Fair Weather Farmer?

I am often asked what I do on bad weather days, well the answer is the same as I do on good weather days, there are some jobs on the farm that have to be done regardless of rain, snow, hail and heat waves.  In fact, extremes of weather can cause more work. For example, if the weather is really bad my goats have to stay in the grange (they hate getting wet), if this is the case then I have to cart hay down to the grange for them to eat and I have to ensure they have access to fresh water, which means carrying buckets of it from the stream.  My usual routine in the winter is to go down to the grange in the morning and let the goats out and then tether a couple of them where I want them to eat the brambles. I then go and check on the sheep, again in snowy weather they need hay too and I can't carry enough hay down for both sets of animals, so it means two hikes up and down the hill.  Once I have sorted out the sheep and the goats I then hike back up the hill, collect the pig food and go and feed them, again ensuring they have fresh water.  In the evening I do the whole routine again, this time un-tethering the goats and putting them back in the grange.  The whole routine takes between one and one-and-a-half hours because of the distance between the animal enclosures.  Our lower grange is only accessible on foot. I could drive up to the pig pen but I would only do that in very bad weather, because of the condition of our track it is usually easier to walk up even in bad weather.

On a good weather day, I will often continue with outside work such as moving the sheep fencing, clearing remains of bramble thickets that the goats have already eaten so that new grass will grow there and this will then become pasture.  I will clean out the animal housing, clip hooves, carry out routine medical treatments, erect new fencing or shelters, move the animals to new pasture, dig my vegetable patches...the list is endless!

When the weather is so bad that I can't do any of the usual outside jobs I can usually be found in the house making large batches of soup which I pressure can for the store cupboard, or I will bake bread, cake and biscuits.  I will often write my blog when the weather is not so good. 

Summer brings different weather related problems, it gets too hot to do a lot of really physical jobs, so I try to get up early and do a couple of hours work before the sun gets too high in the sky.  The animals also drink a lot more water when it is hot so I have to cart large amounts of water about the place.

Extremes of weather are also the times when animals are more likely to become ill and need extra care. In the summer there is an increase in ticks, flies and other parasites that cause animals to become ill and if not treated quickly die.  In wet, humid weather there is a danger from liver fluke, our animals are very prone to this because our land is marshy in some areas. Pigs have to have shelter from the sun as they can become dehydrated very quickly.  Our goats with white hair often need sun cream on their ears otherwise they get sun burnt.  I have to be very vigilant in extreme weather conditions and watch my animals carefully for any signs of illness.

Since starting the farm I have become almost obsessive about the weather forecast, planning is done on a weekly basis based on the forecast, my plans often have to change at the last minute if the weather isn't quite what I was expecting.  Some times when we have bad weather for more than a day or two I do get a bit frustrated because I can't get on with things that need to be done, but on the plus side it means I get a bit of a rest, a chance to recharge my batteries.

Certainly life is never dull on the farm, I can never say I am bored and I enjoy the challenge of never knowing what is going to happen next. I also get a great sense of achievement when I have accomplished something I have been planning for a while, often having to wait for just the right weather or season to be able to complete it.

I would advise anyone that is feeling a bit fed-up or depressed to get out on a farm or do something physical such as going for a walk on a regular basis, try to walk in the countryside where you can appreciate nature.  Before I had the farm I would try to take regular exercise, the only problem was when the weather was bad I wouldn't bother going out, now because I have the animals I have to go out and I find I don't mind at all.

Jambonade

Having taken two of our pigs to the abattoir and being told that they wouldn't butcher them, our pigs were about 20 kilos live weight, this size is usually left whole for spit roast. So I had a baptism of fire trying to learn how to butcher a pig whilst actually doing the butchering. It is said that one of the best ways to learn is hands-on, our brains remember more of a process if we carry the process out rather than reading about it or watching a video. I would have been lost without the Internet, I used You Tube videos to learn how to do the butchering. I have a couple of books with quiet a lot of detail but watching a video of it is much more useful. I was very nervous when i went to collect the carcasses, I was worried that I would take one look at them and be sick. I am very squeamish generally and just did not know how I would react. As the door of the cold store opened and I saw my two pigs hanging there, I felt a wave of emotions; sadness, pride, fear...they didn't look like my pigs anymore, they had been transformed into meat, no different then in a butchers shop. The guy handed me a bag of offal, I didn't look at it, just placed it in the car. I realised that the carcasses were still whole and I had asked for them to be cut in half, so I asked the butcher to do this, I didn't watch as he cut each in two ( a bit silly considering I was going to be cutting them up further in less than an hour!). I placed the halved carcasses in the back of the car on clean towels and off I set. I was very glad that I hadn't been asked if I wanted the blood, although I had watched a video on making black pudding, I don't think I could have done it. It was very strange driving past the pig pens with the two carcasses in the back of the car. Once I arrive home I went back to the butchering video, the only way I would be able to do the butchering was by watching and then pausing the video at each stage. The first thing I had to do was cut off the heads which had been left attached to one side of the bodies. Of the whole butchering process this was almost the worst bit, and it had to be done first. I turned the carcass so the face was away from me and I cut through at the neck, I was surprised at how easy it was to cut through, worst bit over. After that it was a matter of cutting the back legs off to make hams, these I hung up whilst I continued to work on the carcass. Next I cut off the front legs at the shoulder. I was learning from two different videos, one English, the other American, as I had two pigs to work on I decided to do one in the American style and the other in the English style. The American way seemed less complicated, but this could be because the video was more detailed or because this style suited the size of my pigs better. Once the back and front legs had been removed I was left with the torso, this was divided into chops, ribs and roasts. The next stage was to salt the hams, I did two dry salted and one in brine (the other was going to a friend in return for the loan of the butchering equipment). Dry salting involved rubbing salt all over the ham and into every crevise. I then lined a large plastic box with a 2 cms layer of salt, put the ham on top of this and then poured salt into the box to completely cover the ham, ensuring there was at least 2 cms of salt between the ham and the box sides and top. On top of this I placed a heavy oven dish which I then placed a weight into and then the lid of the box. You cannot use metal when doing this as the salt would corrode it. The boxed hams were placed in a cold room. I was using the Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall meat book for the instructions, which state that hams must be left in the salt for 3 days per kilo. The method for ham in brine involves desolving salt in hot water, letting it cool and then placing the ham in the brine solution. The ham has to be weighted to ensure it is completely submerged in the brine, again I used a new plastic box with lid and placed a casserole dish on top of the ham, then sealed it with the box lid. Next I dry salted belly pork with a mixture of salt, peppercorns and herbs, and placed these in a box, these would make bacon/lardons. I didn't hold out much hope of getting any decent bacon as the bellies looked too fatty with not a lot of meat. I had read on the Internet that this is an unfortunate trait with pot-bellied pigs, their bellies are too fatty! By this time it was about 9pm in the evening, I had been dividing up the two pig carcasss since 11am with a brief break to go and feed my animals, so I called it a day. The next morning I tackled the shoulders, by far the most difficult process. I decided to use the shoulder meat for sausages, however removing the bones from the meat was not easy primarily because the shoulder bone is attached to the leg bone at right angles to each other, but I perceivered and eventually obtained about 3 kilos of good quality pork for the sausages and chorizo. I put this meat through the mincer on a course setting, I then split it in half, added dried breadcrumbs and seasoning to one half, then halved this again, to one half I added nothing more, to the other I added a selection of chopped herbs, both were put through the mincer again. I then washed the casings which I had bought at the local supermarket by flushing them through with water. I changed the nossle on the mincer to the sausage stuffing one, loaded the clean casing onto this and then loaded the machine with the peppered sausage meat. It took twenty minutes to make a length of sausage which once twisted into individual sausages became twelve large, fat traditional English style sausages. The process was far easier than i had thought it would be, whether this was because my machine is a good one I do not know, I don't have anything to compare it with. Next I made the herb sausages and both sets were hung up to dry out whilst I made the chorizo. This involved adding various quantities of wine and spices, I made two varieties, a traditional french saussison with red wine and garlic, and a Spanish chorizo with paprika. The meat mixture goes through the sausage stuffer in the same way as sausages but the casing used is much wider, so it was slightly more of a challenge, but still not as difficult as I expected. The next time I do sausages I will only put the meat through the mincer once and then stuff the casings, by the time I had processed it twice and then it went through the mincer again when stuffing it was very smooth and pate like, I would prefer a courser texture. I also found that because I used shoulder pork, the sausages were very lean, next time I will add back more fat. Despite the smooth texture and leanness the sausages are absolutely delicious and I am looking forward to making more in a few weeks. I can't tell you what the salami is like yet as it is still hanging up drying, we have to leave it for 6-12 weeks. The hams were removed from the salt after a few days, rinsed and dried off and then hung up in muslin bags in my utility room,we have to wait until May before we can start to eat them, I hope we can wait that long! Next I made pork scratchings by roasting some belly pork at a high temperature, every twenty minutes the fat is poured off and this fat becomes lard. The smell isn't very nice but the resulting crackling is delicious. I was suppose to make brawn out of the pigs heads, I couldn't bring myself to chop them into quarters so Steve had to do it, I then put one in brine, cooked it in water with herbs for over three hours, but when I looked at it in the pot I just couldn't bring myself to complete the process, so it went in the bin. I gave the other one to my friend and she did make brawn from it and it is delicious if you can get past the thought of what it is made from. I shall not be attempting to do anything with the pigs heads in future. At the moment we have various chops, roasts and sausages in the freezer, bones for stock some of which I made into pea and ham soup, we have a 'green' or brined ham in the fridge, which will be boiled, glazed and roasted and of course the hams and chorizo. It was a very busy couple of days, a very steep learning curve but every time I open the freezer or see the hams hanging I feel very pleased and a little bit proud, for the most part because I coped with taking the pigs to the abattoir and then eating them, something I was never entirely sure I would be able to do. Have you any hints and tips on processing pork? Maybe you are thinking about getting a couple of pigs for meat, if you have any questions post them in the comments box below.

The End is Nigh - Abattoir Day

After months of waiting the day finally arrived for the first two of the piglets to go to the abattoir.  Two of the sheep should have gone before Christmas, but my registration as a smallholder hadn't been completed.  I am quite relieved that it is the pigs we are taking first, I haven't got attached to the piglets, it is difficult when there are ten of them and they all look much the same. Perhaps because I knew we would eat the pigs I have deliberately kept my distance. I think anyone considering keeping farm animals as opposed to pets, ponders whether they will actually be able to deal with the decision to take an animal to the abattoir let alone eat the meat.  Perhaps the number of piglets we had has been a blessing in disguise, the cost of feeding twelve pigs for the last five months has been approximately €25 per week, it is not feasible for us to continue to buy this amount of feed indefinitely. So I guess the decision has been made easier by the practicalities, the longer we keep the pigs the more out-of-pocket we will be.

The first problem is catching the piglets, particularly if you need to catch specific ones. Of course we have designed a holding pen that should make it easier to catch them (see previous blog post - What a Pig Sty!).
Last Sunday evening Steve and I set off on our mission to catch the two largest girl piglets and get them into the transportation cage ready for our 4.30 a.m. trip to the abattoir on Monday morning. I was not feeling optimistic, one of the larger girl piglets had never been known to enter the holding pen, she always stays in the permanent pen with her mum. I prepared the holding pen, opened the door in between and threw pig nuts on the ground as is our routine, Steve went into the girls permanent pen to distract the mums.  Within ten minutes I had the two largest piglets and two smaller ones in the holding area, time to shut the connecting door. That was when all hell let loose, all four of them panicked and started running around squealing. Have you ever heard a pig squeal when it is frightened?  It is the most ear piercing noise you will ever hear.  We backed away from the pen once we had the door secure in the hope that the piglets would calm down, which they did.

The next stage in the process was to tattoo the two that we were taking to the abattoir. You can't take animals to the abattoir unless they have official identification, that is ear tags for most animals, including pigs, or you can tattoo your pigs with your official registration number.  We decided that tattooing was probably much easier than ear tags for our pigs, either option is going to cause the pigs some pain and distress.  Tattoos are suppose to be on the pigs shoulder or inner ear, we opted for the shoulder.  What we didn't realise is that when you do the tattoo you can't see it through the pigs bristles as it doesn't produce solid lines, but pin pricks, these are only visible after the pig has been killed and its bristles removed.  I was concerned that we hadn't done the tattooing properly and that we would be turned away from the abattoir.  The thought of having to return home with the pigs after all the stress of catching them and getting them there was quite upsetting.  We took our tattoo equipment with us in the hope that if we hadn't done it properly someone at the abattoir would show us how the experts do it.

Next we had to grab the pigs we were taking and get them into the transportation cage (this is actually a large dog cage), we can fit one of our fully grown pigs in it or two of the piglets. The easiest way to catch pigs is to grab them by the back legs and lift them clean off the ground, this is suppose to reduce their movement, it does but they can still wriggle an awful lot and if you don't hold on tight they will escape your clutches quite easily.  The other reason for grabbing them this way is their head and therefore sharp teeth are held away from you.  Doing this with piglets is one thing, trying to do it with adult pigs is extremely difficult, particularly when you consider the weight of them.  For adult pot-bellies you will need two people to carry each pig.  For full-size pig breeds this isn't possible, for two reasons; first you wouldn't be able to lift them and secondly they need to be transported in an animal trailer not a cage. It is much easier to train pigs in the same way you train a dog, get them to follow you by walking in front of them with food, if they follow give them a bit of food as a treat, keep doing this on a regular basis and you should have no trouble getting your pigs to go where you want them to.

Our pigs came to us when they were over a year old, we only had them for a month before they gave birth to the piglets, this was unfortunate as we didn't really get a chance to get to know them properly or have time to attempt to carry out any training with them. Because the mums didn't know us well we didn't go into the pen much when the piglets were little, I had read that the mums can be very aggressive when they have newborns.  Now, five months later I don't think we would have the same problems, the mums seem quite happy for us to go in the pen, particularly if we take them apples or carrots as a treat.

Grabbing the piglets and putting them into the cage went well.  One of the difficulties of moving two pigs in the same cage is that if you put one in the cage and then open the door to put the other one in, the first will try to escape, they are very fast and if they are running straight at you there is nothing to get hold of to stop them.  To solve this problem we put the cage upright so the door is at the top and then the piglets are lowered into the cage gently, once they are both in then you lock the door and very gently turn the cage so that it is the correct way up.

Our plan was to leave the two piglets in the cage overnight, we left the cage in the holding pen as a double precaution, then if they managed to get out of the cage they still couldn't go anywhere.  Part of the reason for doing this was because we had to leave for the abattoir at 4.30 a.m. in the morning when it would still be dark. Getting the piglets into the cage in advance also meant that they would be much calmer by the time we had to put the cage into the car.  In fact, when we went to collect them in the morning they didn't make a noise at all, I think they were half asleep.

When we arrived at the abattoir there was one guy in front of us unloading two of the biggest pigs I have ever seen.  I went into the office to give my paperwork in, the transportation document which needs to accompany the driver of live animals, this includes your registration number, a copy of it is sent to the EdE (Establissement de l' Elevage).  We then went and unloaded our pigs in their cage into the holding pens, because the holding pens are for larger animals we had to leave our pigs in their cage and I made arrangements to go back and collect the cage later that day.  That was it, within half an hour of leaving our home we were driving out of the abattoir having left the two pigs to meet their fate.  I thought I would have felt quite emotional or upset when we left them but I felt a massive sense of relief that they had been accepted at the abattoir and that everything had gone so well, in particular the pigs seemed quite calm and not in the least big upset by the change in their routine.

When I went back to the abattoir later that day to collect the cage, the lady in the office asked me to speak with the butcher, I assumed it was to explain how I wanted the butchering carried out, but the butcher didn't want to butcher our pigs, he said normally pigs of this size (they were 15 and 16 kilos dead weight), are not butchered as they are for spit roasting, I agreed that I would pick up the full carcasses a few days later and then dashed home to do some research on butchering pigs.  Next blog; A Steep Learning Curve