For those that walked thru the meat markets in the 50’s every morning the butcher would add a little magic power to the ground beef and pork ( cure#1) … Mixed it up. Ground meat looked great. Bright red every time. Happy Dance.
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Jonathon s request, please list your drink of choice. I’ll start, I love bourbon and Coors Light or a good old Coors yellow belly. My bourbons of choice are Elijah Craig, Bulliet, Maker’s Mark, Jim Beam Black and W.L. Wellers. Now if I just want to pound down some drinks a good 7&7 can’t be beat.
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Well I’m sure we have a lot of people on this site who have their own gardens, and do home canning so lets see your pictures and please share you recipes. I have 90 percent of my garden in, I grow tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, green beans, watermelon and carrots. I’ll post some pictures later this week, not much to see right now.
I can/make pickles and salsa and also make cowbiy candy, also known as candied jalapenos.
Joe Hell calldoctoday @Team-Blue @Team-Orange PapaSop garden nut -
Did my green beans and got 8 pints off first picking. Finally got a pressure cannb.jpg er that works on wife’s induction. Only bought a 10qt. it hold 4 pints at time. Has a nice heavy stainless steel bottom. A must for induction. Wife wanted the smaller size for other things to just cook . It’s lite enough for her to handle. I don’t pressure to many things anyway.
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I’m going to go out on a limb and assume many of you are like-minded to myself in that you not only find enjoyment in meat processing as a hobby but also the connection to a sense of self-reliance that the skills we’ve developed and equipment we have obtained brings to us and our families. It’s a good feeling to know that you are working toward a life that is less reliant on other people, services and the status quo of modern day living.
Some may call it prepping, I wouldn’t consider myself a prepper….but I’m not living in an ignorant bliss of unawareness either. You may call it self-reliance or homesteading. Whatever you call it and wherever you land on the spectrum, I wanted to share with you what I’ve been working toward for my family and friend circle and am looking for others to share their ideas and methods if there is interest.
In the last year, my family has moved from a town of 200, previously had lived in a town of 7K-ish to a 12 acre piece of land of our own. It’s mixed vegetation of grassland and wood lot about 50/50. There is a spring fed pond and our place is at the dead-end of a dirt road. We got lucky, really lucky. A PA owned the place with plans that fell through but that’s another story in itself.
House was a mess and a lot of work to get it to where it is today, with more to go. Anyway I like the idea of working toward self-reliance. We keep a well stocked pantry, we harvest game, we buy family beef and have plenty for each year. I have a well and septic system and most appliances are electric with a few propane exceptions. Working toward adding a fireplace and wood burning stove. Solar is on my mind as well. Maybe not full capability but a supplemental system that could run a select few circuits would be nice if a fully sized system was too expensive. This spring I got a few ducks that we collect eggs from daily, the pond has some panfish and carp in it so far that I’ve caught. There is an abundance of wildlife and foraging resources (several mushroom species, sandhill plumb, prickly pair fruit. We broke ground for a garden but I think it is too shaded. It has not done very well. Planning on changes there.
I’d like to add a small orchard with some
Apple trees, a grape vine or two, black berries, blueberries and the wife wants a peach tree even though winters are hard on peaches here.I have an un insulated shop next to the house as well and have been hitting up auctions to fill it will items that help me to be more self-reliant. An old welder, drill press, chop saw and some carpentry tools are where I’ve started. We have an ATV that we inherited. In the shop I am planning to partition off a corner and insulate it and finish it out. It will be my home processing plant/hobby kitchen. I hope to start that this fall when I finish an ongoing bathroom remodel that I’m working on for my wife.
I love to travel as well and want to work toward a lifestyle that allows for more travel experiences with my growing family. My wife and I are very much in the working class, I hope we are able to inspire others who are wanting to build a similar path.
I’d like this thread to serve as a resource to share what we’ve implemented/experienced and learned along the way for those who may be working toward or who may have achieved a higher level of self reliance.
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Winter onions coming in ready to eat. Then tomatoes are already making and blooming. Comparing to last year we got washed out and flooded garden killing over halve of it. Going to have some nice extra’s for meals this year looks like. Tx heat is starting to get here, be in the high 80’s and 90 from now on. The small okra plants will grow fast now. Hope ya’ll have good luck to. -
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Update. Got to full 1 gal. zip locks of green been yesterday, plus some extra’s
This last couple days were in record heat, 95ish and looks like more to come.
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We recorded a podcast on the way up but the internet is so bad up here we are struggling to get it from us to PatrickB to let him process it. So it may, or may not be available tomorrow.
It is freaking gorgeous here!!
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A while ago Austin and I were talking about NDSU having an extension program online, well here is the 1st one. The 2nd is tonight, it is a lot of information, maybe they will break it up a little in the future, if not then buckle in and learn all you can!
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What is it going to take to get you people off the sidelines and in the game?! (Joker from Dark KNight, I think?) Seriously, if you read posts here and don’t either create an account or log in let us know the reason. See what I did there? You have to create an account to respond!
The traffic stats for Meatgistics are showing that the vast, vast majority of people are just lurking and reading.
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I was on Ebay looking for a gift for my wife. She collects certain Christmas decorations that are not made anymore. I found one from a seller that also had this book/pamphlet
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So I picked it up for myself as a historical piece of meat processing Americana. I have include a few shots of some pages. All in all it is more a advertisement for the old E.H. Wright company when they were in Kansas City, MO. Published in 1935
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If any of you know the history of the Wright company, it was originally know for it’s liquid smoke and started in 1895. The company/name has been sold several times and the name is now owned by a large food production company. -
Well I searched sourdough starter and came up empty handed so thought I’d get a thread started. I’m on day three of making my first sourdough starter ever. I was wondering if any of you here are into baking with sourdough starter?
I decided to make my own when I was reading the label on the bread we buy. Even whole-grain loafs, which you think would be comprised of just a few simple ingredients, have all sorts of additives. It will take 4 weeks before the started can be used, other than in flat breads and non-leavened baked goods. I’m excited to make our own bread and buns using these naturally occurring yeast and bacteria that we are culturing. My plan is to start making a loaf or two a week and hamburger/hotdog buns as we need them. It seems like I’m always having to find creative ideas to use up the two buns in the package that never get used. As many of you know, I also seem to consume a lot of carbs, so I may as well keep that consumption do four simple ingredients…flour, water, starter, salt.
I had some king arthur bread flower on hand (non-enriched, non bleached). So that is what i’m feeding the starter with to start, until I run out. I’ll probably switch to a whole grain, unbleached flour at that point. So far the process has been pretty simple to get going.
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Hey guys, Austin and I have reviewed the V 2.0 of NodeBB hosting platform and will be upgrading to this. It will be a “bit” of a jump for us as we will be skipping several versions BUT this is what we are running the .dev site on and we are not having any issues with it. I am going to be doing it here in a bit, so if you have any issues please be a bit patient. If you see anything that is acting funny and you think we aren’t aware either post here or on the report an issue section.
Thanks guys!
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Austin and I have been talking for a long time about something that is coming that we didn’t want to confirm but I think we did it on a somewhat recent podcast or live stream we did say it was a Dual Grinding Head attachment for our Grinders, well we have ordered them and are accepting pre-orders for them. We are calling it the Walton’s One Shot Grinder Head and it works with our |#12, #22 and #32 grinders. I have to say when they sent us this initially I wasn’t enthused because I had tried one of these in the past and didn’t like how it worked. Well, I don’t know what has changed but this thing is amazing, I have gone from 30+ lb full muscle to 1/8th grind in about 7 minutes, which is blazing fast. Less time spent grinding is less time your meat has to be out of the cooler and cooler is better!The #12 handled the meat without any issues BUT the 22 worked better than the 12 and the 32 worked better than both. The head is one size fits all so you are getting the higher power motor of your grinder powering the smaller head size and it just pumps it out like crazy. We will have some cool videos coming out on this soon. The image is obviously a graphical representation we used for the label of the box but we will have real images coming soon!
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We are going live tomorrow and guess what? March’s winner never claimed, so we will have a giveaway for that during the livestream, we MIGHT introduce you to someone new & the biggest news of all, I am planning on wagering my Dal Strong Obliterator against Austin in a match of butchering skills!
Tomorrow at 3 pm CST at waltons.com/live come on an join us!
Also, finally got sales and giveaway up at /sales and /win, so go enjoy!
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My butcher gave me guidance on slicing jerky at a 45 degree angle across the grain for best jerky. I decided to make myself a guide for consistent cutting. Measured the size I wanted, made a mold from scrap wood, melted some HDPE plastic (it has the #2 recycle guide) in a loaf pan at 400 degrees in the oven (don’t line with parchment paper). Drilled 2 holes in back of mold and put in 2 large headed nails. The nails are hit on the back side to knock out the mold Ed plastic. Put the melted plastic into the mold and covered with the wooden door and put on 2 clamps. Left for a couple hours to cool. Two small screws in door to pull it off once cool. Hammered the nails in the back and knocked out my rough block. Sanded off the edges and used a lighter to get rid of any plastic ‘hairs. Voila! Used the guide yesterday and worked great.
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Have any of you guys from ND, SD, MN, WI, maybe IA that have German heritage ever heard of this or eaten it? It is very similar to goetta from what I am reading. I grew up eating this for breakfast at my Grandparents house. It was a common food among German immigrant farming families. It was traditionally made from the pig head meat but also a lot from pork butt. It is a cooked down mixture of ground pork meat with the fat, steel cut oats, spices, and my Grandma always put dark raisins in it (which was a northern Germany thing from what I have read). It is then fried in a bit of oil and topped with maple syrup or karo syrup. It is sooo good. I haven’t had it in 20 years but I am going to remedy that. My Dad got his Grandmother’s recipe from his great aunt!
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I have some trouble making jerky I have a lem 5 tray dehydrator I put jerky in with a recipe I have had for years I don’t use cure salt or pink salt as it is called because I don’t like real salty jerky put it molds when I take it out even in the fridge I leave it in for 6 hours at 155 it feels dry when I get it out but must be it isn’t any suggestion would be appreciated oh and it is sliced 1/4 inch
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Okay, so it has been a minute (or 5) since we did this! So, new Hat members are Jamieson22 and @DennyO-s so look for an email from me on that
For boards it is mrobisr and I think only him, no one else seemed to pass the 1000 mark who hadn’t already gotten one
We FINALLY have knives back in stock, I sent them a full dozen which will take care of the backlog and the new people!
For Knives, it is ND Mike YooperDog bocephus cdavis GWG8541 processhead
For shirts, it is processhead GWG8541 bocephus cdavis calldoctoday So look for an email from me on sizes!Okay, so this is important, the sheet wasn’t maintained properly for the past few months so there is a little confusion, if someone does not see themselves on one of these lists and should be, please respond to this post.
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