I wish Elk County would----------

[sixdogsmom]

Pam, when my folks were first married, they lived in your neck of the woods. They used to tell about a young couple who would get a flock of turkeys and herd them around the local farms to eat grasshoppers. They had a horse and wagon and of course some dogs to keep the flock together and safe. They spent the summer fattening those birds with all the local hoppers. At the end of the first season they had enough profit to make a down payment on a piece of ground to start themselves a farm. I thought that was pretty ingenous! 

[pam]

Pam, when my folks were first married, they lived in your neck of the woods. They used to tell about a young couple who would get a flock of turkeys and herd them around the local farms to eat grasshoppers. They had a horse and wagon and of course some dogs to keep the flock together and safe. They spent the summer fattening those birds with all the local hoppers. At the end of the first season they had enough profit to make a down payment on a piece of ground to start themselves a farm. I thought that was pretty ingenous! 

That's a good story SDM  Good ol american do-itiveness !

[Tobina+1]

I don't know the processing cost on beef at FT, but our 1/2 pork cost us about $10 more in processing than the hog itself!  Also depends on which type of cuts and special cutting orders you want.  I wanted 1/4 lb hamburger-size sausage patties along with the breakfast patty size and also ground sausage.  I can't remember if they charged me more for that or not.  They do charge a bacon smoking fee.  I hope the bacon is smoked better than last time, though... the last bacon only lasted about 3 months in the freezer and then went bad (very hog-smelling/tasting).  I just don't think they got a long enough smoke on it.  The rest of the pork lasted very well in the freezer, though.  They say that pork shouldn't be kept longer than 6 months, but we ate it almost up to 12 months and it all was fine.

[pam]

Man my grandad used to make the BEST bacon and hams......he cured em himself upstairs, used sugarcure....good stuff maynard

[oldmom]

My dad tried ONCE (thank GOD) to "cure" his own hams - Mom took the syringe AWAY from him!!!!!

[srkruzich]

I haven't had a good ham or bacon slab in years. Grandpa used to do his own and we hung the hams and the bacon over the kitchen sink.  They didn't need refridgeration. 
But the last absolute best ham i have had was in 1992 i think when i got a talmadge farm salt cured ham. Mmmmmmm Slice off
a few slices of ham the night before, soak them in water and next morning fry them up along with biscuits, eggs, and put some pepper, coffee, in the drippings and cook em til their all mixed together and use that red eye gravy over the biscuits.  Then mash up some blackstrap molasses and real buttermilk butter and smear that on biscuits MMMMmmmm

[Wilma]

What is buttermilk butter?

[srkruzich]

What is buttermilk butter?

Uhm you let your milk and cream ferment into buttermilk and then churn it
Once you pull the butter out, you have a lot of good buttermilk and the butter has a buttermilk flavor mMMmmmm

[dnalexander]

Wilma I have to applaud you. You seem to be on a quest for knowledge in many places on the forum. With the vim, vigor, and inquisitiveness of an kid on caffeine.

David

[Wilma]

I never used milk.  I used cream and what was left after the butter was made was buttermilk.  How can you churn buttermilk that already has all the fat out of it, into more butter?  I think we have two definitions of buttermilk here.