Dry Cured Pig Face, Complete.

KevinCharcuterie, Dry Cured Meats, From Local Farms, From the Cellar, Guanciale, Nature's Green Acres, Pork1 Comment

When we butchered pigs back in mid-October, one pig face was allocated to dry curing [details here], and today it came down from its hook in the cellar – 2 months later. I’ve successfully cured a number of jowls, and was keen to see how this one turned out as it lacked the slashes we’ve had from processor-butchered jowls, and … Read More

From The Farmers’ Mouth – Time to Vote

KevinDairy, Eggs, From Local Farms, From Local Farms - The Series, Gold Forest Grains, Grains, Irvings Farm Fresh, Lamb, Nature's Green Acres, Nature's Green Acres, Nature's Green Acres, Pork, Poultry, Serben Free Range, Serben Free Range, Serben Free Range, Smoky Valley Goat Cheese, Sundog Organic Farm, Sunworks Farm, Sunworks Farm, Veg3 Comments

My highlight reel of ‘From Local Farms‘ videos was just chosen by Daniel and Mirra of The Perennial Plate as a top-four contender in their recent video competition. I’m honored to be on the list, to say the least. The very reason I started a video series at all was directly because of Daniel and Mirra’s earliest episodes – inspiring me … Read More

About This Much…

KevinButchering Pork, Charcuterie, From Local Farms, From the Cellar, Pork9 Comments

Interesting question came up this week on Twitter in response to my writing about the economics around butchering your own beef. The question was, how is somebody with limited space supposed to go about butchering and storing an animal?? Fantastic question. And I get it. I show pictures of quarters hanging in my cellar [convenient, but unnecessary], butchering in my … Read More

Smoking Heart and Bacon

KevinBacon, Charcuterie, Cooking w/ Fire, Dry Cured Meats, From Local Farms, From the Cellar, Heart, Peck N Berry Acres, Pork, Smoking w/ Fire5 Comments

I had been thinking of cold smoking my piece of curing elk heart, and then ‘Meat Smoking and Smokehouse Design‘ arrived from the library. Inspiring book. No question I was going to give it a go after reading all kinds of cool ideas on how to cold smoke. It’d only been curing a couple days, but I had some bacon … Read More

Farm-to-Table w/ RGE RD & Riverbend Gardens

KevinBeef, Cooking w/ Fire, From Local Farms, Grilling w/ Fire, Kevin TV, Nature's Green Acres, Nature's Green Acres, Pork, Riverbend Gardens, Smoking w/ Fire, Veg5 Comments

The last farm-to-table dinner I attended was a resounding success, and I’m not surprised Blair and his crew have done a few of these since then. By happenstance we ran into each other at the farmers’ market a couple weeks ago and I ended up involved with his upcoming dinner at Riverbend Gardens. He ended up buying the last half … Read More

Smoke-Day and My Current Smoking Setup

KevinCharcuterie, Cooking w/ Fire, From Local Farms, From the Cellar, Ham, Kevin TV, Nature's Green Acres, Pork, Smoking w/ Fire3 Comments

I’ve mentioned that on Pig Day I was slipping ham cuts and hocks into a big stock pot of prepped brine. Turns out that was a good idea. Just finished smoking those items, and they turned out really, really well. Heavily smoky, nice and salty with the classic pink-salt flavor and high-quality pork. Pretty much can’t go wrong there. Turns … Read More

‘Charcuterie Day’ 2011

KevinBack Fat, Charcuterie, Dry Cured Meats, From Local Farms, From the Cellar, Guanciale, Nature's Green Acres, Pork9 Comments

I’m used to butchering pigs on ‘Pig Day‘, and largely leaving charcuterie fun for some point in the winter when I feel like it. Not this year. My cellar’s empty. I feel like it now. I wanted to get started as soon as possible on a few different preparations. I also had to resist going too crazy today. For example, … Read More