Rendering Lard

Rendering lard may sound a bit scary, but it is actually quite a simple process.  The steps consist of:

1. Melt
2. Strain
3. Store

Here are some photos throughout the process.

Step 1: Melt

I started off with 3 frozen 4-5lb packages of ground Crooked Gap Farm lard. Start the heat low (mine was 1-2 on our electric stove) until you get a nice puddle of melted lard.  Once you get a nice puddle, you can turn the heat up a bit (I went from 3-5). Stir occasionally, taking care to scrape the bottom.  If your lard starts bubbling, you might want to turn it down.  This will keep the meat bits from scorching on the bottom.  I also like to use a heavy pan, in these pictures - my pressure canner pan, to keep the lard from scorching.  The bits of meat in the lard will start to float.  Once they sink again, your lard is ready to strain!

8:55 am :: Starting to melt frozen lard.

9:50 am ::  Lard is melting nicely. I can turn up the heat a little since there is a good amount of melted lard.

11:14 am :: Lard "bricks" are gone.  Bits of meat are floating.  (You can actually start straining lard at this point if you like - the first few batches will be your whitest lard.)

3:05 pm ::  Came in from chores to find bits of meat had sunk to the bottom.  Done!

Step 2: Strain

I recently discovered how helpful it is to use two strainers when straining the lard.  The bottom strainer has a layer of cheesecloth (found in the Walmart Craft department for making ghosts and things).  The cheesecloth will strain out the tiniest bits of meat and allow the liquid to drip through. The top strainer catches the larger bits of meat and keeps the cheesecloth less clogged up.  The bits of meat caught in the top strainer can be returned to the pan to melt down further and further until you get cracklings, if you like them. (Hopefully I'll get pictures of the crackling process sometime.) You can either strain your lard into the container you want to store it in, another pan to keep it warm before filling smaller containers, or straight into smaller containers - which I'm not so talented in doing.

Strainer 1 set up with cheesecloth over container.

 

Strainer 2 set inside strainer 1 to catch meat and help keep cheesecloth clean. 

Step 3: Store

After you have strained your lard and filled your sterilized containers, you need to set it aside and allow it to cool.  This can take a day or more to completely finish depending on the temperature and size of container.  You can either let your lard cool at room temperature or put it right into the freezer to get a more even consistency.  Lard will keep best if the final product is stored in the freezer, but it can also be kept in the fridge, root cellar, or on the counter if kept sealed.

After your lard has been strained into a container of your choice.  I used this large bucket since I have a project up my sleeves!  While your lard is still warm, it will have a deep amber color.  Just set it aside now to cool.

 

 Once  your lard has fully cooled, it will be a beautiful white color.

One of my favorite ways to store lard is in quart jars - ready to pull out and use for my cooking.  The lids will self seal as the lard cools.

  
Using your Lard
You may notice that your lard is quite soft and might almost be runny at room temperature - this is a good thing!  It shows the high quality of your lard - unlike the lard that has been hydrogenated at the grocery store. In order to make your lard easier to work with, you may want to put it in the fridge or freezer a bit before using it, especially if cutting it into pastries.


More Info
For more info on the home rendered lard and its health benefits, see the following sites:

• The Unbearable Lightness of Lard: http://hardscrabbletimes.com/2008/08/29/the-unbearable-lightness-of-lard/
• Praise the Lard: http://www.pri.org/health/praise-the-lard1453.html
• What's "The good lard" http://www.pri.org/stories/health/praise-the-lard1453.html

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2011 Farm Crawl

If you haven't been following our farm on Facebook, you might be wondering if we are still around. Well, we are - we are just completely caught up in farm life!   Ethan is still working 40 hours in town, I'm still homeschooling and taking care of our 4 kids, and we are still trying to keep the farm moving ahead.  We have been slowly making progress here as we continue to expand not only our farm, but also our markets, as we have started selling at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market on Saturdays.  Needless to say, our days are full!!

We've had many people who have wanted to come get a little tour of our place over the last couple of years, and we hope to be able to do this more at some point when Ethan moves more of his time to on the farm.  For those of you itching to get a glimpse, however, we would like to extend an invitation to come on out this Sunday, October 2nd for the 2011 Farm Crawl.

We are blessed to have a great group of like minded farmers for neighbors, and we have been blessed to be welcomed to their tour of farms, know as the Farm Crawl.  So, if you are able, come on over and say "Hi" - and let us know you read our blog too!

You can find directions and more info at www.farmcrawl.com, but here's an excerpt from the website.

Farm Crawl 2011

Eight independent family farm operations, all within an easy drive of each other in south-central Iowa, are jointly hosting open houses. Enjoy a leisurely autumn day “crawling” from farm to farm (Okay, you don't actually crawl, you drive yourself between farms). 

Come visit south Marion County/north Lucas County (one hour south of Des Moines) to see each of our individual operations.   Tour the farms, visit the animals, meet the farmers, sample the goodies, purchase locally grown & produced products,  and have lots of fun in the beautiful Iowa countryside!  Visit special guest vendors at some of the farms.   FREE admission onto all of the farms (there is a charge to enter the corn-maze at Dan-D Farm).

NO PETS - for the safety of our farm animals and guests, please leave your animals at home.

The eight farms include: Blue Gate Farm, Coyote Run Farm, Dan-D Farms, Pierce’s Pumpkin Patch
Reichert’s Dairy Air, Schneider Orchards, White Breast Pottery and Weaving and new this year: Crooked Gap Farm.

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Shed Fire!

This morning, while it was still fairly dark, I woke up as it started to rain.  While I was semi-dozing off, I heard what sounded to be the rumble of a train.  With all of the tornadoes recently, I started looking out the window to see what the sky was like.  Ethan asked what I was doing, and I told him it sounded like a train.  He said, "Yup, it does." (We can hear a train from our house if the wind is right.)

I then thought I heard an animal in distress, so I thought maybe one of our cows was having a calf.  I sat up and peeked out the window again.  This time I noticed a warm yellow glow coming from the shed where our lambs and ewes are presently at.  This warm yellow glow was flickering and flashing.  And I continued to hear a rumble.  I immediately exclaimed, "The shed is on fire!!"

Ethan looked out the window, jumped out of bed, and ran towards the mudroom. I followed right behind. 

We both threw on our mud boots and ran outside into the rain in our pj's, Ethan towards the hydrant and I towards the end of the hose, which was by the shed.

I then stopped.

I looked at the flashing, dancing yellow glow reflecting off of the white inside of the shed's siding.

There was no use of turning on the faucet.

It was just the hood of a work light left on blowing in the wind, erratically casting its glow on the shed walls.

And a train in the distance.

And no new calf.

So we went back to bed, I told my husband sorry I am a dork, and I managed to fall asleep again only to dream of barn fires.  I must say, we have way cooler barns in my dreams.

And the Winner of the Great Egg Hunt is . . .

 . . . a pair of banties.

I thought I have done a pretty good job of finding stolen nests, but I noticed that there were 2 banty hens that disappeared around the same time.  I thought it was possible that they had been picked off by some predator, but I was also wondering if they might not show up before too long since they had tried to steal some nests earlier this spring.

A few days ago, while watering the sheep, one of these hens appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared into nowhere.  I tried to look around to see if I could find her hiding anywhere close by, but I had no luck.

Today I was digging holes for some trees that should be arriving, when I thought I heard something that sounded a bit like a baby chick in the shed.  I looked into the sheep area and saw the little banty hen again.  And I was sure that what I heard was a baby chick.  I followed the sound and came to the boards along the shed wall. 

I know I have checked between the boards and wall before for eggs, but there was the chick.  And a couple of unhatched eggs. I don't know how she got past me, but she did.  Good camo I guess.

Well, the incessant cheeping of the stuck little chick seemed to bring out the other banty hen.  So now there were the two that I had been missing.  I wasn't sure which was the mom.  Maybe both??  Chickens have been known to share nests, especially little tiny ones like these.

The chick is between the walls, one hen on one side, and the second hen outside sticking her beak under

So I set up a pen for the chicks and hens, because being stuck between 2 walls just wouldn't do for the chick. I then proceeded to catch the hen I thought was the mom (who was paying the most attention to the cheeping) and the chick.  I caged them up, got them some water, and then saw the free hen go to check out the nest. Great. Wrong bird?

The little chick and the not much bigger banty hen

At about the exact same time, I started to hear peeping.  The chick I rescued was snug under a momma hen.  This was more peeping!  Coming from the stock trailer.

I went inside of the trailer, but it was quite empty, apart from 3 eggs that were in the usual stolen nest spot.  But the peeping was definitely coming from the trailer.  After a little additional listening, I determined that the peeping was coming from the front storage area of the trailer.  After a bit of fiddling with the door, I got the storage area open.

And a storage area it is!!

After removing buckets and feed bags, I was down to the heavy stuff

I carefully started removing things, including rolled up heavy floor mats, not wanting to crush any chicks or hatching eggs.  Eventually I found them!

Floor mat #1 removed - a fold of floor mat #2

Oh boy!  What a nest!!

The hens, however, were now all jumbled now, and I wasn't sure if the real mom would take this nest again - let alone the other hen.

So I gathered the 3 chicks and the other eggs, which were hatching, and set up another pen.  I gave all but one chick to one hen and the eggs and the youngest looking chick (to keep her on the eggs so she wouldn't fight to get to chicks) to the other.

So now we will wait and see if any more chicks hatch.  Unfortunately, only one of the eggs/chicks that hatched were from a regular sized chicken. The big clutch was all banty eggs - not too exciting to get in your dozen farm fresh eggs, they're quite small.

So as you can see, the banties won.  I'm not sure if I'm going to keep all of them. Banties are wonderful for hatching out clutches of eggs, which I wanted them for.  But I guess they are also wonderful at stealing nests. (Although not so wonderful at picking spots if they want their chicks to survive.)  Maybe with some planning and planting of nests (there are tricks you can do with golf balls . . . but that's a whole other post), I can get these banties to work in our favor hatching out our regular chickens.

At least the chicks are cute. :)

The Great Egg Hunt

Since we just had Easter, I figured this would be an appropriate time to put a post on about my Great Egg Hunt.  It is kind of like an Easter egg hunt each day, although these eggs aren't filled with candy.  I guess I could say they are filled with something even better though - a rich golden yolk bursting with Omega 3's and lots of other nutrients.

Our hens are more then just pastured poultry.  They are what I like to call "Run of the Farm" chickens since they have, well, the run of the farm! (Including my garden and flower bed - but that is a price you have to pay.)  All day long they run where ever they want chasing bugs and searching out the best forages of the day.  Because of this, their eggs are incredible!  But because of this, the eggs are also a little hard to find at times too! Especially in the spring when they want to steal a nest and hatch out chicks. 

These ladies are taking a moment to scratch through our oat straw to find some oats.

 

 

So the Great Egg Hunt begins (or continues each day). Here are some of my stops.

The main nest box.  This is where the not so adventurous hens go.

Another nest box in the shed . . .

A tub in the shed - This has been the longest running stolen nest, although it has cycled through which hen is using it.

I recently found this spot in the corner of the shed, only because of a couple eggs which had rolled out through the bottom and into the grass on the other side.

Ahh, yes.  The manure spreader!  Another popular spot.

The lawn cart will do for some hens.

Two stolen nests together in the livestock trailer which currently houses the pig feed.  These hens are going easy on me.

Ethan found this one last night, right smack on top of a straw bale.

Although a nest box, it is outside attached to our chicken tractor which is not currently in use.  I threw some straw in it though to try and catch the hens who wanted to hide their eggs outside.  Tricked a few!

And this little lady in the dog cage, she will get to keep her eggs.  She is broody and is sitting on a clutch I gave her.  I will keep her shut up inside, safe from predators, (with plenty of food and water of course) until her chicks hatch.

Although not pictured, I was finding them in a hog hut for awhile too.  I'm sure there are a few piles of eggs I haven't found yet also. These chickens are persistent.  They really want to hatch out a clutch so they often will find a new spot to hide their eggs. And so the Great Egg Hunt will continue on!

Lambing Season has Begun!

Ethan and I pulled in with the kids at 10:30 last night from a birthday/Easter get together.  As I unloaded the kids, I heard a sound that didn't quite sound like a baby pig.  (Yesterday morning before church Ethan announced that our sow had farrowed over the night.)  As I listened closer, it sounded more like a lamb.  According to the chart on when we should watch for our lambs to arrive, it was a little early.  (The 21st was the day to start watching.)  Even so, it was close.

I grabbed a flashlight and headed out to the nearby pasture, 2 kids waiting patiently in the van. My suspicions were correct.  A little white wobbly legged lamb!

I quickly headed back to the van, called Ethan who was trailing behind me in the Expedition (We ended up driving to church separately due to the baby pigs that morning.), and took the kids inside to get ready for bed.

When Ethan got home he headed out to the pasture.  I watched his headlamp bob across the pasture and into the shed twice as I got our little 3 month old Jonathan ready for bed.  On one of these trips of his, I also saw that he was carrying a full grown sheep!

I headed outside myself after Jonathan was settled in.  As I peeked into the shed I was not surprised to see the little white lamb and momma, but I was surprised to see lamb number 2!  I didn't see or hear a second lamb when I first got home, and Ethan mentioned it wasn't standing well when he found it so it might have been born shortly after I saw the first.

Our first 2 lambs of the season - and first lambs born on the farm!

Last night was a cold, rainy night. Temps will be down to the 30's this week with highs in the 50's and plenty of rain forecasted.  It's really not your ideal way to start your first season of lambing. but regardless, here we go!

Garden Prep

Last week was a beautiful week weather wise.  It made me think about our garden even more.  We are expanding it this year (We had pigs beside it last year conditioning the soil for expansion), and hopefully we will get it out of the new garden stage and into a more established bed.  We weren't able to get it tilled up in the fall because of a number of reasons, but we have a friend's tiller being tuned up right now to hopefully put to use soon.

Right now I also have my sweet potatoes growing at the kitchen sink's window, a spot in the laundry room ready to go for starting plants with a grow light (although I still need to buy my garden seeds), and I recently brought home sand and mixed my peat/sand mix today for doing cuttings. (I have decided to do greenwood cutting with the blueberries, raspberries, edlerberries, etc,  but I'm planning on trying some hardwood boxwood cuttings this week yet, and maybe some other plants if I find a parent plant - I'll try to get pictures.)

I'd love to hear what you have going on for this season's garden.  If you are still looking to get started this year, you can always start saving milk jugs, making homemade planting pots, or even give a try to starting sweet potatoes if you bring some home soon.