How to Make (Shagbark) Hickory Nut Syrup

Use Shagbark Hickory nuts(the whole nut shell and all),  they are larger than your regular Hickory Nut, hard to crack, but worth the effort.   

Wash the nuts: just soak for 30 minutes in water and drain, and rinse again.  You do not have to let them dry. Crush enough nuts to fill your dutch oven about 3/4 full, leave room for water.

Crush the nuts one at a time in a vise. You are going to use the whole nut to make Hickory Nut Milk.

Make Hickory Nut Milk: (Use an old heavy dutch oven the nuts will discolor it). Cover crushed nuts with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Strain the nuts using a fine strainer.  Reserve the liquid (now Hickory Nut Milk) for your syrup. Discard the nuts and shells or freeze for use in your smoker.

Mix Hickory Nut Milk with white granulated sugar or dark brown sugar.  Use 1 cup sugar to 2 cups of Hickory Nut Milk. Bring to a rolling boil on high heat, reduce heat to Medium and continue to cook uncovered for 45 to 50 Minutes.  Remove from heat and put into sterilized canning jar. 

I used 8 cups of Hickory Nut Milk and 4 cups of white granulated sugar.  I ended up with 2 pints of syrup and an additional 12 ounce container. (total yield--44 ounces)

The finished product is dark and flavorful.  This is not hard to do just time consuming. 

Making A Rich Broth

Making a rich broth is easy.  It will work with Beef, Pork, Chicken, Turkey, or even fish.  If you prefer you can just use vegetables and make vegetable broth.

Cook your meat and save the bones.  Freeze them for later and make a large amount of broth or make it right away.  The bones you save are the ones that are left from carving(from cooked or uncooked meat), not the ones someone has nibbled on. 

The best way I have found to make broth, is to bake it overnight in a slow 200 degree oven (at least 12 hours) and the end result is a really rich broth.  Add water, bones, celery, onion, garlic, and carrots or whatever kind of vegetable you prefer, season with salt or not.  Then cool the broth and strain it.  Next refrigerate it, when it is cooled and it will be congealed you will see a layer of fat the has accumulated at the top.  I remove that(just carefully spoon it off) and discard it.  Now you can use the broth immediately or break it down into smaller amounts and freeze.  Use freezer containers, or zip lock freezer bags.  Broth can also be canned.  I keep large quantities of broth in the freezer to use to can meat.  I recently started canning meat, to have on hand in case of power outages.  I did intend to have this done before winter, so far we have not lost power this winter, we have been very fortunate.

Use for soups, stews, pasta, gravies, there are several uses for this.  It is handy and flavorful.

Spring is Closer Than We Think

Get your seed orders ready now if they aren't done already.  Make a list or diagram of how you intend to lay out your garden.  Remember to rotate all your vegetables, not the same thing planted in the same spot.  It may work for farmers that no till corn year after year (with a huge expense) but it does not work for the home gardener.  Planting the same thing in the same spot year after year just breeds problems.

If you have seed left over and you are unsure it is still good, do a small test on it. Use wet paper towels, and place seed between layers to see if it will germinate.  Count the seeds that do germinate (after time needed for each seed), if you end up with 90 Per Cent germinated,  it should be OK to plant it under normal growing conditions. 

Start watching for all the items you may still need to plant and tend your garden to go on sale if you have not already done so.

In our area now is the time to start Plants for spring transplant.  I still need to get this done.  This year I will only be starting Tomato and Pepper Plants.  Then when time to harden off I will have to fight with raccoons.  They can be a pest but they are so cute. 

We do have an Ice Storm coming in Thursday night,  cross your fingers this will be the last one.

Surviving on a Budget

Living on a budget, fixed income, or just trying to save money, there are still ways to do this.  With gas prices all over the board right now and there seems to be no end in sight it will affect everyones bottom line.  You just have to be diligent on how you spend money.  No matter how you try to budget weekly or monthly there is something always coming up. 

We have a garden, and I do can and freeze everything possible from it.  If this is not an option, there are still ways to build a stock pile of food with out breaking your budget.

Don't shop stock up.   Always comb through all the sale fliers and available coupons.   Make detailed lists, know a stores coupon policies and price matching.

Coupon deals in our area are hard to utilize and not what you see on TV big coupon saving shows.  Buy several of the items at a time of things that are on special.  Use coupons where you can.  Price match at stores that allow it and in a few months you will have a nice stock pile.  A nice storage area is not necessary.  Utilize every bit of spare room you have.  Keep it organized and rotate items by expiration dates.  Only buy what you know you will eat or utilize.

In the fall around Thanksgiving and Christmas stores have good deals on canned food, also baking needs. Start paying attention to sale trends each and every month in your area and you soon have an understanding of the best deals.  Bulk buy as much as you can, in the long run it does pay off.  In short know your needs, buy and stock up as cheaply as possible.  Avoid paying full retail price for everything  possible.  After a few months you will have what I refer to as a cushion and if you can't get to a store or need to cut back on your spending you will have our own area to shop in that has already been paid for.

Stick to your shopping plan, have a detailed list, avoid impulse buying, and do not grocery ship when you are tired or hungry. 

How I Cook Beef Tongue

This is probably not the way a chef would cook beef tongue, but this is how I cooked it.
 
1. Soak tongue in water for and hour, drain off water and rinse well, drain off water again.

2. Get out the crock pot, add the tongue, celery, onion, carrots, salt, and water to cover tongue.

3. Set temperature on low and cook all night.

fully cooked



outer membrane removed from tongue



4. Remove the outer membrane and discard it, shred the meat and made barbecue, .  It tastes like a beef roast,  it just has a different texture. 

Canning Pork Tenderloin

I have wanted to can meat for some time.  I had just purchased 2 on sale and we had a large supply of tenderized sliced tenderloin in the freezer plus 2 whole ones frozen to make Canadian Bacon, out of.   I did can it two different ways and took the fat and rendered it into lard. 

The first way I canned it was what my canning book called hot pack.  After cutting it in cubes about 2 to 3 inches square, I heated it in a broth that I had frozen from a pork roast.  I did not cook it completely.  I had preheated the broth to a boil and added the meat.  I just stirred it for about 10 to 15 minutes then spooned it and the broth into hot sterilized pint jars (leave 1 inch head space) add 1/4 tsp of caning salt (to each pint jar) sealed it and processed it in my pressure canner for 75 minutes.

The second way I canned it was the cold process method.  Fill sterilized jars with raw cubed tenderloin (leave 1 inch of head space) add 1/2 tsp canning salt to each pint jar (Do Not Add Water To  Jars), seal and processed 75 minutes in my pressure canner. 




Hot Pack Method Finished Product

Cold Pack Method Finished Product

We have tried the tenderloin from each method and they are both good.  I am going to try canning beef next.  It is nice to have the meat ready for quick meals especially in the summer when it is hot and everyone is so busy.  Even in the cold winter months when you forget to thaw something or plan a meal it is already cooked. I always have frozen entrees in the freezer now I can go to the canning shelf also.


The 2 tenderloin I purchased were boneless and weighed approximately 9 to 10 pounds each.  I ended up with 20 pints of canned meat and approximately 22 ounces of rendered lard. 

February is great time for Butchering Hogs

We have been busy here, baby sitting, trying to recover from reactions to the flu shot.  No more for us.  I would rather have the flu.  We are functioning do something constructive one day and exhausted the next. 

We did spend the weekend at a friends butchering 2 hogs.  He has all the toys to do it.  A walk in cooler, saws, grinder, tenderizer, all the wrapping items.  They had been hung to cool for two days so Saturday we cut and wrapped and Sunday we made sausage.  Doing this is not hard physical labor, and the end product is worth it. 

He had just processed 4 hogs the weekend before, so he has been super busy.  We are just grateful we have a friend like him.  This time I came out of the endeavor without any knife cuts. 

I have been busy all month cooking and freezing meals ahead.  Our family has been hit hard by the illnesses this year and pre-made meals were getting low in the freezer.  We have had everything from scarlet fever, flu, and one broken arm.  So it is time to restock. 

I am trying to reorganize here and get ready for gardening season.  There are days I think spring is too far away and then we will get a warm beautiful day.  At least we are closer to spring now than we were in November. 

How to Render Lard in a Crock Pot

I bought 2 pork loins this past week on sale of course.  Well I did not need them for the freezer so I canned them.  I will give details on the canning in my next post.

After trimming fat from both of the loins as close as possible, being careful to leave the meat on the roast,  I ended up with a large amount of fat to dispose of.  I always wanted to try and render lard from the fat.

 I put all of it in my crock pot(do not add water) and cooked it over night on low (8 hours).  The next day I cooked it on high for 6 hours.  Strained it and cooled it until I could pour it in a freezer container.  I ended up with about 22 ounces of rendered white lard. 

You will be able to tell (from the pictures) there was some meat scraps attached to the fat and it was just fine.  My memories from the butchering we did on the farm there were meat scraps in the fat before rendering.  The fat was always rendered on an open fire in a black kettle. 

For the small amount I made the crock pot works just fine.

Low Tech Geo Thermal Heating and Cooling for Above Ground Cattle Water Tank

Sounds like a very technical and complicated process.  It is not.  It is a very simple process after you understand how to do it.  When my husband first brought it up, I was very skeptical and thought here we go again.  He doesn't question my hair brained ideas and projects so I support his unconditionally. When he had every thing set up I put on my work boots and grabbed by work gloves. Of course it helps if the neighbor has a back hoe and is as curious as I was to see what he had planned.  This project was done October 27, 2012, not in February.

He had organized all his supplies, 2--7 foot long  x 18 inch diameter plastic heavy duty drain tiles,  2 wooden frames to hold the tiles in place (in the hole while back filling), a piece of 2 inch rigid foam insulation that he cut a little larger than the bottom of the tank, shovels, rakes, the neighbor with his back hoe.  And of course me, my camera, and our dog.

The stock tank had already been emptied and cleaned, and he had portable gates to set up to keep the cows, calves, and bull out of the way.  They are nosey, and want to be right in the middle of everything.  Wild they are not.

After digging a a hole 7 foot deep and wide enough for both the tiles and frame we were ready.  The tiles with the frame at the top and bottom already attached (the frames were built for a tight fit) were lifted by the bucket on the back hoe with a chain of course and lowered into the hole.   After making sure everything was level and centered back filling was done.  Next the 2 inch foam insulation.   He cut holes in the insulation so the it fitted around the tiles .  It was explained to me that the natural heat from the ground would keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  The tank was replaced and filled with water. 

We have had a lot of extreme weather here so far and it does work until we hit about 20 degrees.  It is an improvement for him in the winter considering we do not have stock tank heaters (no electricity at the farm).  My husband said he is still breaking ice but it is not as thick as before.  I am hoping it will keep the water cool in the summer, I know I don't like to drink plain hot water. 

As you can see from the pictures our calves liked the freshly dug dirt.  Play time.