Beef Butchering & Processing ~ Farm to Freezer

Going to talk a little about beef butchering and processing today, we live next to farmer John who raises beef and chickens, it's a total blast, we moved here over 4 years ago and couldn't have asked for better neighbors! So we buy our beef from the neighbor, butcher and process ourselves, we have big gatherings when we do this, it goes faster and is so much fun during the process, doesn't seem like work at all!

So meet the neighbor John, ornery ole critter!!

I won't get too gory & yucky on here, but it IS butchering and it is graphic so close your eyes if you don't like this kind of stuff.

yep, its dirty work, but it is so nice knowing what goes into your freezer, who raised it, and what went into the meat we will server our family!

You do see it's the guys out there right? us gals are inside waiting patiently for our part, after they do the cutting, we do the wrapping :) and not to mention it's warmer inside too!

Let the fun begin, now to get the cuts everyone wants

How thick you want your steaks?

Let's trim them up boys!

Ok, so I meant the beef, not the other members of the family!!

Nice trim job :)

and of course we eat some too, cast iron skillets loaded with chunks of beef cooked over the wood stove, snack while we work!

All that is left is grinding the burger and getting it all wrapped, that was fun, a group of good people filling the freezer and having fun while doing it, wish you were here . . .

Hog Butchering Day - pork sausage recipe

It's that time of year again, hog butchering day, it's always a wonderful time with family and friends processing the hogs! 

Jim and Robert skinning the hog

got smart, this time they hung it above the cart so the guts don't end up all over the ground

yes, it's messy

 time to get the hams & bacons cut off & get smoked

then the guys will cut off the chops, roasts and other pieces parts to get ready for us to wrap

 get the scraps into the grinder for the pork sausage 

we mix sage and pepper into our pork sausage mixture, always do a few taste tester patties so you know if you like the mixture before you package for freezer

 got to have a sharp knife for this job

 got the foodsaver out, getting bags marked and dated

now to get the pork sausage bagged for freezer

finishing up the pieces parts to get the rest of the sausage made

 time to make some link sausages

there we go!! 

are you sure you know what you are doing? HA HA

yup, looks like we got it! ready for baggin & taggin

BREAKFAST PORK SAUSAGE RECIPE

15-20 lbs ground up pork, including fat

1/2 cup pepper

1/4 cup sage

red pepper flakes, optional

mix all together really good to incorporate the spices

freeze in 1 lb packages, shape into patties or turn into sausage links

you can even make your own sausage from a pork roast you purchase if you don't have your own hogs to raise/butcher, just get a nice sized roast with lots of fat still on it, ask the butcher even for a fattier one

grind it up and mix in your pepper & sage to taste, same process and you season to your liking

Hog butchering day!

Here at the redneck homestead, we butcher our own meat, process and pack it up for our freezer, it's so nice to know where your meat is coming from and what is going into it, we raised these ourselves in our little red barn, fed only scraps and some grain, so we know exactly what we are eating!

Better close your eyes if you don't get into butchering cuz this isn't a clean blog

 one shot, gut them, skin them

 lop the head off

 dig out the innerds you intend to use for krepple/scrapple making later

 try to keep the dog from getting into the junk pile

then start the cutting process, first we slice it in half, right down the backbone, making them manageable to get into the basement where we have the tables & saws setup to start cutting out the roasts, hams, bacon, chops, etc