I had two days off in a row, the first since mid April, and we are makin’ the bacon!

Thanks to Danielle and Townes, I had both Saturday and Sunday off last week which was the first since mid April. HOORAY! I mentioned to a couple of our CSA members that I was going to have both Saturday and Sunday off and so Jane Thomas asked something like, “What is it like for you to have a couple days off?”. That is a good question and one I had to think about

Even though my husband and I had both Saturday and Sunday off, we still need to feed and water the pigs, horses, goats and chickens. Check the greenhouse and water our herbs and landscape plants, although most of these plants are nearly dead from neglect, so they could probably go a few days without water.

A day “off” to me is being able to do chores at a leisurely pace. On a normal day we do our AM and PM chores at 8:00; however, on our day off we may do them at 8:30 or 9 just to have a little extra time to read the newspaper.

Normally our day “off” includes making a nice meal out of our seasonal produce or perhaps making some homemade bread. That is what I did on my day off – made eggplant lasagna, bread and a salad – and it was DELICIOUS!

Our day “off” might include a hike around the farm or at Max Patch. Perhaps our day “off” is doing something around our house like cleaning or a home improvement project. Our home improvement projects never make the priority list because there is always something to be done around the farm. So on my day off I cleaned the kitchen while Carl installed our wood burning stove.

We also are in the process of making bacon. We are using the side meat from Peter, Paul and Mary. We first thawed the meat, then made a rub using 3/4 cup of Doubletree Sorghum, 1/2 cup of water, 60 grams of pink salt, 250 grams of sugar, and 250 grams of kosher salt. We applied the rub to the surface of the meat and are now curing it for a week. After a week long cure, we will dry it for 24 hours, and then finally smoke it for a few hours. I have not had bacon since I was a youngster, and at that time it was mostly either for breakfast on family camping trips or Sunday’s on BLT Sandwiches, and my memory has fond aromas from those times my family splurged on bacon. Mom made these for us when I was young, then cut it out of our diet after the medical industry did not recommend it for your overall health, so mom wanting her entire family to be healthy quit buying and cooking bacon. My mouth is watering just thinking of a bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich and I am looking forward to the first one in probably over 35 – 40 years.  I certainly hope our bacon tastes just like what is instilled in my memory.  I am glad my mom cut bacon off our diet because I don’t want to be eating that raised and processed by industry in CAFOs.