Pushing away the winter blues

      Growing up we always butchered our own beef and pork.  It was always a weekend project spent in the basement with the family cutting pieces, trimming off the fat, and packaging them for the freezer.  Now we gather as a neighborhood in a neighbor's heated garage to catch up and work together.  This weekend we butchered four hogs and earlier in February we butchered a beef. 

        We have quite the arrangement.  Here is our huge cutting board. The ladies in red are at a counter top wrapping our choice cuts and behind the lady in purple my dad is cutting pork chops, ribs, etc. at the meat saw.  The white cylinder machine underneath the table will be pulled out later to grind all the pork into sausage. 

      My oldest nephew was soaking up all the that there was to see.  Needless to say the toy tractors we brought along to entertain him stayed in the corner most of the time.  He wanted to be right there with everyone else.  Here he is finishing his cookie while watching Cale tenderize the tougher cuts.

        After we ground and seasoned the sausage, it was time to decide how to package it.  Some neighbors put theirs in links, others left it loose, and one family wanted to make patties.  The green machine is a sausage stuffer.  It has an attachment that allows you to make patties too.  It shoots out the white cylinder at the bottom to fill the round pattie template.  Then we put wax paper between them before freezing it to make them stiff enough to wrap in paper.  I just love Kade's face of amazement. 

 

     At the end of the day everyone's freezer was full, but more importantly we spent time working, eating, and laughing together.   It is also wonderful to hear our parents talk about butchering time when they were growing up.  Listening to their stories you can tell it was a different time then.  They didn't throw any part away.  For example, my great-grandfather who grew up during the depression would eat boiled chickens feet.  Gross!!!