Masquerading as Suburban Homesteaders
We are now the proud partial owners of a cow so lovingly named #9633, who is somewhere in transit between a Colorado pasture and a beef processing facility. We've been talking for over a year now about buying grass-fed, hormone- & antibiotic-free beef from a happy local farm, and were glad to find some friends who felt the same. The six of us are splitting a half cow, which will be enough beef to feed us all for quite a while. Which means that we are not only the proud owners of 1/6 of a cow, but the proud new owners of the freezer now in our garage.
As we wait for our meat to arrive, we have decided to try some other freezing experiments. So Sunday at the farmers market, we bought 40-some tomatoes and a few pounds of green beens and carrots. After many hours of cutting, blanching, packing, and garbage disposal repairs (still in progress), here's what we came out with (in can equivalents):
11 cans of tomatoes
4 jars of spaghetti sauce
6 cans of green beans
3 cans of carrots
1 qt of tomato juice
It's been exhausting, but very enlightening as well . Wendell Berry would be proud. And so will we once we get to sit down and enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of our labor:)
7 comments:
Did you actually use cans? I always thought "canning" actually referred to jars. What do they look like?
actually, we used neither: we tupperwared, as we were only doing freezing.
Canning, though, is a misnomer in and of itself. You use mason jars in a giant steamer to seal in the food.
It is finally decided. You guys are SO COOL.
Two comments:
Hamdy could probably eat a 1/6 a cow in a week...
You are becoming a little bit too much like Grandma...
Although you have inspired me to actually do something with all our concord grapes this year--jam, jelly, or juice?
We, too, are partial cow owners, along with J$ and othes. Alas, our cow has no number. I feel cheated.
okay, so in good timing with your blog post, yesterday Hamdy slaughtered, skinned, and processed a goat and five chickens in our garage!! (mind you we live in the city) I was not there to witness this event or the faces of our neighbors (apparently only our neighbor Tiffany witnessed any of it, but you never know--I assume someone had to see him take a 150+ pound goat out of his truck?) Anyway, I came home to two freezers full of meat. We even freezed a bunch of scraps for the dogs. I wonder if our garbage men will notice that there is a goat head in our can? (don't worry--it is in a bag)
you are the coolest...all the freezing and market-ing reminds me of home...speaking of which...i wish my mom would mail me some tomatoes and other yummy stuff. hope life is treating you splendidly!
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