or pink skin so stick to blacks/browns/reds. Stay away from potbelly pigs, they will get just a big as any other pig and with their short legs they have trouble keeping warm and dry in the winter. This sounds silly but be nice to your pig, feed them by hand when they are little and maybe even sit in the pen with your piglets and read a book every once in a while. Socializing your pigs from a young age will make them more friendly and safer to be around, it will also make slaughter time quicker as the pigs will not be jumpy when your are around and a relaxed pig is easier and quicker to kill. A quick kill is a more professional kill and a more humane kill.
Hope to see some of you at the next slaughter party.
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