All set for another year......

[lscha]

We had our annual family hog butchering weekend. Actually we get the hogs cleaned and halved then the guys cut and process the meat into chops, roasts, ribs, side pork, grind and season link and bulk sausage and us girls vacuum pack and label all the meat. We try to process enough for a year per family (4 families). Seasonings for the sausage are Italian, Cajun, Jalapeno, and garlic. Each family decides on and mixes their own seasoned sausage and Dave runs the stuffing operation into casings. It's a fun time as we all taste for seasoning throughout the day and compliment each other's seasonings. LOL! And, of course, we drink to that. The little ones play with sidewalk chalk, baseball, play with the dogs, watch movies and just hang out. It's always a good time and it was started several generations ago. Hope the grand-kids keep the tradition.

[diesel]

We do the same thing but we do it before Christmas. It is a good time and good food for all.

[SPITFIRE]

Very nice! Sausage looks great. Looks like a fun time with kids, friends and family. All the best.Hope the tradition lasts.

[Big John]

Oh Yaaa!! I like that tradition! Only me and the Wife do our processing. I look forward to us doing it, she, not so much.
But she will always help me with anything to do with harvesting, dragging, processing, etc. And she knows something I dont, she can tell when I'm not "right", having a spell or something, before I can!

But, You are not ready for this year yet! You have "not" told what new arrows you want for your prize in the photo contest!!

John

[j.krug]

Sounds like a great time! Great that the whole family comes together for this!

[roly]

I too really like traditions
even more when it involves the whole family.

[one shot scott]

Sounds like a very enjoyable tradition!

[secret]

MMMMMMMMMM , im hungry now!!!!!!

[VixChix]

I wish you were closer... I'd be mooching!

[Normous]

Me too....eNormous appetite for such things.

[wabi]

Looks good!!!!!!!!

Nothing like that terribly unhealthy, high in fat, sodium, and all those other nasty things that will kill you for real taste and eating enjoyment.

(Just read a news article on the fast food selections that are "killers". They even listed a fish sandwich from MacDonald's. - If it tastes good, it's bad for you! )

[lscha]

I'm rendering some leaf lard now. Anybody here like 'cracklins'? I haven't had them since I was a kid in Tennessee. I luv 'em!

[wabi]

I'm rendering some leaf lard now. Anybody here like 'cracklins'? I haven't had them since I was a kid in Tennessee. I luv 'em!

Now you've brought back memories.
In the early 70s I worked at a local grocery store. The meat department processed lard for sale. There was a huge cast iron pot (like you see cannibals using in the cartoons for cooking people) over a gas burner, and a wooden press for squeezing all the grease out of the fat & hide in one room in the basement. Two men who worked in the meat department would spend a day rendering lard about once a month. I can still remember those odors, old Orris & Earnie cranking that press, and the lard running into the buckets from the spout of the press.
And then they would bag up the remains of cooked hide from the press and bag them up for sale - cracklins!

We sold them for dog treats, but I doubt if dogs got to eat many.

I know the store employees munched quite a few of them before they got bagged for sale.
(Another "perk" of working there was that on Saturday night (we were closed Sundays back in those days) we could buy any cut of beef in the display case for hamburger price! It was all freshly cut daily, and by Monday it would have discolored slightly, and was destined to be ground into burger, so on Saturday night we got Monday's price. Used to eat a lot of premium steak cuts in those days. )